Anncr:
Now the VOA Special English program, explorations. Today ShirleyGriffith and Doug Johnson tell about pilot Wiley Post. He set newrecords when he flew his own airplane around the world innineteen-thirty-three.
((Theme))
VOICE 1:
It was nineteen-thirty-three. Only six years earlier CharlesLindburgh became famous around the world as the first person to flyalone across the Atlantic Ocean. Now, a young pilot was trying tofly across Russia.
He had left Moscow several hours before. All he heard was thesound of the one engine that powered his plane. Hour after hour thesame sound. Now the weather was bad. He could not see much ahead,only the fog.
Flying in fog is very dangerous. Yet the sound of the engine madeeverything seem warm and safe. Then, out of the fog he saw amountain. He had only seconds to bring the airplane up.
It was a narrow escape, one of many he would have during his longflight.
VOICE 2:
The young pilot was Wiley Post. He was trying to fly around theworld by himself. He made the trip in less than eight days. Hestopped eleven times for fuel, food and a little sleep.
Wiley Post made his famous flightin July, nineteen-thirty-three. Not many flight instruments existedthat could help him find his way. He was alone, fighting againstsleep. If he fell asleep he would die.
((Music Bridge))
VOICE 1:
Nothing in Wiley Post’s early years suggests that he would becomea famous pilot. He was born in Grand Saline, Texas, ineighteen-ninety-eight. His family were farmers.
In nineteen-thirteen, Wiley saw something that forever changedhis life — an airplane. After watching the plane fly, young Wileywaited until most people had left the area. He then began inspectingand studying the plane. He measured different parts of the planewith his hands. Many years later, Wiley Post would say that firstairplane was the most wonderful thing he had ever seen.
VOICE 2:
Wiley Post began to study everything he could find about flying.He began to educate himself about subjects such as mathematics,radio and machinery. His self-education would continue the rest ofhis life.
Post finally rode in an airplane in nineteen-nineteen. At thetime, many people believed all pilots were special people. Theybelieved it took special skills and courage to fly an airplane. Butafter his first ride, Wiley Post knew that flying was something hecould learn to do.
VOICE 1:
Wiley Post began his career in flying, not as a pilot, but as aperformer who jumps from airplanes using a parachute. He did thiswith a group that performed flying tricks to earn money. He jumpedninety-nine times in two years with the flying show. When he was notjumping with a parachute, he was being taught how to fly by pilotsin the air show. But he could not fly as often as he liked.
VOICE 2:
Wiley Post then decided the only way to become a good pilot wasto buy an airplane of his own. He needed more money than he earnedin the flying show. He went to work in the oil-producing areas ofTexas. But he damaged his left eye in an accident. Doctors had toremove his eye.
At first, Post thought his days as a pilot were ended. A pilotneeds to be able to judge distance. Judging distance is difficultwithout two eyes. It seems impossible to tell how big objects areand how far away.
Wiley Post began teaching himself to judge distance with only oneeye. He worked hard at training his eye and brain to tell thecorrect distance. It took a long time, but he succeeded. Hecontinued to fly and soon became a very good pilot.
VOICE 1:
In nineteen-twenty-eight, he got a job flying the plane thatbelonged to a rich oil producer from Oklahoma. The man’s name wasF.C. Hall. He bought a new airplane for Post to fly. Mister Hallnamed the airplane the “Winnie Mae” after one of his daughters.
F.C. Hall told Post he could use the plane to enter flightcompetitions. Post did. In nineteen-thirty, he entered the nationalair races. The race called for flying without stopping from LosAngeles in the western state of California, to the city of Chicago,in the middle western state of Illinois.
Post won the race. He defeated several well known pilots. It wasthe first time the public heard the name Wiley Post.
VOICE 2:
Post was not really interested in racing airplanes. He wanted tobe the first person to fly around the world. Many pilots had talkedabout trying to made such a flight. But no one had done it.
Post believed he would need someone to help him in the effort. Hechose an Australian man, Harold Gatty, to do the mathematics thatdecided the plane’s direction. Post would fly the plane. On Junetwenty-third, nineteen-thirty-one, Post and Gatty took off fromRoosevelt Field in New York. They returned to Roosevelt Field eightdays, fifteen hours and fifty-one minutes later. They had flownaround the world.
VOICE 1:
At first every one was very happy. Wiley Post and Harold Gattywere heroes. Then many people began to say that Post was nothingmore than an airplane driver because he had no real education. Theysaid Gatty was the real hero. He had guided the flight. Both menknew they had made the flight as a team. Others did not recognizethis. This hurt Post.
Wiley Post began to plan another flight around the world. Thistime he would go alone.
((Music Bridge))
VOICE 2:
Wiley Post knew that any effort has a good chance of success ifthe person planning the task is well prepared. So he worked hard toprepare well. He used the most modern equipment possible. He madesure the engine on the Winnie Mae was perfect. And to preparehimself, he went without sleep for long periods of time.
On July fifteenth, nineteen-thirty-three, Post took off fromFloyd Bennett Field in New York. His first stop would be Berlin,Germany. He landed in Berlin twenty-six hours later. He became thefirst person to fly from New York to Berlin without stopping.
VOICE 1:
After a little food for himself and fuel for the Winnie Mae, Postwas once again in the air. This time he was headed for Russia. Forlong hours he flew, listening only to the sound of his engine.Often, the weather was so bad he could not see where he was. At onepoint he came so close to running out of gas he considered using hisparachute. But at the last minute he found a place to land and getgas.
The flight across the huge width of Russia was difficult. He madeseveral stops for gas and a few hours rest before flying across theBering Sea to Alaska.
VOICE 2:
By now, he was very tired. To keep himself awake as he flew eastduring the long night, Post tied a piece of string to one finger.The other end of the string was tied to a heavy aircraft tool. Heheld the tool in his hand. If he started to fall asleep, the toolwould fall from his hand. The string would pull his finger and wakehim.
From Fairbanks, Alaska, he flew to Edmonton, Canada, and then ontoward New York.
More than fifty-thousand people waited at Floyd Bennett Field.Wiley Post gently landed the Winnie Mae long after dark. He hadflown around the world in seven days, eighteen-hours and forty-nineminutes.
Thousands of excited people rushed toward the plane. Wiley Postwas a hero. He had become the most famous pilot in America.
((Music Bridge))
VOICE 1:
In nineteen-thirty-five, only two years after his around theworld record flight, Wiley Post was killed in a flying accident inAlaska.
Before Post’s death, the government of the United States hadbought the Winnie Mae. It is owned by the Smithsonian’s Air andSpace Museum in Washington, D-C.
VOICE 2:
Many pilots have flown around the world since Wiley Post made hisflight. His record was first broken only a few years after hisdeath. Since that time many records for the trip have been made andbroken.
Yet what Wiley Post did can never really be done again. No pilottoday would try to make the flight in an airplane like the WinnieMae. No one would try it with the flight instruments he used. And,no on would want to copy his flight around the world … alone.
((Theme))
VOICE 1:
This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. Thisis Shirley Griffith.
VOICE 2:
And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for anotherexplorations program on the Voice of America.