BOW to ICT by Way of Global Fame

The first Learjet to be delivered by Bill Lear’s upstart company to a paying customer has returned to its Wichita birthplace where a group of aviation enthusiasts have set forth their unequivocal commitment to return the storied jet to airworthiness.

The aircraft, a Lear-23, serial-number 23-003, registration N200Y, was manufactured in 1964 and is the third specimen of the sleek, Mach-tuck-prone LR-23 to grace this world. Regrettably, the little jet—prior to its rescue by the newly-formed Classic Learjet Foundation—suffered a long and miserable interval deteriorating on the ramp of Florida’s Bartow Executive Airport (BOW).

Classic Learjet Foundation spokesman Rick Rowe stated: “We’re going to restore the airplane and then we’re going to connect—we’re going to connect to keep the story alive of the jet that started the industry by preserving this piece of legendary flight history.” A former Learjet demo-pilot, Mr. Rowe has logged upwards of nine-thousand hours in various Learjet models.

Disassembled and looking less than its best, N200Y was transported from BOW to Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ICT) via a flatbed trailer graciously donated by Neil Patton of Patton Trucking & Equipment and a Ford Super Duty truck driven by Scott Penner and Brian Wonders. The 26-hour straight-through haul concluded on 28 February 2023 with a Welcome Home viewing of the classic jet staged in the parking lot of Wichita’s Global Aviation Technologies.

The foundation has yet to raise roughly $70,000 of the $90,000 it agreed to pay 23-003’s previous owner prior to the commencement of restoration efforts.

“It isn’t completely paid for, and we can’t really start the restoration until we get it paid for,” Mr. Rowe remarked.

The Classic Learjet Foundation is currently and very gratefully accepting donations to pay N200Y’s bail—as it were. 

Notwithstanding the earnest enthusiasm and already-significant cash outlay of the Classic Learjet Foundation and the commitments of a number of businesses and organizations to assist with various aspects of the jet’s restoration, N200Y will remain in storage until the foundation identifies a facility in which to perform the requisite work.

A project timeline and the actual total cost of restoration have yet to be worked out, Mr. Rowe reported.

Conversations pertaining to saving serial-number 23-003 began in February 2022. Rowe and his fellow foundation members—primarily current and former Learjet (later Bombardier) employees—were inspired by the restoration of the widely-known, air-show superstar B-29 bomber dubbed Doc.

Ultimately, the Classic Learjet Foundation seeks to return 23-003 to the skies it once frequented and—for a time between the release of Meet the Beatles! and Rubber Soul—arguably ruled. Mr. Rowe and his contemporaries envision the aircraft as the central component of an educational living flight history program.

“It is a passion project for all of us,” Rowe said.

Wichita-based Learjet has been a Bombardier subsidiary since 1990. The Canadian-owned manufacturer of the famed Challenger and Global Express business aircraft and (formerly) Dash-8 twin-turboprop regional airliner named Wichita its official U.S. headquarters in April 2022, less than one month after the final Learjet 75 rolled off the assembly-line.  

FMI: www.classiclear.org