Wiley Post transformed the Lockheed Vega Winnie Mae into a platform for long-distance navigation and high-altitude research. His record flights were not merely endurance stunts; they tested technologies that reduced pilot workload and extended the useful operating envelope of aircraft.
Post had lost one eye in an oil-field accident before becoming a professional pilot. In 1931 he and navigator Harold Gatty flew around the world in the Winnie Mae in a little over eight days, using the Weems navigation system, directional gyro and artificial horizon.
In 1933 Post made the circuit alone. The aircraft carried an autopilot and radio direction finder, allowing one pilot to navigate and maintain course over a global route that still required repeated stops, repairs and weather decisions.
The solo flight took seven days, 18 hours and 49 minutes. It demonstrated the value of automatic flight control and radio navigation but should not be described as a nonstop circumnavigation.
Post then turned to high-altitude flight. Because the Vega could not practically be converted into a pressure cabin, he worked with B. F. Goodrich on a pressure suit that allowed him to operate above 30,000 feet.
His 1935 flights explored the high-speed winds later recognized as part of the jet stream. Smithsonian records link the pressure suit and Winnie Mae directly to this research.
On August 15, 1935, Post and Will Rogers died in Alaska when a modified floatplane crashed after takeoff. The accident involved a different aircraft from the Winnie Mae and should never be illustrated with the Vega as if it were the crash airplane.
For TransitSatellite, Post’s story should separate the 1931 crewed world flight, 1933 solo route and 1935 high-altitude tests. Each used different equipment and solved a different navigation problem.