April 7, 2011 — Imagine flying in your airplane once a day for 65 straight days. Now visualize one continuous flight, remaining aloft for 65 days - 1,558 consecutive hours. Refueling will be done air-to-air, oil changes on the fly, while two occupants eat, sleep
- and perform other necessary functions – in a small plane for more than two months. That’s what Matt Pipkin and his father Chet, are hoping to do sometime in the summer of 2012.
If successful the father-and-son pilots from Idaho would break the longstanding Guinness world flight endurance record of 64 days, 22 hours, 19 minutes, and 5 minutes, set by Robert Timm and John Cook, who remained aloft from December 4, 1958, to February 7, 1959, in a
Cessna 172. They were doing a promotional stunt for the Las Vegas Hacienda Hotel and Casino and when they finally landed, they had flown a distance equal to
six times around the world.
Ground to air refueling in 1958/59
(that pick-up is also a classic!)That flight gained worldwide attention and drew a crowd of spectators and media. Today the airplane hangs from the ceiling at Las Vegas McCarran Airport. (continues at
http://eaa.org/news/2011/2011-04-07_65days.asp
