"The Polar Mission" Dedication

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

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Progress Report - August 2026

By Kristen Nuss • September 1, 2026

It is amazing the progress that our hard working, very dedicated group of volunteers are making on 23-003. Here’s a sample of the various jobs that they do in a single volunteer day: On Tuesday, August 25, 2026, the team was working in unison on several projects: removal of the aft cabin baggage floor, disassembling the main landing gear wheels, using the wiring diagrams to identify switches, connectors, etc., researching the drawings and parts catalog, tagging and storing removed parts. They also held a team meeting to discuss progress, problems encountered and planning the next day’s work projects. We finished removing the fasteners and the enormous amount of sealant that was on the baggage floor on August 6th.. The floor is now completely loose and moving around. However, we discovered that removing it from the fuselage is going to be a lot harder than we thought! According to Jim Tidball, “Talk about a square peg in a round hole!” We put out a request for assistance from anyone that can help us remove this floor and Wes Lumry, a retiree who has been at Learjet since the early days, volunteered. On August 27th he came out to inspect 23-003 and offer his advice on removing the baggage floor. In order to get enough room to lift and rotate the baggage floor to clear the fuselage structure to remove it, we will first have toremove the step between the divan floor and the baggage floor.

Progress Report - July 2026

By Kristen Nuss • August 3, 2026

How time flies! A short four years ago, on July 20, 2022, we made our trip to Bartow Executive Airport, Bartow, Florida, to do an inspection of 23-003 to see if she was restorable. Today 23-003 is in Wichita, Kansas within a few hundred feet south of the Lear Jet factory where she was built in 1964. CLJF now owns 23-003 and the restoration project is well along! The latest work by the volunteers has been working on the removal of the aft cabin floor in order to proceed with the structural inspections of the fuselage. It is a slow process because of the large amount of sealant used between the floor and the surrounding structure that has to be manually cut loose before the floor can be removed. Also, all the parts removed from the airplane continue to be identified, inspected, and dispositioned for service, replacement or overhaul. A big THANK YOU to all the volunteers! We greatly appreciate all that you do!

Progress Report - June 2026

By Kristen Nuss • July 2, 2026

Throughout the construction going on in bays 1 and 10 in building 14, our dedicated volunteers continue to make significant progress. On June 4, 2026 they removed the leading edges from the horizontal stabilizer. This will allow us to start the structural inspection. Once completed, it will be transported to DAS Aviation for restoration. Also, on June 4th, the wing from 23-028, that we acquired for parts, was removed from the wing dolly and installed on the ‘rotisserie’ by volunteers Jim Tidball, Dan DeMott, Hartney Hummer and Al Goodwin. Next, we will check the condition of the wing by performing a leak test on each wing and start removing parts from various wing systems. The daunting task of making a new wiring harness to replace the existing 62-year-old wiring harness continues. On June 9th we caught volunteers Bud Ledom, Rob Bielman and Dave Dendurant hard at pouring over drawings identifying the wires, connectors, switches, etc. A Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the CLJF and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) was signed on May 28th. This MOA details the responsibilities of each of us for the restoration of the landing gear. On June 10, 2026, Jim Long and his son, Zach, of Noble Jet, picked up the landing gear retraction actuators and the box of various hydraulic actuators. There they will be tested and rebuilt. Thank You Noble Jet!!