Thursday, an article about Wiley Post came up in front of me. Today, July 22, is the 90th anniversary of Wiley's becoming the first pilot to go around the world solo. He also set a speed record on the trip.
Wiley Post was born Nov 22, 1898 on a cotton farm near Grand Saline, Texas. His mother was said to be of mixed Cherokee heritage. Wiley finished 6th grade and he and his family moved to Oklahoma. This is where Wiley saw his first airplane in 1913. He enrolled in an aviation school in Kansas City for 7 months. He wanted to become a pilot for WW1 but the war ended before his training was over. Bad luck followed Wiley with jobs and he ended up in a reformatory for a year after he resorted to armed robbery. By 1926, he was a parachutist on a barnstorming circuit. He worked for awhile on an oil rig but was blinded in one eye after a piece of metal pierced it. He used the settlement money he received to buy his first airplane. It was also about this time that he met and became good friends with Will Rogers, a well known entertainer, humorist and newspaper columnist.
Wiley became the personal pilot for a few wealthy oilmen which allowed him to have access to some of the faster aircraft of the time. This was also a time when many aviation records were being set. Wiley set several. His first one was a speed record, NY to LA in 9 hours, 8 minutes, 2 seconds on Aug 27, 1930. On June 23, 1931, Wiley and a navigator set the record for an around the world trip in a fixed wing aircraft. 8 days, 15 hours and 51 minutes. 15,474 miles. His next record was another around the world trip but this time solo in 7 days, 18 hours and 49 minutes on July 22, 1933.
But Wiley wasn't finished yet, In 1934, his attentions turned to high altitude flying and helped develop the first viable pressure suit. His first flight in the suit enabled him to reach 40,000 ft. and later 50,000 ft. This suit is on display at the National Air and Space Museum. Apparently, the jetstream was discovered during his high altitude flights as well. In 1935, Wiley attempted 4 high altitude non stop flights from LA to NY but all failed due to mechanical difficulties.
Wiley's final flight came on Aug 15, 1935, when he took his friend Will Rogers on a trip from Seattle to Alaska. They came upon some bad weather and landed in a lagoon near Point Barrow, Alaska to fix their location and get directions. ""On takeoff, the engine failed at low altitude, and the aircraft, uncontrollably nose-heavy at low speed, plunged into the lagoon, shearing off the right wing, and ended up inverted in the shallow part. Both men died instantly."" Wiley was 36 years old. And he accomplished all of this as a one eyed pilot.
I thought "I think I have some Posts in my family tree, let's check Wiley's family out". So I did and did not find him related to any of the Posts that I had, BUT he did end up being related to me. This frequently happens when I look into some of the interesting people that I read about. This time we go all the way back to the year 1474 to find the common ancestor! I know that is stretching the envelope a bit for a connection, but the search is fascinating. We can track our connection thru Great Grandad Ralph Arnold to his mother Elnorah Amos, then to Sarah Mower (wife of our only Civil War ancestor), and back 13 more generations to a couple named Sir Thomas Sayre born in 1474 in Podington, Bedford, England and his wife Margaret Fairfax born in 1476 in Yorkshire, England. All this making Wiley a 12th cousin 5 times removed to us.
Images found at Wikipedia.
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