Wiley Post

In 1933, Wiley Post became the first person to successfully complete a solo circumnavigation of the globe, flying a single-engine Lockheed Vega aircraft named the *Winnie Mae*. He completed the grueling 15,596-mile journey in just seven days, 18 hours, and 49 minutes, beating the previous record he had set with a navigator. This incredible achievement cemented his status as a legend of the Golden Age of Aviation.

Wiley Post famously flew a Lockheed Vega, a high-wing monoplane that he personally purchased in 1930 and christened the *Winnie Mae*. The aircraft was originally built in 1929 and featured a powerful Pratt & Whitney Wasp engine that made it highly reliable for long-distance flights. The *Winnie Mae* is now prominently displayed at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Wiley Post was a pioneer of high-altitude flight who recognized that flying in the jet stream could drastically increase aircraft speed. To survive the extreme cold and lack of oxygen at 50,000 feet, he invented one of the world's first practical pressure suits, using an altered deep-sea diver's suit with a specially designed helmet. His experiments proved that high-altitude flight was technically viable long before pressurized cabins existed.

Wiley Post tragically died in a plane crash on August 15, 1935, near Point Barrow, Alaska. He was flying a hybrid aircraft he had built himself when the engine failed on takeoff, killing both himself and his famous passenger, the humorist Will Rogers. The crash shocked the nation, abruptly ending the life of one of America's most celebrated aviators.