John Lear is indeed the son of Bill and Moya Lear, and a most interesting fellow. I was his co-star at brand X airlines during the Gulf war, and flew a few trips with him over to Zaragoza and Rota, Spain on MAC charters and he showed me his license(s) once, I think he had about 20 type ratings. He was a slam-clicker, so I would belly up to the bar and try to cull a weak ATA F/A outta the herd, as they stayed in the hotel as well. Whilst conversing with an ATA PFE one night, he asked me while flying with John Lear if I'd "seen any little green men". Apparently he was previously employed by ATA as a L-1011 Captain but was fired for going on a radio station in Indianapolis and stating that the small pieces of flesh found around crop circles in the area were actually the anus(es) of missing, Alien abducted children. When called onto the carpet by ATA mgmt. (to the long table with no ashtrays) instead of professing temporary insanity, he pulled out a projector and books a began a powerpoint presentation to support his theorem.
I did sorta peek over his shoulder at the books he was reading at about 20 west, and sure enough it was about UFO's.
John's father Bill was a genius, designing the Lear, the 8-track tape player, the ADF, and the first electric bus. They say genius sometimes skips a generation (or maybe not) I will say he was an excellent pilot, and i still laugh out loud when I think back on some of his war stories he told me. Last I heard he was living in Vegas, and I'm glad I got the chance to know him.