Wiley Post
PAINTING
OF WILEY POST,
(FROM
LEFT) F.C. HALL, WILEY POST,
WILEY
POST AND THE WINNIE MAE
WILL
ROGERS AND WILEY POST
AFTERMATH
OF THE CRASH,
THE
WINNIE MAE TODAY, ON
|
A hero in a time that needed heroes, Wiley Post enraptured Depression-era
America and the World with his aeronautical feats. Although most associated
with the state of Oklahoma, Post was actually born in Grand Saline, Texas
on November 22, 1898. In 1907, when Wiley was 9, the Post family moved
to Maysville, Oklahoma, south of Oklahoma City, where they purchased a
farm, and remained there for the rest of Wiley's life.
A restless youth, Wiley decided he wanted to fly after seeing his first airplane at a fair in Lawton, Oklahoma in 1913. While the flying bug had bitten him, it would be several years before Wiley began flying as a career. Working in Oklahoma's oilfields, Wiley began barnstorming as a parachute jumper and later a pilkot foloowing the end of World War I. Times were hard, though, and the young Wiley ran afoul of the law, serving time inthe Oklahoma State Reformatory for auto theft. Free from prison, Wiley returned to the oilfields, but his career there was cut short by an accident in 1926. This accident cost Wiley an eye, after which he donned the eye patch that became his trademark. Despite the handicap of being blind in one eye, Post earned a Pilot's License and soon became the personal pilot to F.C. Hall, an oilman in Chickasha, Oklahoma. It was the partnership with Hall that would propel Wiley into the Stratosphere - literally. Hall financed the purchase of the Lockheed 5-C Vega that became the famous "Winnie Mae". Although Post's wife was named Mae, the aircraft was actually named for Hall's young daughter. It was with the Winnie Mae that Post would set many records, including the circumnavigation of the globe in a then-unbelieveable timeof 8 days, 15 hours, and 51 minutes - a record Post set with navigator Harold Gatty in 1931. The Winnie Mae also carried Post around the world a second time, this time by himself. It was during the preparations for this flight that Post's connections to Braniff really came through. On a test flight from Chickasha in 1933, the Winnie Mae crashed witha Braniff pilot at the controls. The aircraft was trucked to the airline's base in Oklahoma City and repaired for its record-setting flight. Braniff maintenance workers, and pilots like Claude Seaton all pitched in time and money to repair their friend's Vega. |
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