Fun Times Flying a Classic Lear 23

The only Lear Jet 23 that is flyable and fitted with a hushkit that allows for normal flight operations is at the NBAA-BACE static display’s “Tribute to Flight” pavilion, but possibly just for a limited time through Wednesday. Owned by Jim Donovan, this rare airplane is going up for auction at a Mecum Auctions event next month.

At every turn, Donovan’s experience with this particular airplane—N477K—has turned up a slew of historical coincidences. The latest was how famed Lear pilot and aviator Clay Lacy arrived in Las Vegas for NBAA-BACE 2025. Donovan flew from his base in the Sacramento, California area to Van Nuys to pick up Lacy and fly him to Henderson Executive Airport, which is hosting the NBAA static display this week. Lacy was Bill Lear’s first dealer and has long been involved with the high-performance aircraft—one of the first purpose-built business jets.

N477K is the 36th Lear—built in 1965. And being a Model 23, it suffers from a challenge facing all early Lears powered by GE’s legendary but noisy CJ610 turbojet engine: it can’t be flown legally without a hushkit. Avcon developed a hushkit for Lear 24/25 models, but that STC didn’t include the Lear 23, Donovan explained.

Donovan learned to fly Lears as a charter pilot under the tutelage of Hop-A-Jet founder Harvey Hop in the 1980s. He subsequently flew air ambulances, then switched to airline flying, from which he retired. His most recent airplane was an Aerostar 600A piston twin, and he sold that to pay for the maintenance that N477K needed after he bought it.

In fact, Donovan bought two Lear 23s—one that he didn’t plan to fly (N823LJ) and wanted to turn into a lawn art piece in front of his hangar, then acquiring N477K about five years ago. A year ago, Donovan scraped together enough money to pay for the maintenance needed to restore N477K to flying status, using parts from both airplanes. The jet was in “gorgeous condition,” he said, with a fresh interior and paint in 1999.

Luckily, the parts Learjet came with the only Stage III hushkit ever approved for a Lear 23, according to Donovan. “Somebody spent $120,000 on this hushkit back in 2008 or 2006 and did flights for BAE/Tracor, then they surrendered the STC back to the FAA. I bought a Lear with that set on it, then I bought this one, and I got permission from the FAA to move the hushkit from one to the other.”

At some point, a Garmin GNS 530 navigator was installed in N477K, and it is also equipped with Avcon RVSM and Garmin ADS-B Out and TAWS. “I would prefer it had no avionics upgrades and the original radios and navs in it,” he admitted. The Lear, which has its original N-number from the factory, has logged more than 5,524 hours to date, and each engine has about 2,000 hours remaining before overhaul is due.

After getting N477K back in the air last year, Donovan wanted to fly it around the U.S. with his wife dressed as Brigitte Bardot, to replicate a famous photo of Bardot and her husband, Gunter Sachs, standing in front of the twinjet. She married the German playboy and industrialist on July 14, 1966.

Donovan would have dressed as Frank Sinatra and had his copilot wear Dean Martin regalia, in honor of both actors’ experiences flying in Lears. However, the cost of the trip was just too high, and he said, “My wife doesn’t fancy being in a little jet that long.”

Coincidentally, at a Mecum auction in Glendale, Arizona, in March, Donovan met a “gorgeous blonde lady” who he thought would be ideal to play the Brigitte Bardot role for the trip. She turned out to be Pat Bondurant, widow of race car driver and teacher Bob Bondurant and president and CEO of Bondurant Racing School. When Donovan mentioned Brigitte Bardot, Pat explained that her husband dated Bardot in 1965 when he was in France teaching James Garner to race cars for the movie Grand Prix.

In any case, that dress-up trip never left the ground, and Donovan plans to auction N477K at the November 15 Mecum auction after its appearance this week at the NBAA “Tribute to Flight.” A second lot will auction N823LJ for spare parts. “I’m not rich,” he said. “I can’t afford to fly it more than one hour every three months. I got it, I did it, I had my fun.”