When I came up through the aviation ranks, there was one plane all charter pilots hoped to fly one day: the Lear Jet. Without a doubt, at the time, late 1970s, early ‘80s, the Lear was the coolest executive jet in most corporate fleets. Its look could rival that of a movie star – sleek, slender, with looks known to make pilots drool. The Lear 35A led the pack. It was the jet that famed golfer Payne Stewart was in that led to his death in 1999 after winning the U.S. Open that year; and a Lear 24 was the plane ...