Learjet Headquarters

The Learjet 75 was delivered to the company's facility on the western side of Wichita Eisenhower National Airport by 1,300 visitors, most of whom were staff. However, there were also pensioners, Gov. Sam Brownback, U.S. Rep. Ron Estes, senior managers from the company's Montreal headquarters, and Bill Lear's daughter-in-law, Brenda Lear.

You were there to mark two milestones: the 3,000th Learjet Company Jets delivered and the hundredth Learjet 75 delivered. The company Leggett & Platt, a diverse producer of industry and home furnishings located in Missouri, received the landmark aircraft, its second Learjet 75. "I think what moved me the most today was to see the flood of folks who wanted to be here when they learned about this event," said David Coleal, Bombardier Aircraft Division Director.

First Learjet, a Learjet 23, was shipped to Chemical & Industrial Corp. in Cincinnati in 1964, said Al Higdon, one of the first Learjet staff members to attend the meeting on Friday. Higdon, co-founder of the ad company SHS, was part of a PR crew hired by Bill Lear to make his new Learjet a synonym for corporate jet.

The Wichita site has manufactured 14 Learjet aircraft since this first shipment, among them the latest Learjet 70 and 75. During Bombardier in Montreal, which purchased Learjet in 1990, the firm presented four of these aircraft and one variation of one of them, the model GR5XR. Coleal, who managed the Wichita site from 2008 to 2011, also used the occasion to emphasise the variety of the Wichita site.

Besides the Learjet, it also houses the Bombardier Flight Test Centre, a recent expansion of the Flight Test Centre to provide servicing, repairs and overhauls for the company's biggest corporate aircraft - the Global 5000 and 6000 - as well as the Special Missions Group, which modifies the Bombardier corporate aircraft for use in the army and other specialized aircraft markets.

For this purpose, the airline presented a C-Series CS300 commercial jet and a Global 7000, both in test flights, as well as a Learjet 75, a Learjet 40 test jet and a Challenger 605. "The Wichita site has become an important cornerstone for Bombardier's future," Coleal said.

"The website has become diverse and extended and really does represent what makes Bombardier unique.