Testors 1:48 Learjet 24

[Shar2]

Learjet 24

1:48

History

Mention the phrase “private jet” to the average person and one word immediately pops into mind: Lear. Since its first flight in 1963, William P. Lear Sr.'s innovative aircraft, built to replicate the performance and amenities of a commercial airliner, has been tantamount with executive business travel.

One of the inventors of the 8-track audio tape, the holder of 150 aviation-related patents and a high school drop-out, Lear abandoned his retirement in Switzerland to establish the Swiss American Aircraft Company (SAAC). In 1959, SAAC began work on Lear's latest invention—a private luxurious jet aircraft with the flexibility to fly passengers and freight in and out of small airports around the world. Lear undertook his bold gamble without the benefit of a market survey to evaluate the consumer demand for such an aircraft, relying instead on pure intuition.

Inspired by a single-seat Swiss strike fighter aircraft, the FFA P-16 (flown as a prototype in April 1955 but never put into production), Lear recruited a group of Swiss aircraft designers and engineers to transform the fighter's wing and basic airframe design into the cornerstone of a revolutionary aircraft—originally designated as the SAAC-23 but soon renamed as the Learjet 23 Continental.

Problems with suppliers and production tooling in Switzerland compelled Lear to shift assembly of the new aircraft to Wichita, Kansas (under the new name of Lear Jet Industries), where the prototype Learjet 23 made its first flight on October 7, 1963, from Wichita's Mid-Continent Airport, nine months after work had begun on the project. The Learjet 23 became the first small jet aircraft to enter mass production as well as the first to be developed and financed by a single individual. Chemical and Industrial Corporation of Cincinnati, Ohio, took delivery of the first production Learjet on October 13, 1964, one year after its initial flight.

The undisputed marketing success of the Learjet 23 spurred development of a new aircraft with improved low-speed handling characteristics, coupled with increased range, size, and speed. Learjet 23s were built from 1963 to 1966 until replaced by the improved Model 24 (the 150th Learjet built), which made its debut in March 1966.

The all-metal fuselage of the Learjet 24 was a flush-riveted semi-monocoque design. It was equipped with wingtip fuel tanks that added 364 extra gallons (1,378 litres) of fuel capacity and featured the added attraction of a "T-tail" configuration.

Lear Jet again quickly embarked on a campaign to demonstrate the improved aircraft's performance. In the span of just four days, from May 23 to 26, 1966, the Learjet 24 became the first business jet to circumnavigate the globe, travelling 22,993 miles (37,004 kilometres) in 50 hours and 20 minutes of flying time, establishing or breaking 18 aviation world records during the flight. In all, 259 Learjet 24s were produced.

The high cruising altitude and long endurance flight capability of the Learjet also made it an ideal aircraft for target towing, photo-surveying, and high-altitude mapping. A number of foreign Air Forces, including Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, and Yugoslavia, modified the corporate jet for military missions.

Model

The model is packed in a rather plain looking end opening box, in brown and blue colours standard to Testors. But unlike some other manufacturers this box is very sturdy. The kit inside is contained in a single poly bag which doesn’t stop the sprues rattling around and as such some parts have come loose, but there is no visible damage. The parts on the “sprues”, such as they are, are not held very securely either. There is quite a bit of flash visible, but the majority of it is around the sprue gates rather than the parts themselves. According to the date on the instructions, this kit was released first in 1998 so will not be up to todays standards of detail. From initial inspection of the parts the white styrene seems quite glossy and hard but the moulded surface details are nicely restrained and well done. The instructions do leave a little bit to be desired as, naturally, they are printed and laid out in the US style of giving wordy instructions in conjunction with some rather average exploded views of the assembly construction.

Construction starts with building the nose and main undercarriage, consisting of separate wheels, rubber tyres, oleos, main undercarriage doors, and the lower entrance door. The build then moves to the rear and the construction of the engine assemblies, which consist of the two engine halves, (although the details are rather soft), two nacelle halves with the stub wing integrated to the bottom half, front compressor disc, intake, exhaust. The wing halves, with the tip tanks moulded to them are next, with the addition of the separate ailerons. The interior of the fuselage is next and is in the standard VIP configuration of a rear divan seat, two single seats and a side facing seat, opposite the door for any attendants. The cockpit is built up of the cockpit bulkheads/storage panels, pilot and co-pilots seats, control yokes, instrument panel, and coaming. To the rear of the floor is a bulkhead and at the front the nose wheel assembly is attached. Before the fuselage can be closed up the cabin window and interior assembly are fitted along with the main avionics bay interior. There is a high probability of this model being a rabid tailsitter so try and get as much weight installed forward of the main undercarriage as possible. It may need to leave the avionics out and use the resulting space for more weight. With the fuselage closed up the wing, engine and main undercarriage assemblies can be fitted into position. The horizontal tailplanes, ILS aerials and rudder are then fixed to the vertical tail. Forward, the two windscreen parts and the anti-icing ducts/deflector is fitted, nicely eliminating the windscreen seam. The final parts to be fitted are the forward avionic bay doors, nosewheel doors, keel beam with the main undercarriage doors attached and the clear nose parts for each tip tank.

The completed model certainly looks like a Learjet 24, but there are some issues. Externally, the nose looks a little long and thin, the tip tanks look a little skinny too, but these are only visual cues, and measurements will need to be taken of a real aircraft to confirm this. Internally, the nose wheel doesn’t appear to be anything like the real thing as the oleo is not attached to the forward cabin bulkhead and the retraction jack is completely missing. The main undercarriage bays don’t look deep enough to house the twin wheeled man gears. The cockpit is merely a representation and is missing the central throttle/radio console which makes getting into the cockpit seats so awkward. The rivet lines on the wing are also an enigma on the real aircraft, as not only is the aircraft flush riveted, but the paint used is thick enough to cover almost any lumps and bumps. Bill Lear insisted on having the wings perfectly clear of any obtrusions on the upper wings for the clients/passengers to see. In fact the only lines visible are the hinge lines for the flaps and ailerons, plus the spoilers. If the aircraft has anti-icing then the leading edge of the wing needs to be in unpainted aluminium as are the leading edge of the intakes, along with black electrical boots on the horizontal tailplanes. Otherwise the aircraft are generally painted overall white.

Decals

The single option is for aircraft registration N1CGM with its simple, yet stylish light blue, white and dark blue stripes for the fuselage with separate parts for the upper and lower entrance doors. There is a smallish Stars and Stripes flag for the tail fin under which the registration number is applied. The decals are by Scale-master and their “invisi-clear design. They are slightly matt, but perfectly in register and nicely opaque, which they need to be when applied to the white aircraft.

Conclusion

Given the faults noted above, the kit looks like it will build into a good looking aircraft. The interior provide does give a nice canvas to add loads of extra detail as does the avionic bay and engines. If custom decals can be sourced then there are actually loads of different schemes that can be covered, both military and civilian. If you’re a fan of business aviation subjects then this will make a nice addition to a collection.

Review sample courtesy of

UK distributors for

[AAbshier]

The kit was originally an ICM kit released in the mid-1960s. It was released as a Lear 23 with the original large windows and bullet fairing on the vertical tail ahead of the horizontal stabilizers. I built one, with great difficulty, as a kid. It's worth seeking out the older version because the molding will be better, and the interior is set up for the large windows.

Andy

[corporate]

I thought this kit was the one with lots of chromed parts, and some nifty features such as moving flaps, undercart, etc? I had one once, bought on Ebay, with the intention of scavenging some bits for use with the Hasegawa/Revell Learjet 35 - sold it on, thought the general quality too crappy, wanted nothing more to do with it...

Tony

Edited October 8, 2012 by corporate

[Shar2]

I don't see how it could have been released as a 23, the fuselage is too long. As for the kit interior, it's the same as the Learjet 25 I look after with the standard windows, and it appears to have the 31" "cargo" door rather than the standard one. Yes the bullet fairing is missing, but that should be fairly easy to add if needed, as it wasn't always fitted and there are still aircraft flying without it. I will be building it as my 25 as the structure is the same, only the weights changed.

[upnorth]

I don't see how it could have been released as a 23, the fuselage is too long.

Here's a link where you can see the kit as IMC originally issued it as a 23:

http://agapemodels.com/?p=5704

And a comparison to the Testors kit of a 24 after the IMC molds were much modified:

http://agapemodels.com/?p=5724

[Shar2]

Right, so it's not quite the original moulds. But thanks for the information. It actually measures out as the same size as a 23 so it would be 4 scale feet too short for a 25. Shame really, as it doesn't look too bad a build, I'll have to give it a go when I can get some time.

[upnorth]

Good luck to you on the build, just don't expect too much from it.

The gimmicky aspects of the kit, such as the opening radio bay in the nose, opening side door and opening engine pods really make this kit an ill fitting pig of a build.

I built it twice, both Testors issues. The lessons learned from the first build, which went in the bin without being completed, were applied to the second build. I built the second one "Buttoned up" and the build went better.

I would recommend having some thin styrene stripping to hand for shimming the panels that are intended to be removable so they will be easier to put into their spots and they will sit more evenly with the surrounding areas. Even if you plan to build with them as removable, the part edges were a bit soft and could benefit from a bit of sanding and then building back up with styrene strip to fit better.

Dry fitting is a real essential with the kit, partly due to it's age and partly due to the rework that Testors gave the original molds. As I recall, every major mating surface in the kit needed some sanding (think vacform style) to fit decently.

As I recall, the cockpit had some rather notable spacial relationship problems with some items. The seats particularly were way too close together and left no room for the pilots to go between them to get to the cabin of the aircraft. Enough of the pit can be seen through the front windows, that even a bit of extra attention in there would go far to improving the overall effect of the finished piece.

[Shar2]

Thanks. Apart from the main door to the cabin I was going to leave it buttoned up. If you've ever tried to get into the cockpit of a Learjet, you will find that it IS almost impossible to get into the seats, especially with the half bulkheads in position and centre console, which is missing from the kit. If you have a look at my walkround photos of the Learjet 25 you will see what I mean.