In a hangar in Wichita, Kansas, a bare aluminum fuselage sits on jacks, stripped down to little more than its skeleton. To those who have had the chance to see the aircraft in between work sessions, it might look like junk.
But to the volunteers, the “skeleton” feels closer to a relic, one that they’ve spent thousands of hours trying to bring back to the sky.
The airplane is Lear Jet 23-003, the first purpose-built business jet ever assembled. The people working on it are part of the Classic Lear Jet Foundation (CLJF), a Wichita-based 501(c)(3) non-profit with a single, ambitious mission: to make this 62-year-old aircraft airworthy again.
A Phone Call…