Wiley Post and the one-eyed Oklahoma oilfield roughneck who flew around the world and invented the pressure suit

Wiley Post, a one-eyed Oklahoma oilfield roughneck, became one of the most consequential figures in aviation history. Between 1931 and 1935, he set two around-the-world speed records, pioneered the use of autopilots on long-distance flights, co-developed the world’s first practical pressure suit, and discovered the jet stream. His contributions laid the groundwork for modern high-altitude flight, and his legacy lives on in every pressurized cockpit and every astronaut’s suit.

From Cotton Farms to Oil Fields to the Sky

Wiley Hardeman Post was born in 1898 on a cotton farm near Grand Saline, Texas. His family moved to Oklahoma when he was young — poor dirt farmers with no connection to aviation. He saw his first airplane at a county fair around age fourteen, and the obsession took hold. But flying cost money, and Post had none, so he went to work in the Oklahoma oil fields.

In 1926, a piece of iron chipped off a bolt and struck Post directly in his left eye, destroying it. He was eighteen years old. Rather than abandon his dream of flying, Post took his $1,800 workers’ compensation payout and bought a battered Canuck — a Canadian-built version of the Curtiss JN-4 Jenny.

No formal training. One eye. Eighteen hundred dollars. He bought an airplane anyway.

Flying Around the World — Twice

Post barnstormed and did parachute work before landing a job as personal pilot for F.C. Hall, a wealthy Oklahoma oilman. Hall owned a Lockheed Vega — a fast, high-wing monoplane with a plywood fuselage. They named her the Winnie Mae, after Hall’s daughter.

On June 23, 1931, Post and navigator Harold Gatty departed Roosevelt Field on Long Island and headed east. They crossed the Atlantic to England, flew through Germany and Russia, traversed Siberia, crossed the Bering Sea to Alaska, and returned to New York. Fifteen stops. Eight days, fifteen hours, and fifty-one minutes. That shattered the previous record held by the Graf Zeppelin by more than twelve days.

The Winnie Mae had no autopilot, no radar, no GPS. Post hand-flew the airplane across eleven time zones with one eye. There were stretches where he stayed awake for more than thirty hours, with Gatty shouting at him to keep him from nodding off at the stick.

The return to Roosevelt Field brought massive crowds and a ticker tape parade through New York City.

The Solo Record with an Early Autopilot

Two years later, in 1933, Post did it again — this time solo. He installed one of the first autopilots ever used on a long-distance flight, a Sperry autopilot that used gyroscopes to hold heading and keep wings level. It was temperamental and broke down multiple times during the flight, but when it worked, it freed Post to check charts, rest his arms, and eat.

He completed the solo circumnavigation in seven days, eighteen hours, and forty-nine minutes — faster than his own record. One pilot, one eye, one engine, and one autopilot that kept trying to quit.

The flight was a practical demonstration that autopilot technology could transform long-distance aviation, a concept that became foundational to modern flight operations.

Inventing the Pressure Suit and Reaching the Stratosphere

Post’s most forward-thinking work came after the fame of the record flights. He became convinced that the future of long-distance aviation lay in the stratosphere — above the weather, where thin air meant higher speeds on less fuel. This is exactly how commercial aviation operates today.

The problem was survivability. In the 1930s, airplane cabins were not pressurized. Above 15,000 feet, cognitive function deteriorated. Above 25,000 feet, pilots lost consciousness. Above 30,000 feet, death was certain.

Post’s solution was radical: instead of pressurizing the airplane, pressurize the pilot. Working with the B.F. Goodrich Company, he developed what became the world’s first practical pressure suit — a rubberized fabric suit covering his entire body, with a bolted-on helmet, its own oxygen supply, and a crude pressurization system.

Three versions were built. The first failed immediately. The second worked on the ground but tore apart in flight. The third held together. Wearing that suit in a supercharged Winnie Mae, Post reached altitudes above 40,000 feet in 1935 — in a plywood airplane with a fabric-covered fuselage.

That Goodrich suit is the direct ancestor of every military high-altitude flight suit and, eventually, every space suit ever worn.

Discovering the Jet Stream

At 40,000 feet, Post found something no Western scientist had predicted. His instruments showed ground speeds far exceeding his airspeed — he was being carried by winds exceeding 200 miles per hour. He had discovered the jet stream.

Post reported his findings to skepticism. Two-hundred-mile-per-hour winds at altitude contradicted existing Western meteorological theory. Japanese meteorologists had theorized about high-altitude wind currents, but their work was largely unknown in the United States. It took the experience of World War II bomber crews to confirm what Post had found alone at the edge of space.

The Crash at Point Barrow

On August 15, 1935, Post was flying a hybrid airplane through Alaska — a Lockheed Orion fuselage mated to Sirius wings, fitted with pontoon floats. The aircraft was known to be nose-heavy, a concern everyone who examined it had raised. Post’s passenger was his close friend Will Rogers, the beloved American humorist and actor. They were exploring possible air routes between Alaska and Russia.

After taking off from a lagoon near Point Barrow, Alaska’s northernmost point, the engine quit. The airplane was low, slow, and heavy on its oversized floats. It nosed over and plunged into the shallow lagoon. Both men were killed instantly.

Wiley Post was thirty-six years old. President Roosevelt ordered flags to half-staff. The nation had lost two of its most beloved figures in a single moment.

A Legacy Built Into Modern Aviation

Post’s contributions are woven into the fabric of everyday flight. The jet stream that gives airliners 140-knot tailwinds at FL350 is the same phenomenon he discovered in a Vega. The pressure suits worn by military pilots and astronauts trace their lineage directly to his Goodrich suit. The autopilot holding heading while a crew briefs an approach exists because Post proved the concept could work across Siberia.

One eye. Eighteen hundred dollars. And he changed everything.

Key Takeaways

Wiley Post used his $1,800 workers’ compensation check from losing an eye to buy his first airplane, launching one of aviation’s most remarkable careers.
He set two around-the-world speed records — the first with navigator Harold Gatty in 1931, and the second solo in 1933 — pioneering the use of autopilots on long-distance flights.
Post co-developed the first practical pressure suit with B.F. Goodrich, the direct ancestor of all modern high-altitude and space suits.
He discovered the jet stream during high-altitude flights above 40,000 feet in 1935, a finding that was not widely accepted until confirmed by WWII bomber crews.
Post and Will Rogers were killed on August 15, 1935, when their hybrid aircraft crashed near Point Barrow, Alaska. Post was thirty-six.