19311776 Club
Post and Gatty land at Roosevelt Field; the world is circled in 8 days, 15 hours
The two men left this same field nine days ago in a single-engine Vega; Eckener's Zeppelin took 21 days to do what Winnie Mae just did in fewer than nine.
Hugo Eckener's Graf Zeppelin had taken 21 days to circle the earth in 1929 — a triumph of engineering that set the bar for what long-distance travel could look like. On June 23, 1931, Wiley Post and Australian navigator Harold Gatty lifted off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, in a single-engine Lockheed Vega named Winnie Mae, aiming to cut that record by more than half. They landed back at Roosevelt Field on July 1, having covered 15,474 miles across 13 stops in 8 days, 15 hours, and 51 minutes. The reception they received, Post noted, rivaled Lindbergh's…
