Wiley Post

Biography

Wiley Hardeman Post (1898-1935) was interested in aviation from his boyhood days in Texas, and became a parachute jumper with an aerial-exhibition team. After an oil-field accident in which he lost an eye, he purchased an airplane and learned to fly it in 1927. He than became a 'barnstormer." After becoming a pilot for an Oklahoma oil man, Wiley Post flew the monoplane "Winnie Mae" to victory in the Cross-Country Derby of the 1930 National Air Races. In 1931, he and Harold Getty made a record-setting flight around the world in the "Winnie Mae." He then made the first around-the-world solo flight in 1933 in the "Winnie Mae," specially equipped with a new automatic-pilot and a radio direction finder, in 7 days, 18 hours and forty-nine and one-half minutes. Prior to that, in the early 1930s, he became intensely interested is the possibilities of long-distance, high speed flight in the stratosphere. Later he conceived and helped to design, make, and test the first fully pressurized flying suit and helmet. In 1934, wearing this outfit, he reached altitudes of 50,000 feet in the supercharged "Winnie Mae" and there discovered the jet streams. Later, he made four attempts to set a new transcontinental speed record by using his pressurized suit-and-helmet and the specially-modified "Winnie Mae" to fly in the jet streams of the stratosphere. Tragically, he and Will Rogers were killed during a vacation flight in 1935, near Point Barrow, Alaska. He was posthumously inducted into the Aviation National Hall of Fame, in Dayton, Ohio, on December 17, 1969 at the Sheraton-Dayton Hotel. The award was presented by Will Rogers Jr. and his widow, Winnie Post, of Ralls, Texas, accepted the award. A presentation film was narrated by Lowell Thomas, and his Hall of Fame portrait was done by Milton Caniff, creator of the "Terry and the Pirates" and "Steve Canyon" comic strips. (The aircraft "Winnie Mae" was named for the daughter of the Oklahoma oil man who owned the ship, and was not named after his wife, whom he met in Sweetwater, Texas while barnstorming.) His Hall of Fame plaque reads: To Wiley Hardeman Post, for outstanding contributions to aviation by his flights around the world that demonstrated the practicality of new flight-related equipment, and for conceiving and proving the feasibility of the fully pressurized flying suit, this award is most solemnly and respectfully dedicated." His 'flying-suit' is on display at the Smithsonian.