Gallery: Home At Last—Century Mission Completes Round-The-World Flight

The Learjet 36A taxis to Bombardier's former Learjet delivery center after completing customs at Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport. The round-the-world flight took 66 hr., including 54.5 flight hrs., in an 11-stop, westbound, record-setting journey called the Century Mission. 

Brenda Lear, daughter-in-law of Learjet founder Bill Lear, welcomes Bart Gray, captain of the Century Mission, back to Wichita, where the crew had taken off three days earlier. Lear flew in from Florida for the event and welcomed each crewmember as they departed the Learjet 36A aircraft. 

She was one of the dozens of sponsors, members of the Classic Lear Jet Foundation and others who came out to cheer their arrival. 

The crew included (from left) Bart Gray, the flight's captain; Global Jetcare pilots Kirby Ezelle and Joshua Podlich; Joel Weber, the flight's unofficial observer and FAA Designated Airworthiness Representative; and John Bone, a flight instructor and adventure pilot.

“It feels great to be back,” says Bart Gray, founder of Global Jetcare, a Florida-based air ambulance provider and captain on the flight. His favorite part of the trip was being with the other crewmembers.

“We had a plan and we stuck to it,” he says. “It was a great time.”

Brenda Lear, daughter-in-law of Learjet Founder Bill Lear, congratulates the crew. The Century Mission honors the memory of Bill Lear and brings attention to the Classic Learjet Foundation, she says. "I"m just so glad everyone is back safely." 

The mayor of Wichita, Lily Wu, also met the aircraft and presented certificates to each crewmember.

Throughout the trip, the Learjet 36A was equipped with three clocks that kept the time in Wichita, UTC (Universal Time Coordinated) time and the correct time at the next destination. The aircraft was also equipped with a bed for crew rest, spare parts, snacks and other equipment. 

The spare parts were not needed as the aircraft performed flawlessly, Gray says. “There was not one single squawk on the airplane—not one lightbulb, not one single problem. We had zero maintenance issues the whole way.”

The flight, called the Century Mission, served as a fundraiser for the restoration to flying condition of a historic Lear Jet Model 23, Serial 23-003 owned by the Wichita-based Classic Lear Jet Foundation. The aircraft, built in 1964, was the first to be delivered to a customer. The Century Mission, self-funded by Gray, has so far raised nearly $70,000 from sponsors and others for the Lear project. The vintage aircraft is now housed in Bombardier's former Learjet delivery center in Wichita. Most importantly, the flight raised awareness of the aircraft and its history. 

"That is what we really accomplished," Gray says.

From Wichita, the crew's first stop was in Salinas, California. Flying westbound is more difficult than east because aircraft fly into a headwind instead of having a tailwind. 

“The whole trip was beautiful—it was clear skies in the majority of the places we went,” Gray says. “We had great weather.” At times, however, the crew encountered strong headwinds, especially coming across the Pacific. At times the winds were up to 150 kt. “There’s nothing you can do about it. You just keep on going.” The flight sets a record for a westbound flight in its weight class of between 6,000 and 9,000 kg (13,230 lb.-19,840 lb.), he says.

After Salinas, California, the crew flew to Kona, Hawaii, the second of 11 stops. 

From Hawaii, the crew flew to Marjuro in the Marshall Islands.

The biggest challenge in planning for the flight was securing the needed permits and coordinating timing at all the stops for quick turnarounds, Bart Gray says. The crew encountered longer-than-expected turnaround times at some of them, however. “The only real challenges were frustrations on the ground trying to get people motivated, like, ‘Let’s get going. Let’s get fuel’—and they were very happy to do it," Gray says. "But they were also very happy to just take pictures and hang out with us, and we wanted to go. We were trying to get fuel and so many places are not in a hurry to do anything.”

Joel Weber, the flight’s unofficial observer and an FAA Designated Airworthiness Representative, shakes hands with a member of the ground crew at the Palau International Airport, where the Learjet crew stopped for fuel. 

The fourth stop was Palau International Airport, then it was on to Singapore; Hyderabad, India; Dubai; Alexandria, Egypt; Olbia, Italy; the Azores; and Halifax, Nova Scotia, before arriving back in Wichita.

The flight commemorates the first-ever round-the-world flight 100 years ago. Bart Gray and crew landed back in Wichita exactly 100 years to the day that the historic crew, which included eight U.S. Army Air Service pilots in four modified DT-2 torpedo bombers, departed from Seattle headed west. That flight was made in 74 stops and 175 days. 

“We joked when we taxied in,” Gray says. “We said, ‘Well, we beat them by 172 days.’”

The Learjet 36A is fueled before departing Wichita April 3 for the trip around-the-world.

Bart Gray at the controls taxis from the former Bombardier Learjet delivery center in Wichita over to the runway of Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport to begin the journey on April 3. The pilots took shifts flying the aircraft. 

"We kept saying, 'This is just and out-and-back trip,'" Gray says the crew told one another. "We're just leaving Wichita and coming right back. So, when we got just past India and it was halfway, it was like, 'OK. Let's ... go home. We might as well just keep on going forward.'"