https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_172#Operational_history

On December 4, 1958, Robert Timm and John Cook took off from McCarran Airfield in Las Vegas, Nevada, in a used Cessna 172, registration number N9172B. They landed back at McCarran Airfield on February 4, 1959, after 64 days, 22 hours, 19 minutes and 5 seconds in flight. The flight was part of a fund-raising effort for the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund. Food and water were transferred by matching speeds with a chase car on a straight stretch of road in the desert and hoisting the supplies aboard with a rope and bucket. Fuel was taken on by hoisting a hose from a fuel truck up to the aircraft, filling an auxiliary belly tank installed for the flight, pumping that fuel into the aircraft's regular tanks and then filling the belly tank again. The drivers steered while a second person matched speeds with the aircraft with his foot on the vehicle's accelerator pedal.

Love this quote:

After a few hours in a 172, I want out. I cannot begin to imagine this.

That's gold

Me neither...

Have to be good friends to spend that long cramped up...

Says a lot for the engine! 64 x 24 = 1560 hrs



How did they change the oil???

Was the plane "airworthy" or Experimental? Usually IIRC, oil changes on small Continentals are about 30 hrs -or less. I usually went 20 IIRC.

The Key brothers flew for almost a month, in 1935.  Not my cup of tea, but it's a pretty impressive accomplishment.

Sounds like they actually just topped up the oil in flight with a hose that ran to the cabin.  Sounds like it consumed enough they could keep topping up and probably had relatively fresh oil.  That said, they did mention that they saw a noticeable power loss in the engine and that is why they ultimately stopped.

So where did they shit?  Those are small planes so that had to be awkward, then dump it out of the plane I guess.

I came here to ask this.

The pioneering long distance and endurance flights are some of the most interesting in the history of aviation.

"Question Mark", an Army Air Corps Fokker C-2A, remained aloft for over 150 hours in January 1929, through the use of aerial refueling. Even more impressive, check out her crew. 

(From Left to Right) Maj. Carl "Tooey" Spatz (before he changed the spelling of his name to "Spaatz"), Capt. Ira Eaker, Lt. Harry Halverson (later the "HAL" in the HALPRO Group from the Ploesti Raid), Lt. Pete Quesada (considered the "father" of modern Close Air Support), and Sgt. Roy Hooe.

Don't know the TBO for their engine but probably around 1500 to 2000 hrs.

I wonder if they had some way to select from a group of oil filters. There's kits to remote them so maybe the filter could be remote'd in the cabin in a protective and small enclosure in the event of a burst or leak, and operate a valve to switch between two and replace them.

IIRC, small engines like these might burn a good part of a quart an hour at mid life.

Oil filters have a spring loaded bypass for the filter media and it might have been terrible for the engine to run on unfiltered oil for a long time.

The early Continentals like the A-65 and A-85 [think that was in my first Taylorcraft decades ago didn't have provision for a filter, altho oil was changed frequently and got dirty.

The guys who did this endurance flight were no dummies and certainly had this well thought out...

It was probably like a Bear Gryllis survival episode.  They landed in the desert each night.

I can't imagine being in an airplane, especially a 172 for that long. I look at the plane every time I walk out of the terminal in LAS.


AOPA article about the flight

The plane is displayed in the baggage claim area at McCarren.

My 77 Skylane had no filter. Just a brass screen. Not unusual at all.

Awesome