This is damn interesting.

Warren Doc Bailey was a man of the people.

When he and his wife Judy opened their Las Vegas resort in 1956,

Bailey had no plans to compete with the flashier corporate casinos at the center of the strip.

Instead, the Hacienda Hotel catered to families,

as well as to locals who wanted a night out, minus the tourists.

When connoisseurs sneered, you can either go to Las Vegas or to the hacienda,

Bailey embraced the distinction with pride.

And he didn't even mind when the nickname Hayseed Heaven took hold.

Hayseeds were hardworking folks who deserved a vacation too,

and his steady bookings proved it.

But margins were low, and Bailey was always on

the lookout for new ways to drum up publicity for his so-called low-roller operation. He didn't

care where the ideas came from. Staff at the hacienda were considered family, and Bailey regularly

asked the advice of maids, bellboys, cooks, and anyone else who might

have something useful to offer. So when a slot machine mechanic and former army pilot named

Bob Tim suggested breaking a world record, specifically the world record for the longest

endurance flight in a piloted plane, Bailey was willing to listen.

Ever since the Wright brothers first measured their airtime in seconds, pilots and mechanics have

tried to stretch the limits of how long a plane could remain in the sky. Prior to 1923, their

efforts were dictated almost entirely by the size of the fuel

tank. But in June of that year, the U.S. Army conducted its first mid-air refueling maneuver

...