4. Two Months Non-Stop In A 172

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • In 1958, aviators Bob Timm and John Cook set an unprecedented aviation endurance record.
  • They flew a specially modified Cessna 172 for 64 days, 22 hours, and 19 minutes over the American Southwest.
  • The flight required over 125 mid-air refuelings from a speeding pickup truck below.
  • The record-setting Cessna 172 is now displayed at McCarran International Airport.
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A pair of aviators, Bob Timm and John Cook, set the endurance record of all endurance records when, in 1958, they flew a specially outfitted and highly modified Cessna 172 around the desert of the American Southwest for 64 days, 22 hours and 19 minutes. During that time, they were refueled more than 125 times from a speeding pickup truck on a flat stretch of highway below. The Cessna 172 they did it in is now hanging in the rafters at McCarran International Airport. 

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