Wiley Post

Wiley Post (1931)

Wiley Hardeman Post (born November 22, 1898 in Van Zandt County , † August 15, 1935 in Point Barrow ) was an American pilot who made the first solo flight around the earth in 1933.

After losing an eye in an oil field accident in the mid-1920s, he used the compensation to buy his first plane.

In 1931 he set a record for circumnavigating the world together with the navigator Harold Gatty . With the airplane Lockheed 5C Vega "Winnie Mae" they circled the globe in 8 days, 15 hours and 51 minutes (waypoints: New York, Newfoundland, England, Germany, Russia, Alaska, New York).

On July 15, 1933, he took off from Long Island for the first solo flight around the globe. The "Winnie Mae" was equipped with the first autopilot . He returned after a flight of 7 days, 18 hours and 49 minutes.

In 1934 he and Russell S. Colley of Goodrich Corporation developed the first practical pressure suit . On September 5, 1934, he reached an altitude of 40,000 feet (approx. 12,000 m) over Chicago. This enabled him to fly in the jet stream.

In 1935 he built a new aircraft from the wreckage of a Lockheed Orion and a Lockheed Explorer, with which he set off on a flight through Alaska at the request of his friend Will Rogers . On August 15, 1935, they were on the flight from Fairbanks to Point Barrow. On the way they landed on a lagoon to ask for directions. Immediately after the restart, the engine stopped, probably due to an empty tank. In the following crash, both aircraft occupants were killed.

In his honor, the airport were Bethany ( Oklahoma ) "Wiley Post Airport" and the airport Barrow ( Alaska ) "Wiley Post-Will Rogers Memorial Airport" named, and in the town of Barrow was on 15 August 1982, a monument "in memory of Will Rogers and Wiley Post ”.

Picture gallery

Post (left) with Harold Gatty in front of the “Winnie Mae”, Berlin-Tempelhof, June 1931
Will Rogers on the wing and Wiley Post in foreground with eye patch, Fairbanks, August 1935
Wiley Post with a self-developed pressure suit for soaring highs, Los Angeles, June 1934
Third execution at Wright Field, August 1934
Dayton, Ohio, August 1934

Web links

Commons : Wiley Post - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Stanley R. Mohler, Bobby H. Johnson: Wiley Post, His Winnie Mae, and the World's First Pressure Suit. (PDF; 8.9 MB) Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, 1971, accessed on August 9, 2015 .

personal data
SURNAME	Post, Wiley
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Post, Wiley Hardeman
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American pilot
DATE OF BIRTH	November 22, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH	Van Zandt County
DATE OF DEATH	August 15, 1935
Place of death	Point Barrow

[1] Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2

[Smith_Post-2] Stanley R. Mohler, Bobby H. Johnson: Wiley Post, His Winnie Mae, and the World's First Pressure Suit. (PDF; 8.9 MB) Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, 1971, accessed on August 9, 2015 .