Progress Report - June 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?

Read the full newsletter by clicking the button below.

Download Full Newsletter

< Older Post

"The Polar Mission" Dedication - March 2025

By Kristen Nuss • April 8, 2025

Captain Bart Gray, President of Global Jetcare and CLJF Vice President, announced that “The Polar Mission” will be dedicated to Mr. William Powell Lear, Junior. Bill Lear, Jr. played a critical role in the birth of the original Lear Jet. Being a well established test pilot, he was invited to fly and evaluate the Swiss FFA P-16 ground attack fighter. After 2 of the prototypes and their pilots were lost, he successfully flew 5 flights and went supersonic twice. He was very impressed with exceptional structural qualities of the Swiss P-16 ground attack jet (ex. the 8 spar wing) and was responsible for convincing his father, Bill Lear, Sr., that this was what he was looking for in his new business jet. He also told him that since the Swiss government had cancelled the P-16 project there were a lot of skilled aircraft engineers available to help with the design of his business jet. The rest, as they say, “Is History”. If it were not for William Powell Lear, Jr. the Lear Jet would have been an entirely different airplane! "The Polar Mission" - Update Final flight planning for “The Polar Mission” around the world pole to pole record flight is well underway and the necessary equipment is being assembled. In addition to the FAA required overwater life vests and rafts, they also require special survival equipment for flights in the Arctic and Antarctic Regions. Part of the special equipment is extreme cold weather suits. These suits are designed to protect the crew in the event of an emergency in some of the coldest and most remote places on Earth. The crew has been hard at work putting the final touches on the flight plan, fuel stops, required coordination with each airport authorities, etc. Since the crew of The Polar Mission flight will be the same crew that accomplished the world record setting The Century Mission last April, all ‘lessons learned’ will be thoroughly reviewed and included. Follow the flight at polarmission.org

Announcing "The Polar Mission" - February 2025

By Kristen Nuss • April 8, 2025

“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:

2024 In Review - January 2025

By Kristen Nuss • February 20, 2025

Wow what a Year for 23-003 and the Classic Lear Jet Foundation! The biggest and most important event of the year was the long term hosting agreement being signed by the Wichita Airport Authority, the City of Wichita, Bombardier and the Classic Lear Jet Foundation! The hosting agreement subleases bays 9 and 10 of building 14 to the CLJF from the primary lease holder, Bombardier. On October 12, 2024, 23-003 N200Y was moved into Bay 9 of building 14, the former Learjet Delivery Center where its restoration process is now serious! In January we announced that restoration for 23-003 had officially begun with the removal of the first panel, the pilot’s nose avionics door and our first official call for volunteers was sent out. Renowned videographer Tom Zwemke produced a promotional video on the Classic Lear Jet Foundation. In March the interior was removed from 23-003 and the first inspection, the cabin skin thickness checks were successfully completed. The months since then have seen numerous removals: cockpit instruments, instrument panel, throttle quadrant and floor boards, control column, glareshield, etc. In order to remove the cabin wiring, removal of the circuit breakers from their panels was required. We discovered that 23-003 was built without break plugs between the circuit breaker and its wiring. They are ‘hard wired’! The last of the pilot and copilot circuit breaker panels were finally removed on August 6 th .