The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is a fourseat, high-wing, single-engine aircraft, made in the United States. Since 1955, more Cessna 172s have been built than any other aircraft, over 43,000 and counting. Almost 60 years ago, Robert Timm and co-pilot John Cook kept this rugged propeller-driven beauty continuously airborne for a mind-numbing 64 days, 22 hours, 19 minutes and 5 seconds. Their record still stands.

Robert Elgin Timm was born on March 8, 1926, in Nora Springs, Iowa. During World War II he served as a bomber pilot. Since he loved to fly, he wanted to continue as a commercial pilot. However, fate took him to the Hacienda Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas to work as a slot machine mechanic. When the Hacienda’s owner Warren Bayley asked his employees for ideas on how to advertise the hotel, Timm suggested an endurance flight. They could paint ‘Hacienda Hotel’ on the side of an aircraft and news reports of the record attempt would automatically attract publicity for the resort. Bayley was enthusiastic and provided $1,00,000 in support.

A Cessna 172 was bought from Alamo Airways. Major modifications were made, including installation of a 95-gallon belly tank for extra fuel, with an electrical pump to transfer fuel to the wing tanks. New avionics included a Narco Omnigator Mk II and a Mitchell autopilot. Provision was made for quick change of the engine oil and oil filters with the engine running. However, three attempts to set an endurance record came to naught due to mechanical failures – refuelling issues, a clogged fuel filter and engine knocking. Timm also realised that he needed a co-pilot with whom he could click. He finally found John Wayne Cook, a young pilot with a fair amount of experience who was a certified mechanic. Meanwhile on September 21, 1958, another pair of pilots had increased the endurance record to 50 days, 16 minutes. Timm and Cook would have to remain airborne even longer.

Their flight commenced on December 4, 1958, at 3:52 p.m. at McCarran Airport, Las Vegas. Soon after getting airborne they made a low pass over a chase vehicle for white stripes to be painted on their tyres with a large roller. If they should attempt a clandestine landing for rest, recuperation or repairs at any time during the marathon flight, the special marks would get erased or defaced.

Refuelling was naturally their main concern. Most previous endurance marks had been set by refuelling from another aircraft. This was a tricky and expensive procedure and Timm preferred groundto-air replenishment. Twice a day, a special truck fitted with a reservoir, fuel pump and other equipment would race along a straight stretch of desert road. A winch would be lowered from the Cessna flying just above the truck to grab its fuel hose which would then be inserted in the plane’s belly tank. The high-powered pump needed about three minutes to fill the tank. From there fuel could be transferred to the wing tanks when needed. It took a fair amount of skill and high-speed coordination since the Cessna cruises at 226 kmph and stalls at 87 kmph. The procedure was repeated about 128 times during the long flight.

With the plane replenished, the pilots’ needs had to be seen to. Food, water and other supplies were winched up in the same way. They were fed sumptuous meals by the Hacienda’s chefs. Washing and shaving was comfortable at the small sink. An exterior platform on the right of the aircraft served as a bathing spot for the occasional bath. A foldable camp toilet, plastic bags and larges expanses of uninhabited desert solved the problem of human waste. And a four-foot-by-fourfoot mat served as a cramped bed. Every four hours one pilot slept while the other flew, attended to necessary chores and got some exercise. The autopilot was a great help while it remained serviceable.

Flying at night was particularly challenging because of the sparsely lighted desert. They had a close call before dawn on Day 36, January 9, 1959. It was Cook’s turn to rest and Timm fell asleep at the controls. Fortunately they were flying at 4,000 feet and the wing-leveller type autopilot did its job and saved their lives. They later lost the autopilot – just one of a series of instruments and other equipment that quit one after the other. By the time they were done the generator, tachometer, cabin heater, landing and taxi lights, belly tank fuel gauge, electrical fuel pump and winch had all stopped working. They most keenly felt the absence of the heater since it was deep winter, but they survived with the help of blankets.

Cook made daily entries in a diary. Its pages gradually began to reveal the deleterious effects of loss of sleep, high noise level, mental and physical fatigue, inactivity and sheer boredom. January 23, 1959, was a red-letter day when the flight endurance record became theirs. By now the spark plugs and combustion chambers were getting clogged with carbon, and engine power was severely reducing. But record setting has a rationale of its own and rather than quit they decided to keep flying as long as they could. They finally landed on February 7, 1959, and had to be physically lifted out of the Cessna. They had flown over 2,40,000 kilometres non-stop, equal to about six times around the Earth at the equator.

Apart from the record itself, an important outcome was that the American public finally began to accept that if a light private plane could remain airborne for over two months without mishap, private aircraft operations were indeed safe and reliable. Robert Timm died on July 3, 1976 and John Cook on October 25, 1995, both in Las Vegas. The Hacienda Hotel was demolished in December 1996.