Final flight

Wiley Post became interested in 1935 in surveying a mail-and-passenger air route from the West Coast of the United States to Russia. Short on cash, he built a plane using parts salvaged from two wrecks and planned to add pontoons for landing in the lakes of Alaska and Siberia.

His friend Will Rogers often visited him at the airport in Burbank, California while he was building the plane and asked Post to fly him through Alaska in search of new material for his newspaper column. When the pontoons Post had ordered did not arrive, he used a set that was designed for a much larger plane, making his plane dangerously heavy, especially when further loaded down with hunting and fishing equipment.

After making a test flight in July, Post and Rogers left Seattle in the plane in early August. While Post piloted the plane, Rogers wrote his columns on his typewriter. A few miles from Point Barrow, Alaska, they became lost in bad weather and landed in a lagoon to ask directions. The engine quit when they tried to take off again, and the plane plunged into the lagoon, tearing off the right wing, and killing both men instantly.

Memorials and awards

In 1936, the Smithsonian Institution acquired the Winnie Mae from Post's widow. Two monuments at the crash site commemorate the death of the two men and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Additionally, a small private airport in Oklahoma City is named after Post. The major airport is named after Will Rogers, so that both victims of the crash are honored by airports in Oklahoma City.

Wiley Post received the Distinguished Flying Cross (1932), the Gold Medal of Belgium (1934), and the International Harmon Trophy (1934). He was enshrined in the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1969. In 1979, the United States Postal Service honored him with two airmail stamps.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.