Insane, fun story to read :)
The longest ever flight was 64 days in a Cessna 172 (2021)
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Re: The longest ever flight was 64 days in a Cessna 172 (2021)
#12That's amazing. I get in-air refueling, but the fact that the two pilots managed to live in this tiny space, performing tasks that I'm sure very quickly became repetitive and monotonous, listening to the engine, peeing in a bottle, etc. for two months is truly outrageous.
> When asked by a reporter if he would ever replicate the stunt, Cook replied: “Next time I feel in the mood to fly endurance, I’m going to lock myself in a garbage can with the vacuum cleaner running, and have Bob serve me T-bone steaks chopped up in a thermos bottle. That is, until my psychiatrist opens for business in the morning.” https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2008/march/pilo...
The part that made me chuckle outlaid was about hygiene...
> The danger of in-flight bathing
> In his diary, John Cook wrote, “We got a quart of bath water, a large towel and soap every other day.”
> On January 12, 1959, after refueling chores, Timm removed his clothes and stepped out onto the platform for a refreshing sponge bath. He started by brushing his teeth. Just then Cook realized that the airplane wasn’t going to clear an upcoming ridge if the platform wasn’t pulled in. Cook yelled at Timm to pull in the platform and later told of seeing his partner struggling to complete that task—buck naked, and weighing 240 pounds, with a toothbrush sticking out of one side of his mouth and toothpaste streaming out of the other. They cleared the ridge but learned to delay hygienic activities until they were over flatter terrain.
Re: The longest ever flight was 64 days in a Cessna 172 (2021)
#13I spent what felt like 64 days in a Cessna 172 one afternoon. Or maybe it was a 152 :)
Re: The longest ever flight was 64 days in a Cessna 172 (2021)
#14Just this year, an uncrewed Airbus Zephyr 8 High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite crashed just 4 hours shy of the time aloft for this crewed record.
It’s 82 feet long but only 166 pounds, and solar refuels it’s batteries. Hardly the same class, but interesting nonetheless.
https://www.overtdefense.com/2022/08/20/airbus-zephyr-crashe...
Re: The longest ever flight was 64 days in a Cessna 172 (2021)
#15I was expecting to read that this was only the longest manned flight, but it seems that the record for unmanned/unrefueled flight via a solar-powered plane is a bit less. That flight took place earlier this year and the drone vanished over the Arizona desert just hours before the record: https://simpleflying.com/airbus-zephyr-flight-ends/ . Clearly the government of Nevada contracted the aliens at Area 51 to ensure the integrity of their airport's tourist attraction.
Re: The longest ever flight was 64 days in a Cessna 172 (2021)
#16FYI: that's 85% of the design life of the Continental O-300 engine in that aircraft (1,800 hours time-before-overhaul).
And that's largely why this mission came to an end at this particular duration - the engine had degraded too much from the continuous use, it was barely delivering enough power to stay airborne.
Re: The longest ever flight was 64 days in a Cessna 172 (2021)
#17FYI: that's 85% of the design life of the Continental O-300 engine in that aircraft (1,800 hours time-before-overhaul).
> 1,800 hours time-before-overhaul
That’s surprising! Do you mean the entire life of the engine, or just one run? If the former, doesn’t that get expensive? I imagine that’s not very sustainable.
Re: The longest ever flight was 64 days in a Cessna 172 (2021)
#18For me, it's crazy they were able to stay that long time with the engine noise. Also, there's no that much space to stretch and doing some exercise. As the article says, most likely there aren't more people who want to try to beat it.
It really likely is one of those "never will be beaten" records because anyone sane would do it in a B-52 bomber and have some room to stretch out - but everyone would immediately know it wasn't quite as "real" as being stuck in a plane the size of a Volkswagen bug for 2 months.
I dread to think how much would it cost to fly that thing for 24*64 hours
Re: The longest ever flight was 64 days in a Cessna 172 (2021)
#19Funny seeing this here. I've been going through the past episodes of a podcast, Futility Closet, and they covered this:
https://www.futilitycloset.com/2018/03/05/podcast-episode-19...
Re: The longest ever flight was 64 days in a Cessna 172 (2021)
#20Just this year, an uncrewed Airbus Zephyr 8 High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite crashed just 4 hours shy of the time aloft for this crewed record. It’s 82 feet long but only 166 pounds, and solar refuels it’s batteries. Hardly the same class, but interesting nonetheless. https://www.overtdefense.com/2022/08/20/airbus-zephyr-crashe...
It didn't crash, it just "experienced circumstances that ended its current flight", hah.
I realize we'll never hear about it, but I'd be very interested to see what caused it.