It can certainly be argued that the Learjet is the progenitor of today’s multi-billion-dollar business aviation industry. When the first of the sleek, speedy Lear 23s was delivered in 1964, it immediately gained acceptance from celebrities and captains of industry alike and established a market for private jet aviation, elevating the name Lear Jet into the public lexicon as an icon of new travel freedom and privilege.
Lear 23-003—the first of the type to be delivered—has now found its way back to its Wichita birthplace, where an ambitious program to return it to flight status has begun. At the same time, it is in the process of being acquired by the Classic Learjet Foundation (CLF), a non-profit organization founded by former and current industry employees with the goal of restoring 003 to its condition when it was handed over in 1964.
Richard Kovich, the group’s historian, had been following the aircraft’s journey, given its archetypical status. “About 2018, I was notified that it was no longer registered,” he told AIN. “So that kind of got my curiosity up to find out where the airplane was and what was going to happen to it.”
Kovich’s search ended in February 2022 when he received a phone call from the father of the aircraft’s owner asking if he knew someone who wanted to buy the airplane. In July 2022, what would eventually become the group’s leadership once it became formally registered traveled to Florida to examine the condition of the aircraft, which had been stored outdoors for more than a decade at Tampa-area Bartow Executive Airport.
It had suffered rudder damage from last year’s category 5 Hurricane Ian, but during its idle years, it was tightly buttoned up and did not acquire any animal stowaways. Later, once the tires were pumped up and it was rolled into a hangar, Lear 23-003 was powered up and the cockpit lights came on.
“The airplane is complete, instrument panel, clock, everything is there,” said Kovich. “We didn’t try to motor the engines, because they had been sitting outside for 10 to 12 years. But we came to the conclusion the airplane was worth it.”
A brief examination of the records showed it had last flown more than two decades ago. “The last maintenance event was in 1998. There was another logbook entry in 1999 and the time didn’t change—it had just under 5,900 hours on it at that time—so we believe they flew it until the landing gear and engines cycled out, and then they parked it,” said Bill Kinkaid, the organization’s president.
After lengthy negotiations, the two sides agreed on a purchase price of $90,000, down from the owner’s initial asking price of $250,000. “We were dealing with the actual owner. We leveled with him, and we said there is no way anybody is going to pay a quarter of a million bucks for this airplane,” Kinkaid told AIN, adding the owners knew the airplane’s significance and that someone would eventually come looking for it. “They had time equity in the airplane—they saved it and somewhat stored it somewhere around 25 years—so they deserved to be compensated for their effort.”
In the end, the owner concurred with the group that the airplane should be preserved. “I think we were pretty good at convincing them that we’re probably about their best bet in the world really,” continued Kinkaid. “We’re all passionate, we’re all enthusiasts, we have the connections, and we have the technical expertise to raise the money and get the airplane in the air again, so we came to a pretty good agreement there that I don’t think he would have found with another buyer.”
Indeed, given the aircraft’s pedigree and intrinsic historical value, some might think that it could have found a home at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., but that institution already has the only older Learjet on display: 002 which was used in the flight test program and was acquired directly from the manufacturer (001 was lost in a non-fatal flight test accident back in 1964).
Once the price for 003 was settled, the foundation gave the owner a down payment, which resulted in the release of the GE CJ610-1 engines and the engine maintenance records. These were sent directly to International Turbine Industries in Michigan for refurbishment. International Turbine will convert them to CJ610-4 standard as an in-kind donation.
One of the treasures of the acquisition is 23-003’s complete set of logbooks, dating all the way back to its delivery, making them somewhat of a time capsule. “Lyman Yandell was the chief inspector for Learjet in the very early days, and his name is in the logbook,” said Kinkaid. “He’s the one that declared it to be airworthy back in 1964.”
The airframe itself was disassembled for transport to Wichita, the self-proclaimed “Air Capital of the World,” where it was built nearly six decades ago and where the foundation—which was officially founded last September—is based.
The wing was removed, and the fuselage was loaded onto a special cradle. Both arrived in Kansas via a flatbed truck in late February. Bombardier, which acquired Learjet in 1990, donated space to house the aircraft in Building 14 at its complex, the same building where Learjet deliveries formerly took place.
While the exterior and cabin of 003 were observed, thus far the foundation has not yet had the opportunity to thoroughly examine the airframe structure. “We are under a sales agreement with the current owner of the airplane and when we get him paid off is when we can actually start the restoration process,” explained foundation vice president Joel Weber. The foundation still needs to raise approximately $50,000, according to Chris Marshall, the group’s secretary and head of fundraising. While it has applied for grants that could help bridge that gap, it is still seeking financial donations.
Much of the restoration work will be performed by industry volunteers, and the foundation expects there to be many from the city’s current and retired aviation workforce—some of whom even worked on the Lear 23 assembly line in the early days—but how long the project could take to complete remains to be determined.
“If we were dealing with a 23 that was in service and came in, we’d be talking about six to eight months, but this isn’t that airplane,” said Kinkaid. “We know the wing could be a basket case, and until we get it x-rayed and get into it and cleaned up, we honestly don’t know.” Depending on how smoothly the process goes, estimates for completion range between three and five years. With Learjet production ceasing in 2021, Bombardier salvaged and donated the Learjet master wing assembly jig from the now-defunct assembly line to help solve any problems in that area. Now in storage, the unit weighs 15 tons when assembled.
In terms of other parts that may be required, the foundation has tracked down several Lear 23 carcasses in two well-known aircraft salvage yards. “I’ve been through a lot of the old fuselages sitting around and I know there are a lot of useable parts that we will probably get,” said Weber. “Both owners of those companies already gave me a verbal commitment that whatever we want, we can have.”
The aircraft’s interior had been replaced at least once during its life, and the group’s intention is to return it to factory-stock standard. “We want to go back to original,” said Kinkaid. “One of the other things we have is access to a lot of the archival information both from a technical standpoint but also from a marketing and sales standpoint, so we have access to a wonderful treasure trove of data that will help us restore the airplane.”
As well he added that local service providers have stepped up. “We’ve had some very early commitments to in-kind donations of services to be provided for us,” he said. “It’s not like we really even had to ask, as soon as they knew this was going to happen, they said, ‘We want to do the interior.’”
That is one of the ways in which we think the restoration can succeed and move quickly because so many people are interested in participating.” The group is pursuing similar offers for the aircraft’s windows and exterior paint.
While the cockpit is complete, the CLF acknowledges some changes will have to be made. “I think that the desire of the foundation is that we leave it as original as possible, but looking at a safety factor and some operational limitations that we may be faced with would force us to do some updates,” said Weber.
Likewise, a decision will have to be made as to whether to bring the aircraft into compliance with current noise regulations. “We have a compliance path, which would mean a hush kit, and we also have an FAA exemption path through living flight history programs,” explained Kinkaid. “We can’t actually start any of the exemption paperwork until the airplane is in the foundation’s name.”
One hurdle that has already been passed was securing 003's original N-number, N200Y. During its long life, the aircraft had changed registration, and the number it wore on delivery had since passed along to a Cessna Sovereign owned by a Louisiana-based corporation. “Through months of pestering them and begging them, I got them to agree to release that N-number to us, and it was at a convenient time because this year they are going to repaint the airplane anyway,” Weber told AIN. In return, the foundation had to wheel and deal to secure a personalized replacement registration number that satisfied the company owner. Just in case that effort failed, the foundation also obtained the tail number 003 wore during its flight test program.
Looking ahead to completion, the foundation has two type-rated pilots on its board, one of whom was a marketing operations pilot for Learjet, while the other served as a production flight test pilot.
Since there are no other operating Lear 23s left, the group expects to bring 003 to airshows such as EAA AirVenture and Sun ‘N Fun “so,” in the words of Marshall, “people can see what the first purpose-designed, purpose-built business jet looked like, sounded like, and to see it flying.”
Through the airplane, the foundation wants to not only tell the story of Bill Lear and the people who developed the aircraft that became synonymous with private luxury travel in the ’60s and ’70s, but the roles that entrepreneurship and technical development played as well. “The marketing and celebrity endorsements, these are relevant in today’s economy,” said Marshall. “We want to bring elements of that story and use them in schools to educate kids to inspire them to pursue careers in technology, and careers in aviation from grade school on up to college.”
The foundation also pictures 003 as a symbol of Wichita’s proud aviation history. “This airplane we believe set the pace for all of the business jets that have been delivered out of Wichita,” stated Weber. “We don’t want to make it just about the Learjet legacy, we want to make sure we publicize that and make sure that the whole town owns this, and the whole business jet world owns this.”