Dates

• Existence: 1939 - 1944

Historical Note

Lear Avia, Inc. was a manufacturer of aircraft radio and navigational devices in the early 1940s. The company grew out of Lear Developments when, in December 1939, founder William P. Lear got financial backing from his new investor and partner, T.S. Harris. The company relocated from Illinois to Piqua, Ohio near to Wright Field and eventually had a sales office in Los Angeles, California and research and development offices in New York, New York and Santa Monica, California.

In 1940, WPL hired Richard Marsen, an engineer and patent attorney to develop a patent program for the company and run the New York laboratory. He also hired Richard “Dick” Mock as a sales engineer to help with the marketing and sales of Lear Avia products.

Lear Avia manufactured and sold aircraft radio and navigational devices, including the Learmatic navigator, as well as aircraft-related equipment like the “fastop” clutch, gearing components, actuators, motors, and screw jacks. Post-war, Lear Avia was without any set products to manufacture and competition from companies such as General Electric, Bendix, and RCA was squeezing Lear Avia out of its previous niche. WPL pressured Harris to retire and in 1944, Harris sold his company shares and did so. Immediately after this, WPL moved the company, which had started as a “marginal 40-man operation,” to Grand Rapids, Michigan and changed its name to Lear, Incorporated; a publically-owned company that now employed “approximately 4,000 workers.”

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