Although you wouldn't know it unless you were a particularly avid student of aviation history, today marks a rather special anniversary - and one that has had an affect on everyone who has taken a long-distance flight to a
vacation destination.
On his day in 1933, airman Wiley Post landed at Brooklyn's Floyd Bennett Field after completing the first solo round-the-world flight. Post didn't taken the longest possible global route, as he didn't even cross the equator, staying wholly in the northern hemisphere. But he did manage an incredible feat of flying endurance. Starting in New York, Post flew first to Newfoundland, then across the Atlantic Ocean to the UK. From there he flew across the North Sea to Germany, and then on to Russia. With the exception of the Ocean crossings, the loneliest part of the whole business must have been traversing the vast, largely empty expanse of continental Russia. Flying in the middle of the northern summer, Post avoided the most intense cold and severe weather while crossing Siberia, but still had to spend a significant amoint of time dodging bad weather and thunderstorms. To aviators, what makes Post's achievements most remarkable is the incredible feats of navigation involved: this was all long before the days of navigation computers and GPS. Post, although frequently worn out, found his way with just maps, a compass, his eyes and a stopwatch.
Crossing the Pacific above the Aleutian Islands - the shortest possible route - Post touched down in Alaska before flying on through Canada to land in Brooklyn on the 22nd. He had flown 15,596 miles in 7 days, 18 hours, and 49 minutes.
Post's achievement was not confined to navigational feats and clocking up a huge number of airmiles in a short amount of time. Along with other pioneers like Charles Lindbergh and Amy Johnson he added to the growing consciousness among Americans and Europeans that long-distance, trans-continental aviation was not only possible and relatively safe, but something that was within the reach of millions.
For nearly all his famous flights Post used a modified Lockheed 5C Vega, named the Winnie Mae. However, it was in a float plane that he met a tragically early death in 1935, aged only 37, taking off from a lake surface near Point Barrow in Alaska. Post is remembered not only for his amazing flying exploits, but also for his work on high-altitude flying, pressure suits and autopilot gyroscopy - without which we would not be flying overseas on our vacations today.