There are a lot of world records related to flight. One of them is for refueled, manned flight endurance. The current record of 64 days was set in 1958, by Robert Timm and John Cook. Here’s the story behind it.
In the early days of aviation, flight time was limited by how much fuel a plane could carry. This changed with the introduction of aerial refueling, which vastly increased the length of time a plane could remain in the air.
The first mid-air refueling between two planes occurred in 1923 and quickly became common. As more and more pilots vied for the top spot in the record books for multiple days aloft without landing, flight records were set and broken on a regular basis.
In 1956, Doc Bailey built the “Hacienda Hotel,” a resort in Las Vegas. Business was bad because it was too far from the main action. He needed publicity. One of his slot machine repairman was a pilot who had flown bombers in World War II. Robert Timm suggested setting a world record for remaining aloft in a plane. Bailey provided financial backing, and Robert Timm spent the next year modifying a Cessna for the venture.
The plane was named the “Hacienda Hotel.” In order to avoid the feat being seen as a pure publicity stunt, a fundraiser was attached. Participants could write down how long they expected the flight to last, attach the guess to a monetary donation made out to a local cancer research group, and take a chance on winning the $10,000 first prize.
An airline mechanic who had helped modify the Cessna was chosen as the co-pilot for the stunt. John Wayne Cook was also a trained pilot. At the time they took off from McCarran Field in Las Vegas on December 4, 1958, the standing record for the longest time in the air without landing was 50 days. They would need to fly for at least 51 days.
After take-off, a chase car on the runway painted white lines on the plane’s wheels. If any scuff marks appeared before landing after the stunt, it would reveal an illicit landing.
Timm and Cook spent most of their time flying over California and Arizona, with many trips to large cities to participate in TV and radio promotional events.
They were refueled by a truck outfitted with a winch, hose, and fuel tank. The plane would fly a few feet above the truck as it traveled down a long straight stretch of road, hook the hose, attach it to the fuel tank, and turn on the pump. It took 3 minutes to fill the tank. This process was done twice a day, 128 times total, without mishap. All supplies were winched up to the plane from the truck.
Timm and Cook worked out a schedule that had them flying in four-hour shifts.
On January 23, they broke the existing record but decided to keep on flying. By the time they landed on February 7, 1959, they had been in the air for 64 days, 22 hours, and 19 minutes. They had flown a little over 150,000 miles, equivalent to six times around the Earth. The white stripe on the tires was checked by a guy in a truck on the runway before they landed to ensure no illegal landings had been made. • Along the way, they lost the generator, tachometer, autopilot, heater, landing and taxi lights, fuel gauge, fuel pump, and winch.
Afterwards, Timm returned to repairing slot machines, and Cook had a long career as a commercial pilot. Their plane now hangs above the baggage claim at McCarren International Airport in Las Vegas. The Hacienda Hotel resort closed on December 10, 1996, and was imploded on New Year’s Eve that year to make way for the construction of the Mandalay Bay resort.
