Podcast: Trailblazer—Brian Barents On Learjet, Aerion And More

Brian Barents speaks about the challenges and achievements of his business aviation career, obstacles facing supersonic flight, his predictions for the industry’s future, how he earned the call sign “Godfather” and more.  

Jeremy Kariuki:

Hello and welcome to the BCA Podcast by Aviation Week Network. I am your host, Associate Editor for Business Aviation Jeremy Kariuki. I'm joined by my colleague, Molly McMillin, and today we are doing another installation of our Trailblazer series, and we are joined today by Brian Barents, and he's been a trailblazer in the business aviation for many years. Upon graduating from college, he entered pilot training in the Air Force where he logged over 4,700 hours as a fighter pilot, ultimately retiring with the rank of Brigadier General and Assistant Adjutant General for Air for the State of Kansas. He's also type rated in a variety of Citation and Learjet aircraft. Brian has also served as a Senior Vice President for Cessna aircraft, before joining Learjet in Wichita as President and CEO. He then went on to serve as President and CEO of Galaxy Aerospace, where he led the company to a sales backlog of $2.5 billion before negotiating its sale to Gulfstream's parent company General Dynamics. He then became co-chair and later CEO of Aerion Corp, which was developing a supersonic business jet. And during his tenure, he formed relationships with Lockheed Martin, GE Aviation, Honeywell and others. He served on a number of boards such as Chairman of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association or GAMA, NORDAM, CAE, Hawker Beechcraft and Eclipse Aviation — a resume indeed. Brian, welcome to the show.

Brian Barents:

Nice to be with you Jeremy.

Molly McMillin:

Thank you Brian for joining us and thanks Jeremy. I first met you, Brian, when you were with Learjet many, I guess that's been a day or two ago here in Wichita.

Brian Barents:

That's correct.

Molly McMillin:

So you've been instrumental in many aspects of business aviation, and I guess I'd love to hear your thoughts of what do you feel like was maybe your biggest achievement or what you're most proud of if looking back?

Brian Barents:

Well, I guess that's a nice way of saying I couldn't hold a job. I guess Molly, I'd have to consider the experience at Learjet as probably being the most rewarding of my experiences, taking the company from bankruptcy to repositioning it in the industry and ultimately selling it to Bombardier where we were able to resurrect the product line, invest in new product development, which resulted in the Lear 60, first of all, and then followed by the Lear 45 and the Lear 75.

Molly McMillin:

Right. And you've also seen some big challenges too. I mean, certainly taking a company like that from bankruptcy and there's been some highs and lows with the economy and that. What was your biggest challenge of your career?

Brian Barents:

With the Learjet experience, for example, taking it from a company that we were down to just under 300 employees, and it was of course, during a recession and experiencing their financial difficulties and growing that to over 4,700 employees in a three-year period of time besides being able to resurrect the product line. So there were a lot of challenges there in building the workforce and rekindling the spirit that existed with the existing customer base. But it was a tribute to the dedication of the employees as well as the cadre of dedicated users of the product. They had been very patient over the years because the previous owners had not invested in the new products, but the existing products were well established and well recognized in the industry, and the operators of those products were very patient and very loyal, and once we offered a competing aircraft that suited their needs, they were quickly able to adapt and acquire the product.

Molly McMillin:

How did you feel when Bombardier decided to halt Learjet production?

Brian Barents:

Well, that was of course, several years after I had left.

Molly McMillin:

Right.

Brian Barents:

But they had a disastrous false start on the Learjet 80 that they thought was going to revolutionize the industry with all composite fuselage. And as a result, the product was not a success. They spent well over $1 billion in developing it and ultimately suspended development of the product. And I think that had a reflection on the rest of the product line. The Lear 75 was never a success that they wanted it to be. There was a lot of competition, particularly coming from Cessna at the time. So ultimately, the volume of products they were producing was so low that they ultimately suspended the production. As you might recall, the Bombardier 300 was originally going to be a Learjet product.

Molly McMillin:

Yes. I remember that.

Brian Barents:

And a result of a combination of all of those factors ultimately resulted in the termination of Learjet production.

Molly McMillin:

Right. And I realize they have other things going on out here in Wichita, the flight test and service center and the special missions.

Brian Barents:

Yeah, they still have a lot going on, and I think they're going to have a presence in Wichita for a number of years to come.

Molly McMillin:

I was looking over your resume, your bio Brian, and you have the callsign “Godfather.” Is there a story behind that? How did you get that callsign?

Brian Barents:

Well, back in the mid-seventies when I moved to Wichita from Detroit, I was flying in the Air Guard in Wichita and I would generally on Tuesdays and Thursday nights would go out to the base and fly after spending all day in the office. And I was driving a luxury car at the time, and of course would arrive at the base in a suit that I was wearing all day. And one day the Ops officer saw me pulling up to the building in a three-piece suit, getting out of my luxury car. He said, "Boy, doesn't he look like the Godfather?" And it stuck with me for all these years.

Molly McMillin:

So how many flight hours do you have total?

Brian Barents:

About 4,700.

Molly McMillin:

Okay.

Brian Barents:

All but about 200 hours are in jet aircraft. Most of those are in fighter aircraft and the balance are in citations and in Learjets that I'm both type rated in.

Molly McMillin:

Can I put you on the spot? What's your favorite aircraft? What's been the most fun aircraft to fly?

Brian Barents:

Probably my favorite was the, in the military was the F-105, even though that wasn't the latest, I flew the F-16 and the F-16 was a marvelous airplane, but the 105 was just so many years ahead of its time. It was very fast. Still the fastest airplane at sea level ever built as a fighter airplane and had tape gauges, and it was just very advanced and it was a great air-to-ground platform as far as bombing goes. The F-16 was a lot more maneuverable. It was a 9G airplane, but by the time I was in the airplane, I didn't have a 9G body any longer, but it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed all the airplanes I flew.

As far as civilian airplanes. I enjoyed flying all of the citations and all the Learjets. But the one that comes to mind, quite frankly, is the Lear 31. At the time I was flying the F-16, and I flew the 31 for the first time, and I found its performance to be remarkable. And it was right after I took over Learjet. We had only sold three Learjet 31s, and it was relatively unknown in the marketplace. And after I flew it for the first time, I found that it could outperform the F-16 to 41,000 feet at full gross weight, which was quite remarkable. And we did advertising campaign highlighting that, and the world became fascinated with it. And it highlighted the performance improvement of the 31 over the 35, and helped to make a strong introduction of the product, which ultimately resulted in its success, which then led to our ability to invest in the 60 and the 45 later on.

Jeremy Kariuki:

I want to go back to your time in the military. I'm a fellow veteran of the Georgia Air National Guard actually. I'm not sure if I had the pleasure to serve alongside anybody from the Kansas units, but I would love to know about your perspective on transitioning as a pilot, as an airman from the military side to business aviation. What was that transition like for you?

Brian Barents:

Well, it wasn't difficult. My experience in the Air Force was as a jet pilot, and the transition I made into civilian life was also flying in jets. Probably the biggest difference was the regulatory environment that you're flying in and the various different rules that apply to commercial flying as opposed to military flying. But the flying itself, the basics are the same whether it's a military airplane or a commercial airplane.

Molly McMillin:

Interesting. And then you were heavily involved in developing a supersonic jet with Aerion?

Brian Barents:

Yes, I was, as you know, Molly, I was on the board for about 12 years after I had retired from Galaxy Aerospace. And in the later years of development, I took over an executive position ultimately becoming the chairman and CEO. We made a lot of progress with the airplane. We had some great partners, and first of all, Airbus and then Lockheed, and then Boeing. As the time went on after the Boeing's investment, we required an additional tranche of financing. And because of Boeing's financial difficulties, they were not in a position to make any additional financial participation. And my major partner, Robert Bass, was not in a position to go it alone because we still had another 6 billion runway of investment required, and it was difficult for him to go it alone. So we made the difficult decision to close it down, even though we had an $18 billion backlog.

Molly McMillin:

Wow. What's your prediction? When will business aviation go supersonic? Do you have any predictions on that?

Brian Barents:

Well, Molly, the technology is there. Engine development is still an opportunity. We had contracted with General Electric to build an engine to meet our particular specification, but there are engines broadly available for that segment.

I think the obstacles facing that segment of the industry are probably going to be regulatory and environmental. Both are obstacles that can perhaps be overcome, but they're going to be very difficult to do so, particularly with the green movement and so on. The only remaining entry right now is Boom, and they seem to be emphasizing the 80-passenger airliner model as opposed to the business jet model. And so it remains to be seen. They still have a lot of work to be done. They haven't flown yet, and I think it's going to be an uphill battle, unfortunately.

Molly McMillin:

So looking back, what advice would you give to your younger self?

Brian Barents:

That's an interesting question. I guess I'd say be more patient. And I say that because I had a lot of ambition in my younger years, and I was impatient in some of the positions that I had. I aspired for additional responsibility, and that influenced some of the decisions I made. One of leaving Cessna and going for a brief period with my experience at Lexus. But that's the only thing I can think of that comes to mind.

Molly McMillin:

So looking forward, what do you predict? In 10 years from now, 20 years from now, what will the business aviation landscape look like?

Brian Barents:

I think it's going to be progressive growth from today. I think the future looks very rosy with the expansion and growth in personal wealth worldwide. It makes aviation, general aviation a lot more affordable to a broader segment of the population, and therefore a lot of growth in the fractional and that segment of the industry, which I think is going to be a major growth factor in the industry in particular going forward.

Molly McMillin:

What advice, you mentioned talking to your younger self about being more patient, but what advice or wisdom would you give to today's leaders in business aviation?

Brian Barents:

I would say listen to your marketplace. One, be pragmatic, but also look to the future. And most important, listen to your market and develop products that are responsive to what your customers are telling you they want. And I say that with an example in mind. Back in the late seventies, early eighties when Beechcraft was developing the Starship, their engineers were infatuated with composite technology and futuristic designs, but their customer base were very pragmatic. They were low-key. They didn't want the exposure of flying the entry level business jets that were available at the time. So they stayed with their conservative turboprops. And when they came out with the Beechjet, first of all, its performance was not any better than at that time, the King Air 200, and there was nothing conservative looking about the Starship. And so therefore, their customers rejected it, and Beech, spent well over $1.5 billion developing a product that no one wanted. So again, my advice to the leadership coming up today is to listen to their customers and respond to their needs.

Molly McMillin:

So this is kind of an off the wall question, Brian, but what's one thing no one or few people know about you?

Brian Barents:

Well, I was raised by a single parent who devoted her life to raising my brother and myself. I've worked since I was eight years old, put myself through college. My mother taught me the basic life sciences, life skills, and I learned very early in life the value of the dollar and looking out for yourself. And I matured at a very early age, and I have no qualms about that. It just helped me in establishing myself at a fairly early age.

Jeremy Kariuki:

One last question from me, and this doesn't even have to be related to your career, but what are you looking forward to?

Brian Barents:

Well, I'm still very active. I sat on a number of boards after retiring, seven, in fact, but most of them, after I turned 70, I reached the age limit on most of the boards, particularly the public boards. I now sit on a startup called JetZero. We're building a blended-wing airliner, and it's a privately-held company at this point. So we have no age restrictions, and I spend a lot of time with that product and very excited about the future. We'll be competing with Airbus and Boeing. We have a lot of interest from the airlines today because the product itself represents almost a 50% fuel savings over the current existing tube-and-wing airplanes. So the economic results are very compelling for the airlines.

Jeremy Kariuki:

That's awesome.

Molly McMillin:

Brian, is there anything that we haven't asked you or that you'd like to say or-

Brian Barents:

Well, I think we've covered the waterfront, but I look back at my career as people ask if there's anything you can change, and I don't think there's a thing that I would change. I enjoyed my participation in the industry, and hopefully I was able to return to the industry, all of the confidence and faith that they had put into me, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Jeremy Kariuki:

That is awesome.

Molly McMillin:

It's delightful to talk to you, Brian.

Brian Barents:

Always a pleasure. Molly.

Molly McMillin:

Thank you for joining us and sharing your insights. We really appreciate it, Brian.

Brian Barents:

All right, well have a good day.

Molly McMillin:

Thank you.

Brian Barents:

Jeremy, nice to meet you.

Jeremy Kariuki:

Nice meeting you too.

Brian Barents:

Okay. Bye-Bye