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THE PILOT

Name : Wiley Hardeman Post
Date of Birth : 22 November 1898
Place : Grand Saline, in the Van Zandt County, Texas, USA.
Age at the time of the flight : 33 years
Nationality : American
Licences: Commercial
Death : 15 August 1935
Place: 12 miles from Point Barrow in Alaska after a take off accident from a lagoon.

THE AEROPLANE

Name : Winnie Mae
Registration : NR-105-W
Made : Lockheed 5C
Type: Vega (All Lockeed had stars or constellations names).
Engine : Pratt and Whitney , Wasp with 7 cylindres, 420 HP
Length : 27 ft. 6 in.
Wing span : 41 ft.
Heigh : 8 ft. 2 in.
Type of construction : Monocoque, glued Spruce, high wing, tail wheel.
Empty weight : 2,595 lb.
Maximum weight : 2918 lbs
Maximum fuel quantity : 645 gallons
Waximum weight for long flights : 3,207 lbs.

THE FLIGHT

Departure point : Floyd Bennet Field (New York)
Date : 15 July 1933
Finish point : Floyd Bennet Field
Date : 22 July 1933
Duration : 186 hours, 49.5 minutes (7 days, 18 hours, 49.5 minutes ) short by 21 hours on the 1931 flight with Gatty.
Flying time : 115 hours, 36.5 minutes
Average speed : 156 mph.
Length of the flight : 13 560 NM
Stops : New York, Harbor Grace (Newfoundland), Templehof (Berlin), Moscow, Novossibirsk (Russia), Irkusk, Khabarosk, Flat (Alaska), Fairbanks, Edmonton (Canada), New York.

Incidents/accidents : Several breakdown of the auto pilot. A bad landing at Flat (Alaska), where the short field ended in a ditch. Winnie Mae nosed over, damaging the propeller and the landing gear.

Records : No records, the flight was shorter than the minimum imposed by the FAI that is the length of the Tropic of Cancer : 36 787, 559 km.

Other acheivements : That was Post second flight around the world. The first one took place in 1931 with Harold Gatty as navigator.
Length of the first flight : 15 671 Nm
Total time : 207 hours, 51 minutes or 8 days, 15 hours and 51 minutes of which 107 were flying hours.
Firsts :
First aviator to fly solo around the world.
First aviator to fly twice around the world.
First aviator to fly non stop from New York to Berlin.
Sponsors: F.C. Hall, a industrialist and oil prospector.
Awards :
Harmon Trophy in 1933, ( Click here for the list of the Harmon Trophy recipients : http://www.nasm.edu/nasm/aero/trophy/harmon.htm ).
Gold Medal of the F.A.I.,
Congress Gold Medal.

BIBLIOGRAPHY   AND   SOURCES

Books:

Berliner Don, Distant Flights, Lerner, 1990, Minneapolis, ISBN 0-8225-1589-X. Small book for young readersdescribing some of the most famous flights : Blériot, Alcock, Post , Brooke, etc.

Brown Bruce, Gatty: Prince of Navigators, Tasmania,1998, Libra Books, Biography of Gatty.

Burke Bob, From Oklahoma to Eternity: The Life of Wiley Post and the Winnie Mae,1998, Oklahoma Heritage, Oklahoma City. ISBN 1-885596-07-3. The life of Post from Texas to Alaska. Many photos;one map, bibliography.

Gatty, Harold, The Raft Book, Survival book, written during WWII. It is now a collector's item.

Sterling B. Bryan et Sterling N. Frances, Will Rogers & Wiley Post : Death at Barrow, New York, 1993, M. Evans & Co Publishing, ISBN 0-87131-725-7 The accident that killed Post andt Rogers told by historians of Rogers. Good biography on Post. No maps.

Stringfellow, Curtis K. and Bowers Peter M.,Lockheed Constellations, 1992, Osceola WI, MBI Publishing Co, ISBN 0-87938-379-8 A short chapter on the origins of the Lockheed Company and the first Vega.

Taylor, Richard L., The First Solo Flight Around the World, The story of Wiley Post and his airplane, the Winnie Mae. Franklin Watts, New york, 1993, New York. ISBN 0 531 20160 0 Small book for young readers with a good description of Post's flight, with photos and a map. Some of the conversions into the metric are wrong. Bibliography.

Wiley Post et Gatty, Harold, Around the World in Eight Days, ( The Flight of the Winnie Mae), Orion Books, 1931, 1989, New York. ISBN 0 517 57352 0. Book written by Post and Gatty, probablemeny with help from Leo Kieran does not cover the solo flight since it was written before, but the flight with Gatty as navigator in 1931 and gives a good idea of the two men and of the aircraft. Post will follow the same route in his solo flight in 1933. A good autobiography of the two men.

Most of these books, including out of print books, are available from Barnes & Noble :

Magazines:

Cox Jack, Sportsman Pilot, Volume 18, Number 2. Critic of the two books : From Oklahoma to Eternity by Bob Burke and Gatty: Prince of Navigators by Bruce Brown. Also the complete history of the 4 Winnie Mae.

Links:

DATA FILE  |   THE FLIGHT  |   MAP OF THE FLIGHT