Post, Wiley Hardeman

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)

Post, Wiley Hardeman is a historical marker in Grand Saline, Van Zandt County, dedicated in 1994. It is one of 84 historical markers documented in Van Zandt County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 167 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 32.6756, -95.7091 near Grand Saline. The nearest cataloged historic site is First Methodist Church of Grand Saline (historical marker), about 0.2 miles away. Others within a short drive include Grand Saline, C.S.A., Woodside Cemetery, and Morton Salt Company Building.

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5467011432. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.