Two decades earlier, a previous record holder, the Curtis Robin Ole Miss, stayed in the air for 27 days using real aerial refueling: https://airandspace.si.edu/

Two decades earlier, a previous record holder, the Curtis Robin Ole Miss, stayed in the air for 27 days using real aerial refueling: https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/curtiss-robin-j-1-deluxe/nasm_A19560041000 https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/curtiss-robin-... Fred and Al Key, brothers who owned an airfield together, flew the record plane, two other men (James Keeton and William Ward) flew the refueling plane. In order to make the refueling safe, the Keys had designed a breakaway spill valve to prevent a disconnection from spilling fuel, the forerunner to the modern aerial refueling system. The trickiest thing to me about what the Keys did was oil changes, which they needed to do every three days. They rigged up a metal catwalk around their engine, so that Fred could walk out and change the oil from the outside while the plane was still flying (they had two oil systems, each of which could lubricate the entire plane, so every three days they turned off the oil system on one side, Fred climbed out, drained the oil out on the ground- it's the 1930's, no one needs environmental impact statements!) closed the valve and refilled the oil tank, then they turned on that side and turned off the other side and did it again a few hours later when that oil had cooled. Both Fred and Al joined the USAAF during World War Two and flew bomber missions over Germany. Al stayed in the Air Force after the war and ended up as a Colonel.