The Daily Alaska empire., 1936-01-15
WILEY POST o4 MaSz5aA%s zae 5zaa4dseuzaz
 His Preparations Were An Obstacle-Race
By BILLY PARKER
Copyright, 1886, by The Associated


 Wiley Post turned to stratosphere work seriously and began to as semble equipment.
 He used the Winnie Mae simply because she was the only airplane he possessed, and although not ad- mirably fitted for such specialized duties, she still was in good condi- tion. He felt if he could demon strate the possibilities of this type of flying with the relatively an cent winnie Mae, it would be a fitting crowning achievement for the ship which had served him so faithfully On two round -the-world flights.
 Equipping the ship for high alti- tude flying, however. was not simply matter of goirg out and buying necessary accessories. He foun d that engineers had advanced a lot of theories but actually produced nothing practical. Before Post was ready for his first test flight more than year had elapsed, and he had used most of the money he obtained from various sources as result of his last world trip.
 Constructed Suit
 Wiley realized that while army and navy pilots had made flights to considerable attitudes with only a small bottle of oxygen and an oxygen mask, such flights would never be practicable over long dis tances due to extreme differences in pressure encountered.
 The best solution, he knew, would be to seal the entire cabin of the ship and maintain pressure near ly that of sea level. This was not practical at the moment due to the time and expense involved.
 He approached the problem from the standpoint of a suit into which oxygen could be pumped and which not only would give the pilot suffi- cient oxygen for normal breathing but also would maintain a body pressure comparable to that near sea level
 In designing this suit, Wiley gave to aviation one of the finest con- tributions it has received in many years.
 Even though the sealed cabin will make its appearance soon in trans port planes, such an arrangement would be impracticable for military work, especially in one or two scatter pursuit planes. With the Post suit, it will be possible for a mili- tary pilot to fly just as high as his ship will take him, at no per sonal discomfort.
 The Supercharger
 If the suit should be punctured during aerial combat, and the pilot is not seriously injured, he either can fly to lower levels or use a parachute without experiencing ill effects. thanks to an arrangement worked out by Post.
 While Wiley was designing and building the suit he also was hav- ing many other pieces of equip ment constructed to enable the } Winnie Mae to reach stratosphere heights.
 Most important of these was a supercharger for the engine which would enable it to develop it's sea level horsepower at greater eleva- tions. The supercharger when fin ished was indeed a marvel, for it enabled the motor (Wasp) of the ship to develop 450 horsepower at 50.o0O feet. Without it the motor would not have delivered enough power to maintain flight, even at much lower levels.
 The controllable pitch propeller, without which stratosphere flying would have been impossible, already had been developed The old fixed pitch propeller would merely slip and spin in the lighter air of the stratosphere. wA@ a~ T
 However, new problems crept in as Wiley started his test flights He found that, due to reduced pres sure, the ignition system of the engine would not function at higher levels because the electricity in the ignition cables failed to stay within the insulation of the wires.
 Dropped Landing Gear
 With his resourcesfulness, Wiley cooperated in designing an igni- tion system consisting of alright boxes around the magnetos and s corresponding flexible tubing the full length of the ignition wires into which system a mixture oi oxygen and thin stratospherc air was pumped so the entire unit functioned under sea level condi- tions.
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