On 23rd June 1931 Wiley Post and his navigator, Harold Gatty took off for a round the world flight in their single-engine airplane to return on July 1st having completed the trip in a record time of eight days 15 hours 51 minutes.
Wiley Post & Harold Gatty left Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York in the Winnie Mae (a Lockheed Vega aircraft) with a flight plan that would take them around the world traveling 15,474 miles (24,903 km).
They made fourteen stops:
- Harbour Grace
- Flintshire
- Hanover (twice)
- Berlin
- Moscow
- Novosibirsk
- Irkutsk
- Blagoveshchensk
- Khabarovsk
- Nome (where the propellor had to be repaired)
- Fairbanks (where the propeller was replaced)
- Edmonton
- Cleveland
- Roosevelt Field
The previous record was held by the airship Graf Zeppelin, piloted by Hugo Eckener in 1929 with a time of 21 days.
Wiley Post and Harold Gatty published an account of their journey titled: Around the World in Eight Days although 2 years later he managed to do the trip in 7 days flying solo! The following year he developed a pressure suit which enabled him to fly at 50,000 feet. He discovered the jet stream and made the first major practical advances in pressurized flight. Read more […]
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