“ PROVING GROUND IN THE SKY “ AVIATION ENDURANCE RECORD FLIGHTS 1958-1959 LAS VEGAS XD81825

Join this channel to get access to perks: Want to learn more about Periscope Film and get access to exclusive swag? Join us on Patreon. Visit Visit our website “Proving Ground in the Sky” () is a color, promotional film for Wynn’s Friction Proofing Products. The film follows the story of two record-breaking endurance flights that used Cessna 172 Skyhawk single-engine planes and flew for 50 and 64 days respectively non-stop. These are the stories of pilots Jim Heth and Bill Burkhart who took off from Dallas Texas in 1958 and pilots Robert Timm and John Wayne Cooke in Las Vegas who sought to break Heth and Burkhart’s record and act as a flying billboard for Hacienda Hotel in 1959. With the help of Wynn’s Friction Proofing Products these record-breaking feats were possible; the Timm-Cooke record still stands today. Cessna 172 Skyhawk flying (0:08). Title page, opening credits (0:15). Camera zooms in and scans details on plane’s side body (0:35). Refueling operation - Cessna flies roughly 20 feet off ground, uses electric winch to lower a hook and snag refueling hose (0:54). Close-up canister Wynn’s Friction Proofing oil treatment (1:10). Exterior hangar Dallas-Garland Airport (1:55). Dr. S.I. Gleason, director Wynn’s Oil Company’s R&D department, discusses preparing plane with pilots Heth, Burkhart (1:25). Interior details, changes to Cessna cockpit, fuel storage, close-up of dashboard (1:35). All parts of engine taken apart, displayed on table for careful inspection (1:48). Micrometer lowered into engine’s cylinders (2:18). Dr. Gleason and mechanic look over camshaft (2:36). Wayne Tuttle, from Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA), joins team in hangar (2:47). Testing of propeller shaft; Dr. Gleason and inspector Tuttle side by side checking all parts (3:09). Mechanics reassemble to engine parts (3:34). Three men work to place completed engine back into plane, other repair to propeller blade, inspector Tuttle adds different seals to engine interior (3:49). Plane taxis across grass airfield, makes way towards runway for inaugural take off, perhaps 1955 Chevy Bel Air, Chevy Nomads with Wynn’s employees follow suit (4:41). Flight takes off, view of Dallas city skyline (5:08). Wynn’s employee Ed Lamb prepares perhaps 1958 Chevy Apache pickup for refueling operation, truck speeds down runway (6:12). Cessna 172 Skyhawk in air, narrator details pilots’ daily routine, woman in 1950s cat eye sunglasses looks up into sky (7:27). Meteorologist scribbles down notes, tracks weather, new refueling plan devised (8:02). Wynn’s perhaps 1958 Chevy Apache delivers fuel in polyethylene containers to twin-engine Cessna 310 (8:29). View from Cessna 310 window of refueling operation (9:03). Enthusiastic crowd of locals gathered at Dallas Garland Airport, wave at camera and cheer (9:27). Plane lands after flying 1200 hours, employees in yellow Wynn’s shirts tow in plane, Heth and Burkhart’s families embrace them (9:46). Miss Texas Mary Nell Hendricks escorted by Marine Corps Honor Guard from Hensley Naval Air Station present pilots with trophies, news camera flash bulbs pop, crowd continues to cheer (10:17). Close-up pilots in suits, Gleason, Tuttle, Lamb as they receive trophies and accolades at awards ceremony in Downtown Dallas (10:47). In hangar Tuttle, Gleason inspect wear and tear to engine (11:43). Photographs and certified measurements of engine parts, close-up chart of engine compression reads (13:38). Letter from CAA on desk at Wynn Oil Company office in Azusa, California endorsing Wynn’s Friction Proofing product; other success stories with Wynn products at Indianapolis 500, Wynn’s Friction Proofing 777 Streamliner on Bonneville Salt Flats (14:41). Cessna 172 of Robert Timm, John Wayne Cook takes off from McCarran Airfield Las Vegas, shadow of plane spotted against Nevada Desert, montage footage of plane in the air (15:47). Refueling procedure, similar to that of Texas flight (17:04). Timm, Cook successfully land plane; Pilot Tim, Cook step out of cockpit and embrace family, children (17:35). The pilots stand with big smiles next to plane, receive trophies from Warren Doc Bailey president of Hacienda Hotel (18:27). Two pilots pose with cans of Wynn’s Friction Proofing Products (18:41). Timm, Cook’s Cessna 172 in front of entrance to Hacienda Hotel Las Vegas (19:12). (Note: today the aircraft is on display in the passenger terminal at McCarran International Airport.) We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment. This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit