Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-10

farm boy through oil well drilling, ga
rage work, transforming and test pilot
ing to his big moment--the start OF his
fight around the world.
Copyright, 1881, by the Associated Press)
Once he was out over the Atlantic,
a wondering world feverishly followed
the flight of Wiley Post and the cream
colored Winnie Mae.
Through fog, snow and rain, fair
weather and foul, flying sometimes low
and others high Post stoutly stuck to
the stick while Navigator Harold Gatty
sent through earpieces the tale his
instruments told.
Names and people strange to the one
time Texas farm lad disappeared on
the rapidly running curve the Winnie
Mae was describing.
Past Chester, Berlin, Moscow, Novo-
sibirsk, Irkutsk, Blagovestchensk-a
on around the rest of the circle Wiley
fought off fatigue and sleep and other
obstacles. Twice his Winnie Mae bog
ged on landing, to be freed only after
titanic Juggling.
Virtues That Make Skill.
From a potent physique, the heritage
OF Southwest pioneers, which work on
farm, in machine shops and on oil
wells had rippled with steel muscles,
Wiley drew for the nightly energy nee
essary to fulfill his dream. Years at
the controls as a test pilot, national
air derby winner and a transformer
brought ripe skill.
His loss of an eye months before he
was given pilots license, a spur to
him ito be particularly careful in fly
ing" as well as his admitted sense of
feel" also contributed to the trium-
plant tour of the Winnie Mae
With IA great hops behind him, and
only about IS hours of sleep to his
credit, he rode out of the sunset to
Roosevelt Field 8 days Is hours and
81 minutes after the Winnie Mae had
left it.
He had eclipsed the earth-circling
record of the Graf Zeppelin by IL days
Is hours, 35 minutes. The world rec
ord of Magellan's ship in 1919 was
left 1,074 days behind.
New York gave him and Gatty the
acclaim reserved only for the most il
lustrious heroes. World known digni-
taries joined famed air argonauts in
1auding the feat. Past thronging thou
sands, Post, the one-time air circus
performer who did death defying
stunts" in sparsely populated sections
Of the Southwest, was gloTy-borne, the
target of proud eyes. Weary, but
happy. the man who wanted only
sleep" when he Numbered home. waved
often as he rode up New YorkS trail
for the mighty.
This aviator who got his first train
ing as wing walker and parachute
jumper was called citizen of the
world"
His pretty young wife, with whom he
oil NO.
was on hand to tell her pride with hugs
and kisses and little joyful shrieks.
From her Maysville, Okla, home came
the delight" Of a mother that her boy
had realized his dream; the boy
VINO. as a little fellow. was full of
pranks" and preferred reading adven-
ture books with his eyes on the skies
and "tinkering with any kind of ma
chinery' to going to school,
Sponsor Proud of Men.
F. c. Hall, the oil man who backed
him, was there to let his friend know
that he was the best pilot in the
world" and the flight was the greatest
of all time"
To the National Capital Wiley went
with his pal Harold to gather more
laurels and to receive acclaim led bS
President Hoover and Vice President
Curtis.
Then to Oklahoma. his adopted State
he few with his navigator for the home
folks to have their say about the young
man who made good in the air. 1t wa:
here that the barefooted freckled-facec
boy. who as a 32-year-old man carved
high his niche in aviations hall o.
fame. caught from the W1igh: brothers
experiments at Kitty Hawk the air urge
that subsequently sent him shooting
like a meteor through the skies. L
was in this section that he few hi!
first owned plane. an old Canuck. Here
he often wing-walked his way while on
| lockers almost breathless stood with
fixed gaze on his plane.
Home at last was Wiley Post, the
youth who had a dream to do some
thing big in aviation" which developed