The Peculiar Truth about the One-Eyed Aviator
Published in
4 min readJul 23, 2024
- Charles Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight from New York to Paris in 1927 was hailed as one of the most heroic feats of the era. It paled in comparison to the flight Wiley Post made around the globe in 1933.
- Born to a farming family, young Wiley saw his first airplane as a teenager and dreamed of a career in aviation. But there was no money in it at that time, so he began working as a mechanic in the Oklahoma oilfields.
- Barnstormers came through town one day, and their parachutist was too incapacitated to perform. Post begged the barnstormers to let him make the parachute jump, even though he had no experience whatsoever. After that success, he made nearly 100 more jumps. But Wiley kept his job in the oilfields, too.
- That was how he lost partial vision. A chip from an oil rig caught his left eye. An infection set in, and doctors had to remove the eyeball. His depth perception was thrown off, but he adapted over time.
- With the worker’s compensation check from the accident, Wiley bought his own airplane. He earned income by teaching people how to fly and by barnstorming.
- For those who could afford it, Post also operated his biplane like an airborne taxi. He once flew Will Rogers to the rodeo that had come to town. The two men, both from Oklahoma, became life-long…
