It was November 9, 1983. I drove to Oshkosh, Wisconsin to pick up former Vice President Spiro Agnew’s bullet-proof limousine. I know what you are thinking… Dave, you are dreaming. And you are right. I was living a dream in reality.
It started by watching Bill Lear’s wife, turned businesswoman and philanthropist, “Moya Marie Olsen Lear,” interviewed on the CBS television program “60 Minutes” in 1982. Bill Lear had passed away and Moya assumed his role in completing the “Lear Fan” project. Moya was affectionately given the title of “Queen Lear” by the producers of “60 Minutes.”
After William P. Lear’s death on May 14, 1978, Moya assumed his role as Chairman of the Board of LearAvia and helped guide the Lear Fan program in hopes of obtaining FAA certification and commercial production.
During the televised interview, Moya sang a song she had written about Bill and played her mandolin. Moya’s parents were vaudeville performers, so she too knew how to perform.
I liked what I saw and called her office the next day in hopes she would accept our invitation and speak at the Wisconsin Aviation Trades Association (WATA) Convention in Oshkosh that fall. But unfortunately, a schedule conflict prevented her from accepting our invitation in 1982, but she happily accepted in 1983.
Back to Spiro Agnew’s limo. I called EAA Founder Paul Poberezny and
told him that Moya would be our guest speaker, and we wanted to treat her like the queen she was. Paul was excited, loaned me the limo, and reserved a couple of hours the next day to give her a personal tour of the museum. Later that day, the Chairman of Midwest Airlines, Timothy E. Hoeksema, gave Moya a VIP tour of his facilities in Appleton, Wis. Both Paul and Tim gladly took time out of their busy schedules to make Moya’s visit memorable.
Moya flew commercially from Reno to Appleton, then fellow WATA member, the president of Gran-Aire, Inc. at Milwaukee Timmerman Airport, John Lotzer, flew his Cessna 310 to Appleton, met Moya at her arrival gate, and flew her the scant 16 nm to Oshkosh.
It was a dark, cold and raining evening. I was standing in the lobby of Basler Flight Service, looking out the picture window at aircraft landing and departing on Runway 18. Seeing me in his office was fellow WATA member, Warren Basler. In his very reserved voice, Warren called me into his office.
With but a florescent desk lamp illuminating blueprints on his desk, Warren asked me “what do you think?” Talk about history in the making. Warren was an experienced DC-3 pilot, and owned and flew most, if not all, of the piston DC line of transport aircraft. All his aircraft were prominently displayed outside Basler Flight Service. Warren logged over 26,000 hours as a pilot…over 10,000 hours in the DC-3 alone!
The blueprints on his desk were that of the future Basler Turbo Conversion.
Warren and his wife and business partner, Pat, applied for FAA approval of the modifications in February 1988 and eventually received a Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) in February 1990. The Baslers built a $3 million, 75,000 sq. ft. modification facility on the east side of the airport. The facility can handle up to eight DC-3 upgrades at a time!
Today, the Basler Turbo Conversion aircraft, designated the BT-67, is flown throughout the world. I regularly see them in Canada hauling cargo in and out of Pickle Lake, Ontario (CYPL). They can fly into short, gravel strips throughout Canada
The modifications include replacing the old radial engines with Pratt and Whitney PT-6 turboprop engines, adding fuselage plugs, overall strengthening the airframe, and adding modern avionics.
Warren Basler was killed in a 1997 aircraft accident, along with three other Basler employees, during a photo flight in promotion of the aircraft.
Like Moya Lear, Pat Basler carried on the dream of her husband, and although Pat is gone now, the company and the aircraft live on.
Moya Lear was born March 27, 1915, to Lillian and John Olsen of the famous Olsen and Johnson vaudeville team. After attending Ohio State University in Columbus and Pace Institute of New York City, she worked as her father’s assistant and secretary when Olsen and Johnson’s Helzapoppin’ was the longest running hit in Broadway history. Then one day, into that backstage hubbub, came William (Bill) Powell Lear, avionics genius and entrepreneur. In 1942, Bill and Moya got married and raised four children while sharing in the staggering success of the Lear autopilot, the Learstar, and Learjet.
As her husband’s partner and confidante, Moya took over his last great project upon his death in 1978, the “Lear Fan.”
Serving as chairman of the board of Lear Avia, Inc., Moya brought the airplane to its successful first flight. The project ultimately failed to obtain FAA certification because of a gearing problem and never went into production.
While Bill Lear is best known for designing Lear Jets, he also developed the automobile radio, the eight-track stereo tape player for automobiles in 1964, and the miniature automatic pilot for aircraft. In all, Bill Lear held 150 patents.
Like Moya who was born in Chicago, Bill Lear had Midwest roots. He was born in Hannibal, Missouri, and grew up in Dubuque, Iowa and Chicago, Illinois. He joined the U.S. Navy and was sent to Great Lakes Naval Training Station on Lake Michigan near Chicago. After discharge from the service, and with a young family, he decided to complete his high school education, and started a radio repair shop in his home which led to many jobs, business ventures and inventions. Lear pioneered an early step toward miniaturization in electronics.
It was like a scene out of the television program “Dallas,” as I drove up to the Cessna 310 in the silver Lincoln limousine. John Lotzer opened the door of the plane, and I opened the door to the limo, and there she was, draped in mink and as elegant as one would expect of a lady with her prominence.
Within minutes, we whisked Moya off to the Pioneer Inn on Lake Winnebago, where convention guests were anxiously waiting to greet her.
As Moya entered the reception area, the emcee announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, Queen Lear has arrived.” The crowd applauded with great enthusiasm and respect.
Following dinner, WATA President Jim Beardsley of Kenosha Aero introduced Moya to the other guests.
Moya’s speech was conversational in tone as she shared stories of her life with Bill Lear.
Entertaining, informal, and witty, Moya was a popular speaker, who was awarded six honorary doctorates, as well as an impressive list of other honors. She died on December 5, 2001, at the age of 86.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I am neither an engineer, nor a businesswoman.”
“Bill had just been served his divorce papers by his second wife when I first met him, and he asked me out for a drink,” she said. “Having been raised in a strict religious family, that happened to be my first drink.”
Moya recalled one day when Bill asked her to go flying with him while he tested an autopilot. She said she did not like to go on such flights and monkeying around with the instruments and wires that lined the interior of the plane. But that day she gave in and agreed to go along for the ride.
With her crochet in hand, Moya sat in the cabin of the Learjet, eventually falling to sleep. When she awoke, she realized they were no longer over Nevada terrain. Instead, Bill was preparing to land in New York.
The fact was, Bill had never intended to test the aircraft’s equipment that day. Rather, he wanted to surprise Moya by taking her to a Broadway play! Other spare-of-the-moment trips included lunch in Alaska, and dinner in Paris.
Following Bill Lear’s death in 1978, Moya felt it would be impossible to go on living without him. But being in his office each day gave her comfort.
“That’s when I decided I had to carry on Bill’s work to the best of my ability, regardless of the risks involved.”
It was Bill Lear’s dying wish that Moya finish the development of his revolutionary aircraft, the “Lear Fan!”
Being chairman of the board of LearAvia was a bit out of her ballpark, but by surrounding herself with talented staff and employees, she saw the aircraft go through its final steps of certification in 1984.
Due to technical difficulties, a planned test flight of the first prototype on December 31,1980, did not take place until the next day.
The Lear Fan, however, did not enter production. Structural problems were discovered during the pressurization of the all-composite fuselage. The Federal Aviation Administration refused to issue the prototype with an airworthiness certificate because of concerns that, despite having two engines, the combining-gearbox that drove the single propeller was not adequately reliable. Development was abandoned in 1985 after only three aircraft were built.
All three Lear Fan prototypes have been preserved and are on display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington; the Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas, Texas; and in front of the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Among the dignitaries who attended the WATA banquet were Wisconsin Secretary of Transportation Lowell B. Jackson and his wife, Joni; concert harpsichordist, Gunnar Johansen; and Paul and Audrey Poberezny. In fact, we had just completed a fundraiser for the new EAA Museum and presented a check in the amount of $1,000.00 to Audrey that evening. So, the next time you visit the EAA Museum, look on the wall to the right before going down the stairs to the museum and you will see a wood brick with the name “Midwest Flyer Magazine,” as well as the bricks of many other donors.
Near the completion of her presentation, Moya picked up her mandolin and sang a song written by a friend who knew only so well her love for Bill Lear. The song went like this:
If Bill could see me now, think of how proud he’d be, the way we turned his dream into reality.
I wish he was here to join in the fun and laugh at those who said it couldn’t be done.
All I can say is wow, what a terrific high, and altogether we’ll watch our Lear Fan fly!
What a feeling, holly cow. He would never believe it if my Bill could see me now.
If he could see me now, my darling, dearest, dear, and hear the final chapter of his great career.
Hear what’s all the shouting is about if he could see how his Lear Fan turned out.
All I can say is wow, it is really real. The story of just how we cut the final deal.
What a feeling, holly cow, if my Bill could see me, if he could see me, if “dad” could see me now.
EDITOR’S NOTE: RIP Moya and Bill Lear, Warren and Pat Basler, Paul and Audrey Poberezny, and others who made that evening memorable, including Don Winkler of Madison, Wisconsin, who was riding shotgun with me in the limo and helped to carry on the conversation with Moya Lear.
