FSX-SE The (one-eyed) aviator who discovered "Jetstream"

[P_7878 6,551]

In these modern times, while crossing the oceans, in the modern airliners, (whether as PAX or as Pilot - myself, of course, speaking as PAX), we get to experience the Jet streams (the westerly (west-to-east) wind currents typically observed above 30,000 ft) that can significantly reduce our time of travel compared to the reverse direction. For example, in a flight from New York to London, the (westerly) Jetstream can contribute in excess of 100 mph of (free) speed!

And, historically, it's also well-known that the Golden Age of Flight (the inter-WW period: 1919-1938) created some of the most phenomenal examples of aviation heroism and endurance, often by single (or duo) individuals, driven to set historical records. Wiley Post was one among those remarkable aviators, and his story is one of the most fascinating. Flying in his (tiny) Lockheed Vega monoplane (Winnie Mae), he is often given credit for discovery of the Jetstream. What's noteworthy is that, at the age of 28, an oil field accident cost Post his eyesight on the left eye, but, in the short 8 years, he lived beyond it (he died at the age of 36), the milestones, he achieved, are equally remarkable. First of all, on June 23, 1931, Wiley Post and the Australian navigator Harold Gatty, left Long Island, New York, in the Winnie Mae with a flight plan that would take them around the world, with 14 en-route stop-overs, before returning to New York, on July 1. They had covered 5,474 miles in the record time of 8 days and 15 hours and 51 minutes. After the flight, he and Gatty published an account of their journey titled, Around the World in Eight Days, in the spirit of Jules Verne's adventure classic Around the World in Eighty Days. The introduction was written by Will Rogers, the famous entrepreneur, aviation advocate, and Post's close friend, who, as we'll see, will figure in the final flight of Wiley Post.

But, once around the world was not enough for Post! Within 2 years after the record-setting flight, in July, 1933, he repeated his flight around the world, this time using the (newly invented) Sperry auto-pilot and compass in place of his navigator and becoming the first person with the first airplane to fly around the world twice, and the first to do it solo. Fifty thousand people greeted him on his return on July 22 after 7 days, 18 hours, 49 minutes. He had improved on his own previous record, solo! But, what he is probably also known for is explorations of the limits of high-altitude long-distance flight. Winnie Mae's cabin could not be pressurized, so he developed what became the world's first pressure suit. In the first flight, in 1934, with a super-charged (P&W) Wasp engine, on the Winnie Mae, Post reached 40,000 ft, eventually flying as high as 50,000 ft (to be later the domain of supersonic Concorde!), first human to fly along with the jetstream in pressurized flight! He also noticed that, at times, his ground speed greatly exceeded his air speed. It would be many more years, in 1939, before German meteorologist Heinrich Seilkopf would coin the scientific term, Strahlströmung (literally "jet current" or "jet stream"), for this phenomenon.

Then, in 1935, interested in surveying mail-and-pax air routes from the West Coast to Russia, Post got involved in the aerial exploration of the Alaskan territory. On August 15, 1935, with his friend Will Rogers, both would depart Fairbanks, Alaska for Point Barrow, the northernmost tip of Alaska. They flew not in the Winnie Mae, but in a hybrid (and improvised) float-plane. 15 miles southwest of Point Barrow, in bad weather, they lost their bearing, and landed on a lagoon to ask for direction. On takeoff, the engine failed at low altitude, Post could not regain control, and their aircraft plunged into the depths of the (Walakpa Bay) lagoon, near Point Barrow. Wiley Post perished alongside his close friend Will Rogers. A week later, in tribute, 12,000 motion picture theater screens would go dark for two minutes at 2:00 pm, on August 22. Famed German aviator Ernst Udet eulogized Post, stating, “I consider Post the greatest flier of all time. He was a real pioneer. He ranked first both as regards positive accomplishments and fruitfulness of new ideas. He was the most advanced and courageous man aviation has thus brought forth.”

So, for this post, please find below, a (symbolic) SIM-flight of Wiley Post's Lockheed Vega 5C model (in the Winnie May color) from Fairbanks (PAFA) to Point Barrow, the airport to be later named "Wiley Post–Will Rogers Memorial Airport" (PABR). Please note again that the actually flown aircraft was a (hybrid) Lockheed float-plane, but not Winnie Mae. Nonetheless, these images, here, would still hopefully evoke some memories of the famed aviator on his final flight, and of the plane that was so dear to him. The final screenshot is taken above one of the innumerable lagoons found in this desolate frontier of the Alaskan bushlands. If interested, site of the actual accident, the Walakpa Bay, is easily identified on Google Map, a small river-like waterway discharging into the Arctic ocean.

[Final Note: Post is buried in Memorial Park Cemetery, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and the most aerodynamically advanced aircraft of its time, that made two record breaking around-the-world flights and pioneered stratospheric flight, the Winnie Mae, now resides in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., which exhibit I had a chance to see, during my 2 visits to the Museum.]

Thanks for reading and viewing. (And, Happy Labor Day to the folks in U.S., and a good weekend to all!). [FW(Lockheed Vega)/REX]

Edited August 31, 2019 by P_7878

[jmdriskell 178]

You note above, " They had covered 5,474 miles in the record time of 8 days and 15 hours and 51 minutes".  Maybe that should be closer to 25,474 miles, as 5,474 miles is about the distance from Hawaii to New York?  Otherwise, a very interesting account of aviation history.

Jim Driskell

[P_7878 6,551]

Jim: Good catch...

And, thanks for your interest!...It was a typo error while copying the number...the correct flying a distance is recorded to be "15,474 miles (24,903 km)"...[BTW, I just noticed that Harold Gatty's Wiki has a minor error in the miles number, it says, the distance is "15,747 miles (24,903 km)"....15,474 miles seems right from other sources too..]

Their flightplan included 14 stops at (Harbour Grace, Flintshire, Hanover (twice), Berlin, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Blagoveshchensk, Khabarovsk, Nome, Fairbanks, Edmonton, Cleveland, and back to New York)....

 

 

Edited August 31, 2019 by P_7878

[woodhick 504]

Wiley Post, Winnie Mae!  It don't get no better.

[rightseat 277]

One of Oklahoma's favorite boys!

[P_7878 6,551]

Folks, thanks for the comments and reactions!

Below, is my recap with some additional points gathered about this incredible (Wiley Post and Winnie Mae) combination. Hope you find these interesting:

1. Oil industrialist F.C. Hall bought a Vega airplane from Lockheed Aircraft Company so that his company pilot, one-eyed Wiley Post, could fly him to important business meetings. Hall named the plane after his daughter, Winnie Mae. When the stock market crashed in 1929, Hall sold the plane back to Lockheed and had them remove the name from the aircraft, but just the next year, in June, 1930, he decided he needed another Vega, which he also named Winnie Mae. It was this (second) Winnie Mae that Wiley Post used to make all his famous flights, thereby making it one of the best known of all aircraft.
2. With the consent of his employer, Post entered the Winnie Mae in the National Air Races, on August 27, 1930, and piloted the plane to the first of its records, now inscribed on the side of its fuselage: “Los Angeles to Chicago 9 hrs. 9 min. 4 sec. Aug. 27, 1930.” I'd missed this....you can see this writing (bit of eye-test!) on the side surface of (one of) the above SIM plane images.
3. Because of its design, the Winnie Mae could not be equipped with a pressure cabin. Post therefore asked the B. F. Goodrich Company to assist him in developing a full-pressure suit for the pilot. Their third prototype would be the direct ancestor of the pressure-suits to be later used in actual manned space voyages.
4. (I was always wondering about the fixed gears on Winnie Mae) During its high-altitude flight research, the Winnie Mae made use of a special tubular steel landing gear developed by Lockheed engineers. It was released after takeoff by the pilot using a cockpit lever, thus reducing the total drag of the plane and eliminating its weight. The Winnie Mae would then continue on its flight and land on a special metal-covered spruce landing skid glued to the fuselage.
5. Due credit must be given to the Tasmanian-born Gatty, the chief instructor for the Weems System of Navigation, and regarded, at the time, by many as the most capable air navigator in the nation. Gatty utilized the tools and techniques of his prototype drift meter, which could measure real "Ground Speed" with great accuracy. (You may search for "prototype Gatty drift meter", and you'll see pictures of his ingenious device (surely precursors and drivers of later advanced systems)). Charles Lindbergh had called Gatty the "Prince of Navigators". Both Charles and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh, would be (trained) disciples of Gatty.
6. Finally, if you wish to see a striking picture of these two gentlemen (Wiley Post and Harold Gatty), please click and expand the image on the Wiki for Harold Gatty. A very catching snapshot: both men looking down in pensive mood...both deep-thinkers for sure! Winnie Mae's door is open, with their (period) luggage on the ground...

Edited September 2, 2019 by P_7878

[jmdriskell 178]

Fascinating!

Jim Driskell

[Phantom88 3,284]

***Magnificent *** Thank you for sharing

[Nixon 30]

Kermit Weeks has just posted on YouTube an update on his restoration project of his Lockheed Vega. There is an interesting discussion on how the fuselage skin was constructed back in 1929

https://youtu.be/TbQFZ22_3mc

Edited September 12, 2019 by Nixon
Typo error