Wiley Post was one of the most celebrated pilots in aviation history. He set two trans-global speed records during the 1930s, one with a co-pilot, and one by himself. Post also developed the first practical pressure suit and helped pioneer high-altitude flight. Many Americans related to Post's ability to overcome his difficult circumstances, particularly during the Great Depression. His tragic and untimely death in 1935 stunned the nation and robbed aviation of a valuable innovator.
Post was born in 1898 in Grand Saline, Texas, to farmers. When he was five, they moved to Oklahoma. Post dropped out of school in the eighth grade. On the family farm, he started learning all he could about machines. His love for mechanical devices became apparent during a trip to a county fair in 1913. There he saw his first airplane and instantly knew that he wanted to become an aviator. Like other young men, though, Post was practical and began working as a mechanic in an oil field instead. Still, one day, when a plane flew overhead, he remembered his dream and started pursuing it.
Post broke into aviation when a barnstorming troop came to Oklahoma in 1924. The troop's skydiver was injured and Post convinced the owner to let him fill in. Although Post had no experience, he made the jump. Over the next two years, he jumped 99 times, sometimes earning as much as $200 a fall. But Post wanted to be a pilot, not a skydiver, and decided to return to the oil fields to make enough money to buy his own aircraft.
One day in 1926, though, a serious accident jeopardized his dream. A stray chip hit Post in his left eye. A massive infection developed and began to affect both his eyes. Post, fearing blindness, agreed to let doctors remove his left eye in the hope that the infection would recede and, fortunately, it did. With only one eye, Post had trouble with depth perception, but he trained himself to gauge distances through practice; he learned to land a plane by using the height of telephone poles and two-story buildings. Although the accident had cost him his eye, he used his $1,800 worker's compensation check to buy his own plane, a Curtiss Canuck (the Canadian version of the Jenny). Over the next few years, Post made a living teaching student pilots, flying oilmen to their rigs, and barnstorming on weekends.
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