Florida-based ambulance operator Global Jet Care will embark early Thursday from Wichita on a "century in the making" flight in N41GJ, a 40-year-old Learjet 36. Dubbed the “Century Mission,” the journey will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first around-the-world flight in 1924.
The company aims to circumnavigate the globe in a record 54 hours 30 minutes as a fundraiser for the Classic Lear Jet Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to restoring to flying condition the first production Lear Jet 23 delivered to a customer. By comparison, the original 1924 flight, carried out by eight U.S. Army Air Service members split among two different aircraft, took 175 days and 74 stops to complete.
After departing Wichita at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, the Learjet 36 will head west with a total of 11 planned stops in California, Hawaii, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Singapore, India, Dubai, Egypt, Italy, Portugal, and Canada before returning to Wichita on April 6.
The mission's flight crew includes Global Jet Care president—and Classic Lear Jet Foundation board member—Bart Gray and Global Jet Care pilots Joshua Podlich, John Bone, and Kirby Ezelle. Foundation v-p Joel Weber will be on board as an observer. Gray is funding the flight.