Maybe you ’ve never heard of theHacienda Hotel , but you may have seen a Cessna 172 with “ Hacienda ” plastered on the side in large , goofy letters hanging in the Las Vegas airport . They ’re link .
The carpenter’s plane ’s possessor puzzle out at the Hacienda , and , along with a co - pilot light , set the record for thelongest manned , refuel flightin 1959 by journey 150,000 international mile without set down .
Here ’s how ( and why ) they did it .
Back in the ’ 50s , the Hacienda ’s owner had big ideas about function a family hotel in mobster overrun Las Vegas . Known as “ Hayseed Heaven , ” amongst nightclub voguish depreciator disregard it from the relative gaudiness of the Strip , the Hacienda sit alone on moth-eaten , vacant land to the south of township .
Hacienda was a low - sawbuck joint at the sentence — probably something like the place where Clark Griswoldplayed war in Vegas Vacation . But Judy and Warren “ Doc ” Bailey recollect that it would take off eventually . In 1958 , hop to earn some family - favorable publicity for his hotel , Doc Bailey backed an endurance trajectory . A slot machine shop mechanic name Bob Timm and an airline pilot named John Wayne Cook broke the world phonograph recording on Jan. 23 , 1959 . When they finally land , they ’d been in the air around Southern Nevada , California , and Arizona for 64 days , 22 hours , and 19 proceedings .
The record still remain firm today . In fact , it endure longer than the Hacienda , which was razed in 1996 to make way for the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino . ( turn out Doc Bailey ’s intuition about the south ending of Vegas was good , even if his hotel was n’t . )
Timm had really tried three other time to give way the record in the Cessna in 1958 , but none of those trajectory lasted more than about 15 days . molest with mechanically skillful problems , he also did n’t see eye to centre with his first co - pilot — not expert considering they were to expend a match of months shoulder to shoulder in a very small distance . During one of those proto - flight , the sky get off up with vast flash as the war machine blow up a nuclear turkey above ground . The attack came before too many multitude pull in what a terrible approximation that was .
Just now , you ’re probably thinking to yourself , “ Self , how the hell to two fully grown men stay cooped up inside such a flyspeck plane for that prospicient ? ” That ’s a good question , and one that deserves a not - so - round-eyed answer . The brusk answer is that their plane needed a lot of modifications , which remove a yr to finish . Here ’s what they did :
Fuel And Oil
First , there was the takings of fueling . They installed a 95 - gallon belly tank on the plane , bringing the carpenter’s plane ’s total fuel capacity to 142 gallons . The belly armored combat vehicle could be refueled mid - air by grabbing a hose from refuel truck with a hook and a winch . An galvanic ticker transferred fuel up into the extension tank .
They refueled twice a day by arranging meetings with the tanker truck . Whoever was in the co - pilot seat hung a piffling program out the windowpane between the fuselage and the wing strut so that he could ill-treat outside the plane and refuel ( the political program was also used to wipe the windshield ) . The setup worked pretty well ; 128 time as a matter of fact . The only hairy fueling they reported was when they had to do one at night once .
There was no agency they could cheat and set down at another airdrome to refuel without getting caught . briefly after put-on , a guy sit in an open Ford Thunderbird convertible had painted a blanched streak on the landing cycle , and that could never be attain from the cockpit , even with the little political platform attached .
Timm had replumbed the plane ’s oil lines to that engine oil filter could be convert without shutting down the locomotive . Unfortunately , the author crapped out on daytime 39 , so they had to expend a handpump to move fuel up to the wings for the remainder of the flight .
Eating, Sleeping And Bathing
While Timm and Cook could have gone 64 days without washup or shaving ( sight of backpackers have done it ) , they could n’t fly for that long without sleeping . But they did bathe and sleep . The carbon monoxide - pilot ’s rump had been removed , and the swinge fuselage door replaced with an accordion - fold door for loose entrance and exit while the plane was in flight of steps . There was a minuscule sink inside the plane for shave and tooth brushing , but bathing was done with a quart feeding bottle of water outside on the platform . Can you envisage standing naked and sloshed outside of a moving aeroplane ? It was quite the chore for Timm , who angle the scales at 240 pound .
There was a cushion launch the length of the fuselage for sleep , but neither humanity reported sleeping very well . It was nearly impossible to sleep during the day , and the changeless tumult of engine noise made it difficult to log Z’s at any metre of the day or night . One dark , Timm drowse off for an hour , wake up up at 4 a.m. in a canon somewhere between Blythe , Calif. and Yuma , Ariz. fortuitously , the automatic pilot was still working at the time .
food for thought was prepared by the Hacienda ’s kitchen . They used only the freshest , healthiest intellectual nourishment available , but before it ended up on the plane , it was ground up and put into a thermos flask so that it could be passed up to the cockpit more easily . That ’s actually how they got H2O , towels , and laundry , too . , from the supplying hand truck during refueling running game .
Keeping Busy
Timm and Cook kept their radius within a comfortable distance of their Las Vegas home foot , often refueling in Blythe ( a desert town on theCalifornia - Arizona border ) or swinging out to Yuma , Palm Springs , or Los Angeles . There was n’t a lot to do up there , but they restrain themselves occupied by leafing through funny books , doing exercises fit for a solitary labor cell , and play those halting counting - things games the great unwashed play when they ’re on foresightful , dull route trip . Too bad they did n’t have book - on - tapeline back then .
On Christmas , Timm sent confect cane earthward to his 6 - year - onetime son by tying small chute to them and dropping them out the window while they were cruise over the airfield .
Miraculously , neither of them sound on a all - work - and - no - frolic - makes - jack - a - tedious - boy violent disorder during what sounds like knot after dateless mile of mind dull desert flyover .
Although they broke the record on Jan. 23 , the pair decide to continue aloft for another 17 days , just to check that no one else took their book after they ’d sat in an airplane for so long . No one else tried , so it ended up not matter . But still , well safe than deplorable .
After the flight ’s successful conclusion , Timm pop off back to workplace fixing time slot machines , and Cook render to air hose piloting . Timm slide by away in 1978 and Cook in 1995 . Their woodworking plane had been sell to a guy rope in Canada not long after Timm and Cook correct the record , but has since made its manner back to Las Vegas , where it has a place of honor display in the rafter of McCarran International Airport . ( Hat point to Craig ! )
exposure credit : Wikipedia;onlinenevada.org ; Hacienda Hotel viaHistory of Flight
World Record
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