27-04-2025
Pole to pole: A Learjet will soon leave Wichita on a worldwide mission
A Learjet will depart from Wichita this week as pilots try to fly to the South Pole, then the North Pole and back to Wichita in three days.
The 'Polar Mission,' more formally known as polar circumnavigation, is a trip through both poles. The flight was organized by the Classic Lear Jet Foundation based in Wichita.
'No Learjet has ever attempted this aggressive mission,' foundation spokesperson Rick Rowe said.
The Rockwell Polar Flight in November 1965 was the first to complete a circumnavigation.
The mission is intended to raise money to restore Lear Jet 23-003, the first Learjet to ever be delivered to a customer on Oct. 13, 1964, Rowe said in a phone call.
The foundation is in the early stages of restoration and is dismantling the plane. Rowe could not say how much it would cost to restore it.
'We have to take all the wiring, plumbing, flight control cables and all the insulation out of the fuselage,' Rowe said. 'In other words, just make it, make it a skeleton.'
The Learjet 36A that will be flown across the world landed at Stearman Airfield in Benton on April 24. It will depart on April 30 and will return May 3.
The funding and plane were provided by Global Jetcare, an air ambulance company based in Florida. Bart Gray is the CEO of Global Jetcare and the vice president of the Classic Lear Jet Foundation.
'He is an avid Learjet pilot and a real aficionado of Learjet airplanes,' Rowe said. 'He is the one who suggested we do this and has done all the planning for it.'
Gray, along with three other pilots, will take turns flying the plane on the polar mission.
'At each stop on the flight, the crew will perform research by placing a scale on the wing of the plane to help determine if the Earth is bigger on the Equator and document it,' the foundation said.
There are 12 stops on the route, a flight path graphic shows.
Lear Jet was founded in 1962 by William Powell. It was later renamed Learjet. Bombardier acquired the company in 1990 and announced the end of production for all models in 2021, bringing roughly 60 years of Learjet history to an end.
Lear Jet 23-003 has historical significance.
'Business aviation was alive and well in 1962 to 1964 when Bill Lear first came to town and started building the jet,' Rowe said. 'But during that time they were flying piston prop planes, so when Bill got the Lear all figured out and designed and engineered and delivered, the world became a lot smaller because this airplane would go twice as far, twice as fast than the business aviation airplanes at that time.'
The Learjet used two General Electric turbojet engines.
Rowe added: 'It's iconic to civilian aviation as a business jet, just as Doc [B29] is to military aviation.'
A real-time tracker will be available to view the plane's route after it departs from Wichita at
