Aircraft
Flight ‘Century’ in the Making Takes off This Week
'Century Mission' honors 100th anniversary of global flight
Century Mission
© Century Mission

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.