Wiley Post

Smithsonian Air & Space ^ | July 22, 2010 | unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

On July 22, 1933, Wiley Post completed a solo flight around the world in the Lockheed 5C Vega Winnie Mae. This record-breaking flight demonstrated several significant aviation technologies. It used two relatively new aeronautical devices—an autopilot and a radio direction finder. The autopilot corrected for errors in aeronautical bearing, keeping the aircraft on course. The radio direction finder helped Post navigate the aircraft toward specific radio transmitters along the route.

Although the flight was interrupted because Post had to repair the gyroscope and a bent propeller, he set a record of seven days, 18 hours, and 49 minutes, bettering his previous around-the-world record of eight days, also set in the Winnie Mae in 1931, with navigator Harold Gatty. That flight had begun on June 23 and ended on July 1; it covered 15,474 miles. It broke the record previously held by the airship Graf Zeppelin of twenty days, four hours set in 1929...

In 1934, Post began to probe the possibilities of high-altitude, long-distance flying. The cabin of the Winnie Mae was not pressurized, however. That meant that Post, with the help of the B.F. Goodrich Company, would have to develop the world's first pressured flight suit. Post attempted numerous times in 1935 to set solo high-altitude transcontinental speed records, but none was successful. One particular attempt on March 15, however, was noteworthy. Wearing the pressurized suit and flying at an altitude of more than 30,000 feet, Post flew the Winnie Mae, now equipped with a supercharger and jettisonable landing gear, from Burbank, California to Cleveland, a distance of 2,035 miles in seven hours and 19 minutes; at times the aircraft reached a ground speed of 340 mph. This flight showed that significant speed increases could be achieved by flying at high altitudes.

[SunkenCiv]

Wiley Post set a number of records in the Winnie Mae, a Lockheed Vega. He and his navigator flew around the world in eight days. Then, he took the same trip by himself and took seven days. Post also worked with BFGoodrich to develop the world's first pressure suit in order to fly above 50,000 feet and set more records.

Wiley Post: Setting Long-Distance Records in the Winnie Mae | 1:39
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | 85.1K subscribers | 5,584 views | March 22, 2017

Transcript
0:00	·	- [Bob] Wiley Post was a very well-known aviator in the 1930s.
0:03	·	Post started his career in aviation as the personal pilot for Mr. F. C. Hall,
0:07	·	of the Phillips Petroleum Company.
0:08	·	Hall had his own private Lockheed Vega,
0:11	·	which he named after his daughter, Winnie Mae.
0:13	·	Post set so many speed records with the aircraft
0:15	·	that Hall gave the aircraft to Post.
0:18	·	With the Winnie Mae, Post started a whole career
0:21	·	of long distance flights and experimental flights.
0:24	·	Starting in 1931, he along with his navigator Harold Gatty,
0:28	·	flew around the world in just a little over eight days, setting a new record.
0:32	·	Two years after that, in July 1933,
0:34	·	Post set out this time by himself,
0:36	·	flew around the world in seven days.
0:38	·	One of the very first times an autopilot was used in an airplane,
0:42	·	which allowed him to be a lot quicker
0:44	·	and a lot more accurate in the flight.
0:46	·	In March 1935, Wiley Post took the Winnie Mae
0:49	·	to a record altitude of 50 thousand feet,
0:52	·	in an attempt to fly across the country in a record setting time.
0:55	·	Post was always interested in pushing the envelope
0:57	·	of the performance of aircraft.
0:59	·	He understood that aircraft fly faster and farther at higher altitude.
1:03	·	So he actually had his engine supercharged and it was designed to fly at 50,000 feet.
1:09	·	He was flying so high,
1:10	·	that the aircraft actually benefitted from the jet stream,
1:13	·	which was a phenomenon people did not know at the time.
1:15	·	The problem is at 50,000 feet, the aircraft was unpressurized.
1:19	·	To solve that problem, he worked with the B.F. Goodrich Company
1:22	·	to develop the world's first practical pressure suit.
1:24	·	With that pressure suit, he was able to set a speed record
1:27	·	of 340 miles an hour, which was twice the top speed
1:29	·	of a Vega normally.

[SunkenCiv]

Wiley Post's pressure suit, created for him by the B.F. Goodrich Company

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

Apollo 11 Flight Log, July 22, 1969: Firing Engines for Earth Return
By Elizabeth Howell published July 22, 2019
https://www.space.com/26598-apollo-11-flight-log-july-22-1969.html

[ComputerGuy]

I think I saw that same character in a couple of grade B sci-fi flicks.

[SunkenCiv]

Number two in Austin Powers for example.

[EnderWiggin1970]

I live in a modest town in Oklahoma (Bartlesville) - it was from this town that Post took off and set an altitude record with that monstrosity of a flight suit!

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2003/02/16/wiley-post-flew-to-aviation-fame/62057560007/

[Darksheare]

Ro-Mon, robot monster.

[mfish13]

The circumference of the earth is 24,901 miles. How did he fly around the earth and only fly 15,474 miles?

[DoubleNickle]

24,901 miles is the distance at the equator. As you move North or South in latitude, the distance decreases thus 15,474 miles is plausible.

[mfish13]

10,000 miles? I had no idea the great polar routes would save that much in distance. If we could only do that in Texas to make travel quicker.

[dagunk]

24,901 miles is the distance at the equator. As you move North or South in latitude, the distance decreases thus 15,474 miles is plausible.

38 degrees north latitude if I’m thinking right.