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As long as an early August flight to Orlando with 10 screaming babies behind you might
seem, it’s not the longest flight in history.
In fact, the longest flight ever is not even the 8,000 mile trip from Dubai to San Francisco
or even the 9,000 mile flight from Auckland to Doha.
It wasn’t even that time when Pakistan International Airlines flew from Hong Kong to London the
wrong way round or even that time in 2005 when a pilot circumnavigated the world from
Kansas to Kansas non-stop or even that time in 2006 when the same pilot flew from Florida
to England with an extra circumnavigation for good measure.
The longest flight in history started in 1958 in a single engine Cessna 172 over the skies
of New Mexico and didn’t end until 1959.
In 1956, the Hacienda hotel opened in Las Vegas, Nevada, but it had a problem.
It really wasn’t in a good place.
I mean a good place within Vegas, animator.
All the popular casinos were over a mile north so the owners desperately needed publicity.
Luckily, one of the slot machine mechanics, Robert Timm, came up with an idea.
He was going to break the flight endurance record and the Hacienda hotel was going to
help.
In exchange for prominently painting “Hacienda” on the side of the plane, the owners of the
hotel gave Timm $100,000 to fund the flight.
Now with money, Robert Timm bought a used Cessna 172 and got to work on some modifications.
He installed an extra 95 gallon fuel tank, modified the oil lines so he could replace
the oil while in flight, and removed everything from the interior but the pilot’s seat.
He then put a small mattress in the front and a small sink in the rear and lastly, he
replaced the engine with a brand new one and he was good to go.
But then he received some bad news.
Jim Heath and Bill Burkhart had just landed their plane in Dallas after 50 days in the
air.
The record to beat was now four days longer.
But the good news was that Timm found a co-pilot, John Cook—no, not Professional Golfer John
Cook or former mayor of El Paso John Cook, this John Cook, experienced airline pilot
and mechanic John Cook.
The pair finished up their alterations and then took off on National Cookie Day—that’s
December 4th if you’re out of the know—bound for nowhere but the record books.
For the first few days they flew the plane just around Las Vegas so they would have an
airport to land at in case of issues, but soon after they ventured south to fly over
the deserts of California and Arizona.
But what I’m sure you’re wondering is how they refueled.
They didn’t do air to air refueling and it wasn’t a solar powered airplane or anything
like that.
Robert Timm and John Cook refueled their airplane on their record breaking attempt by matching
speed with a pickup truck and dropping a fuel line down.
For a full three minutes twice per day the truck and plane went along a deserted stretch
of highway like that.
For food, the restaurant of the Hacienda Hotel prepared gourmet meals that were hoisted up
to the airplane by rope.
The pair took turns flying for four hours, then sleeping for the next four.
The flight initially went smoothly.
Christmas and the new year came and went with no major mechanical issues, but the isolation
and exhaustion from the flight started to get to the pilots.
Cessna’s are small and loud—hardly a good home for weeks upon weeks.
On day 36, the pair narrowly avoided disaster.
In the early hours of the morning Cook was having his rest while Timm was in the pilot
seat flying the plane, until he dozed off.
Luckily the autopilot was engaged so the plane flew for a full hour halfway to the Mexican
border before Timm woke up.
On day 39 the generator failed which meant the plane had no heat, no light, and no autopilot.
But they were nearing the record.
11 more days of flying passed, then, on day 50, January 23rd, the Hacienda Cessna 172
broke the record for the longest continuous flight in history, but they weren’t done
yet.
Timm and Cook pressed on, determined to make their record last.
As 50 days became 60 the engine started to become weaker and weaker as carbon clogged
the combustion chambers and they could barely gain any altitude.
It was time to land.
So, on February 7th, 1959, after 64 days, 22 hours, and 19 minutes and 150,000 miles
of flying, the Hacienda Cessna 172 touched back down at McCarren Field and cemented its
place in the record books, a record that still stands today.
If you want to break the flight endurance record, you'll need a solid grasp of the fundamental
forces of flight like lift and drag.
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