Wiley Hardeman Post
Grand Saline, Van Zandt County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Pioneer aviator Wiley Hardeman Post was born on November 22, 1898, in the community of Corinth in Van Zandt County, to William Francis and Mae Laine Post, who moved to Oklahoma when Wiley was a boy. Wiley was inspired as a youth to learn to fly. In the late 1920s he obtained flight training, made his first solo flight, and acquired an air transport license. Despite the loss of one eye in an oil field accident, Post worked as a barnstormer, commercial pilot and flight instructor. Post set many flight records and won the national air races in 1930. He and Harold Gatty circled the world, flying 15,474 miles in less than 9 days in 1931. Post soloed around the world in less than 8 days in 1933. Post invented and developed the first pressurized flight suit, explored stratospheric flight, and used an early Sperry autopilot mechanism. He worked with the U. S. Army Air Corps on an experimental automatic direction finding (ADF) radio compass, and was a pioneer in the use of liquid oxygen for high altitude flight. Post and humorist Will Rogers died in a plane crash on a trip to Alaska in 1935. His plane the "Winnie Mae" is in the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. (1996)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Wiley Hardeman Post was born in 1898 in the Van Zandt County community of Corinth before his family moved to Oklahoma. Despite losing an eye in an oil-field accident, he became a barnstormer and record-setting aviator, circling the globe with Harold Gatty in 1931 and again solo in 1933. Post pioneered the pressurized flight suit, high-altitude stratospheric flight, and early autopilot and radio navigation—until he and humorist Will Rogers died in a 1935 Alaska crash.
Why it matters
Post pushed aviation toward the stratosphere and long-distance flight, and his pressure suit was a direct ancestor of the gear that later took Americans into space.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Wiley Post was born in 1898, just a few years before the Wright brothers first flew in 1903. He grew up alongside the airplane itself. By the time he was a young man, aviation had gone from a curiosity to a national obsession, driven by barnstormers, air races, and daring record attempts.
The late 1920s and early 1930s were a golden age of flight. Charles Lindbergh's 1927 solo crossing of the Atlantic set off a wave of enthusiasm. Pilots competed to fly farther, faster, and higher. Newspapers followed every record, and aviators became household names even as the Great Depression pressed down on the country.
This was also an era of rough, practical engineering. Pilots were often their own inventors, figuring out how to navigate over oceans, stay awake for days, and survive thin, freezing air at altitudes no one had flown before.
People & events
Wiley Hardeman Post was born on November 22, 1898, in the Van Zandt County community of Corinth. His parents were William Francis and Mae Laine Post. The family moved to Oklahoma while Wiley was still a boy, and as a youngster he fell in love with the idea of flying. In the late 1920s he trained as a pilot, made his first solo flight, and earned an air transport license.
On the way, he lost an eye in an oil field accident. It would have ended most flying careers. Post kept going as a barnstormer, commercial pilot, and flight instructor. He won the national air races in 1930. In 1931 he and navigator Harold Gatty flew around the world, 15,474 miles, in less than nine days. In 1933 Post did it again, this time alone, in less than eight days.
Post was also an experimenter. He developed the first pressurized flight suit, explored flight in the stratosphere, used an early Sperry autopilot, worked with the U.S. Army Air Corps on an experimental automatic direction finding radio compass, and pioneered the use of liquid oxygen at high altitude. In 1935 he and his friend, the beloved humorist Will Rogers, died together in a plane crash on a trip to Alaska. The nation was stunned to lose two of its most famous men at once.
Its place in the American story
Post's around-the-world flights showed that a small crew, and even one pilot, could circle the globe by air. His use of an autopilot and radio navigation on those flights pointed toward the way long-distance flying would work in the future, when machines would carry more of the load in the cockpit.
His pressure suit may be his most lasting legacy. Post understood that flying high in thin air could mean faster flight, but only if the pilot's body could survive there. His suit was an early step on the road to the pressurized gear that later let pilots, and eventually astronauts, work at the edge of space.
The Winnie Mae, the airplane tied to his famous flights, is now part of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum collection. That puts a record-setting aircraft flown by a man born in rural Van Zandt County among the most important machines in American aviation history.
If you visit
The marker is in Grand Saline, in the East Texas county where Post was born. It's a quiet place to think about how far one person's curiosity can travel. A boy from this corner of Texas went on to circle the globe twice and to fly higher than almost anyone of his day.
For aviation fans, this stop is the beginning of a longer trail. Post's story continues in Oklahoma, where he grew up, and at the Smithsonian, where the Winnie Mae is preserved. Stopping here connects you to the very first chapter.
If you're traveling with kids, the marker offers a great conversation starter. A pilot who lost one eye and still set world records, and who invented his own suit to breathe in the sky, is the kind of story that sticks.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Wiley Post
- · Will Rogers
- · Harold Gatty
Related events
- · 1931 round-the-world flight
- · 1933 solo world flight
Themes & tags
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