US Postage stamp issued in 1979 honoring humorist Will Rogers. Rogers and Post made several stops on their flying tour of Canada and Alaska with Post at the controls of his hybrid designed Orion-Explorer monoplane. They both perished on take-off from a lake near Barrow, Alaska, on August 15, 1935.
create a pressure suit that would enable a pilot to withstand flight in the stratosphere. With self-taught advanced science theory, Post invented a “space suit” built to his specifications by the B.F. Goodrich Company. In 1934, after several tests involving modification to his Vega and wearing his rubberized suit, Post made official flights at an altitude of 40,000 feet and an unofficial flight at 50,000 feet. Post’s discovery of the jet stream and proof that pilots could function normally in a pressurized aircraft is considered by many historians to be his greatest contribution to aviation.
FAME AND FATE Fame brought opportunities as well as burdens to the Posts. Through friends like bush pilot, Joe Crosson, it is believed that Post considered moving to Alaska with Mae. Previous visits to the region intrigued Post and beckoned his return. In 1935, famed and beloved radio humorist Will Rogers accompanied Post on an aviation tour of Alaska with the potential of continuing on to Russia. Post was at the controls of his single-engine Orion-Explorer aircraft while Rogers read newspapers or typed his radio broadcasts in the rear cabin. Equipped with pontoons, the Orion- Explorer was a low-wing and nose-heavy hybrid of Post’s design. It was considered “out of balance” by many experienced aviators who watched Post coax the awkward aircraft into a steep climb on take-offs. In August, both were killed as Post attempted a short
take-off from a lake near Barrow, AK. The sudden deaths of these equally famous men was
unprecedented. Millions of Americans attended their memorial and funerals. An inconsolable public and official investigators were unwilling to dwell on pilot error. A US Senator eulogized Post before Congress with these words, “[Post] was a courageous representative of a gallant
group who on the wings of adventure sought remote places and conquered long distances.”
Giacinta Bradley Koontz is an aviation historian, magazine columnist and author who has received the DAR History Medal and honorable mention from the New York Book Festival. She has appeared on the History Channel and in PBS documentaries.
For more information, visit
www.GiaBKoontz.com.
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