Announcing "The Polar Mission"

“The Polar Mission” is the name of the record flight attempt by 36A-022 N31GJ and her crew to circumnavigate the globe from north to south by flying over both poles. The “Pole to Pole From the Air Capital” flight is scheduled to depart from the Learjet ramp near building 14 on April 30, 2025. After flying over both poles, is expected to return to the Learjet ramp on May 3, 2025. The scheduled flight path is shown below:

You will note that fuel stops 4 and 5 are at the same airport (SAWH) in Argentina. This is because the plan is to overfly Antarctica and land back at SAWH to refuel before continuing northward. In order to overfly Antarctica the crew had to get special permission from the U.S. State Department! They had to have a special reason for the flight, so during the entire mission they will be doing an official scientific experiment in conjunction with a college. This experiment has to do with measuring the slight variation in the gravitational attraction at the poles versus the equator and along the flight path.

One of the biggest challenges for the flight is the wildly varied weather and temperatures they will encounter. Hot at the equator and extreme cold at the poles! The crew will carry polar survival gear for the ‘just in case’ scenario. Another challenge is access to fuel and, if required, maintenance. While these are plentiful near the normal flight routes, they are pretty scarce near the poles.

We are looking for sponsors for each of the flight legs. Sponsor will have their name or logo displayed on the airplane. Just like “The Century Mission” airplane last year. If you are interested in sponsoring a leg please contact us at info@ClassicLear.org.

In order to celebrate the “The Polar Mission”, we are planning a ‘kickoff’ Hangar Party on April 26th (see details below) and a ‘welcome home’ event when they return. Also, we will set up a website so you can follow the flight as it progresses. (Watch next issue of RECHARGE for the website and preflight updates)

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Progress Report - June 2025

By Kristen Nuss • July 16, 2025

The dry ice blasting to remove the remaining foam is nearing completion on the rest of the areas in the cockpit and under the floorboards. The dry-ice blasting is doing a fantastic job of removing the foam remnants! Thank you Ryan Thimesch of BEPC for his time and talent! The dry ice blasting turns the foam, remaining after manual scraping, into a fine dust that requires continuous cleanup! After the completion of the foam removal in the cockpit, we have decided to proceed with another novel use of dry ice blasting; to clean the grime and crud from other areas around the airplane. Trial areas show great promise to reduce the amount of manual labor required! The nose landing gear doors have been removed and the nose avionics bay and nose landing gear bay are now ready to be cleaned by dry-ice blasting. We now have large prints of the wiring schematics to help us identify wires and components. This will assist us in developing the new wire harnesses. A completely new wiring harness will be built to replace the 61 year old brittle harness that was recently removed. Some components are not planned to be reinstalled, such as the thrust reversers, so all of the wiring and components associated with these will not be a part of the new harness. We just received the shelving to get our parts room sorted. We will need some volunteers to help assemble the shelves and move some things around inside the storage cage. Will you volunteer?

“N200Y” is Official !! - May 2025

By Kristen Nuss • May 31, 2025

23-003 has been officially assigned the registration number “N200Y” by the FAA! Bill Kinkaid, President of the Classic Lear Jet Foundation, made the announcement at the Polar Mission Hangar Party on the evening of April 26 th . We then witnessed Bart Gray, Vice-President of the CLJF, sign the AC Form 8050-64 to formally complete the official assignment process. We owe a big ‘Thank You’ to Joel Weber for tracking down the chief pilot and owner of the airplane that had N200Y and explaining the significance of this number to our historic Lear Jet and asking them to let us have it. He then worked tirelessly with them to help them find another suitable number for their airplane. Joel started this quest on October 28, 2022, a little over a month after CLJF received our Articles of Incorporation, and on April 26, 2025 we own it! This is the same registration number that she wore at her delivery on October 13, 1964! “The Polar Mission” – Huge Success! The Polar Mission events started the evening that 36A-022 N31GJ and crew arrived at Jim Lee’s hangar at Stearman Field on April 24, 2025. The airplane was all decked out with the colorful logos of each of the mission sponsors. A special decal, placed on each side of the fuselage, just aft of the cabin door, was a note dedicating the mission to William Powell Lear, Jr. by his wife Brenda. Also, special windshield sunshades were made to honor Bill, Jr. and Brenda Lear.

Departing on The Polar Mission - April 2025

By Kristen Nuss • April 30, 2025

"The Polar Mission" The Polar Mission will the circumnavigate the globe from south to north by flying over both poles. Learjet 36A-022 N31GJ and her crew, Captain Bart Gray, President of Global Jetcare (also CLJF Vice President), Joshua Podlich, John Bone and Kirby Ezelle will attempt the flight to earn the coveted Polar Circumnavigation Diploma. The Polar Mission is dedicated to William Powell (Bill) Lear, Junior. The Polar Mission flight is entirely funded by Bart Gray and Global Jetcare and he has allowed the Classic Lear Jet Foundation to use the flight for our fundraising efforts to restore 23-003.