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Robert Woodhouse & Woodrow P. Jongeward

Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame
Enshrined 1991

Robert Woodhouse, born in Anaheim, California and Woodrow Jongeward, born in Elk River, Minnesota, brought international recognition to Yuma, Arizona in 1949. Ex-Navy pilots, they established a new world endurance flight record of 1124 hours and 17 minutes. A Yuma newspaper reported that their feat “put Yuma on the map as no other single promotion or news event has ever done.”

Flying a two-place Aeronca named “City of Yuma” and powered by a 145 horsepower Continental engine, the pair took off August 24, 1949, from Yuma County Airport. They landed there on October 10 after more than 46 days aloft. Several times a day during the flight, ground crews riding in a speeding car, transferred fuel and food as the pilots’ maneuvered their aircraft alongside at precariously low levels. A support team of 600 people was required for this highly coordinated enterprise which was a punishing test of both men and machine.