Jeepsters and the Sunkist Lady

UPDATE: This Jeepster photo is making the rounds on Facebook; this post provides a little more info.

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Posted December 24, 2020: This article provides more information about this stunt Jeepster and plane. It was published in the March 20, 1949, issue of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

1949-03-20-fort-worth-star-telegram-jeep-jockey-endurance-jeepster-plane1-lores

1949-03-20-fort-worth-star-telegram-jeep-jockey-endurance-jeepster-plane2-lores

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Originally Published Dec 8, 2012:

The Sunkist Lady was an Aeronca 15AC Sedan airplane flown by Dick Riedel and Bill Barris used to set a world-record for endurance flight. They spent a total of 1008 hours and 2 minutes aboard the airplane, ending their flight in April of 1949. Unfortunately for them, their record was broken six months later.

What makes this relevant for jeep fans was that to keep the plan in the air, the crew used Jeepsters borrowed from local dealers to race down the airport runway so the crew could hand fuel and food to the two pilots.

Thanks to Colin for forwarding the story!

Here is a link to a story and a video about the flight (124 MB): http://www.cityoffullerton.com/depts/airport/the_sunkist_lady.asp

Here is a second article: http://vintageairphotos.blogspot.com/2012/03/saga-of-sunkist-lady.html. The picture below is from that article.

2 Comments

Allan J. KnepperDecember 24, 2020 at 5:23 PM
What a great story.......and yes.....my first thought was......how do you make a Jeepster go that fast ! It was great to see Aeronca and Willys in the same story. My brother and I went to Missouri two years ago to an estate auction. I hoped to come home with an Empire tractor project and possibly one of several other Willys pulled out of the woods and lined up along the fence. I was the winning ?? bidder on the Empire. Also came home with the aluminum nose off a small aircraft......just thought it was cool with the sculptured nose and two small cast aluminum grilles on each side of the opening for the prop. When I was unloading and showing my other brother.......he said "hey, cool nose from an old Aeronca"!! So now the Aeronca nose hangs on my shop wall overlooking the stalled Empire/Willys project.
Roger S. So. OregonDecember 24, 2020 at 5:51 PM
Not trying to bash lawyers, but those were the days! You could order a new Cessna 195 from Witchita back in the early 50's without an engine. Buy a war surplus Jacobs radial engine, drive it to the Wichita factory, install it in there parking area and fly it home. Can you even imagine? I have a good friend of mine that lived on the Fullerton airport during the 50's & 60's. I'll have to ask him what he's heard, but he wasn't born until early 50's. His parents owned the Piper and Cessna sales there and had an on field motel with a house. He talks about being around 14 years old and taking joy rides, flying his buddy's to Catalina Island and nobody really caring that he didn't have a license or even ask to barrow the plane. LOl For some weird reason, I thought that Aeronca stunt was done in Yuma. Guess I need to re-read that story again sometime.