Wiley Post Stand Alongside his Lockheed Vega, The Winnie Mae
at Floyd Bennett Airfield, Brooklyn , New York
8 days and 15 hours and 51 minutes later, on July 1, they arrived back after covering 15, 474 miles setting a new world record for around the world flight. Until then, the record was held by Hugo Eckener flying a Graf Zeppelin with a time of 21 days.
He had lunch at the White House on July 6th and the following day rode in a ticker-tape parade in New York City.
On July 15, 1933, flying solo with an auto-pilot to aid in navigation, Post took off from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, NY, to again set a world record by circumnavigating the globe in 7 days and 19 hours; this time he cut off 21 hours off his previous record.
On this flight he made 11 stops and, despite inclement Atlantic weather, flew non-stop from New York to Berlin in a record time of 26 hours.
Over 50,000 people greeted him as he landed at Floyd Bennett. For this accomplishment he was again given a ticker tape parade in New York.
Next year Post began exploring high- altitude long distance flight with the financial support of Frank Phillips of the Phillips Petroleum Company. He developed a pressure suit that allowed him to pilot an aircraft and reach an altitude of 50, 000 feet and fly in the jet stream.
However, he was only partially successful in a number of non-stop transcontinental flights because of mechanical failures. On one flight he flew from Los Angeles to Cleveland, Ohio, a distance of 2035 miles, at an average ground speed of 279 mph in a 179 MPH aircraft!
Post and Will Rogers perished in a flight up in Alaska as Post began surveying a mail-and-passenger route from the West Coast to Russia.
The author wishes to thank not only Wikipedia, but also acepilots.com for their in-depth coverage of the key events in Post's adventurous life.
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