On This Day: 22 July

81 years ago, American Wiley Post became the first person to fly the world solo. Post’s journey took 7 days, 18 hours and 49 minutes His aircraft was the ‘Winnie Mae’ which was a Lockheed 5C Vega which had a top speed of 298km/h (185mph)

As well as his famous flight, Post also developed a pressure suit allowing him to fly at over 40,000 feet (12,192m). He sadly passed away in 1935 after an engine failure caused him and good friend Will Rogers to crash into a lake.

Interesting fact: Post only had one eye after an accident while working on an oil field.

Wiley Post, first solo flight, 22 July 1933, On this Day

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