Wiley Post

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Wiley Post

1899-1935

American aviator who flew around the world. A corporate pilot, Post raced his employer's airplane, the Winnie Mae, to win the 1930 Bendix Trophy. The next year, Post and his navigator, Harold Gatty, were the first to circle the globe in an airplane. Post wrote Around the World in Eight Days (1931). In 1933 Post repeated the trip solo. He created a high-altitude flying suit, attaining a height of 49,000 feet. Post died in an Alaskan plane crash with humorist Will Rogers.