On July 22, 1933, American aviator Wiley Post completed the first solo flight around the world, landing his Lockheed 5C Vega, the Winnie Mae, at Floyd Bennett Field in New York to a cheering crowd of 50,000 people. Post shattered the previous world record—which he had set himself with a navigator in 1931—by completing the 15,596-mile circuit in just 7 days, 18 hours, and 49 minutes. The flight was a massive gamble for the one-eyed pilot (Post had lost his left eye in an oil field accident years earlier), as he had to serve as his own pilot, navigator, and mechanic. To manage the grueling journey, Post relied on two pieces of experimental technology that would later become industry standards: a Sperry gyroscopic autopilot (which he nicknamed "Mechanical Mike") and a radio direction finder. These tools allowed him to snatch brief periods of sleep while the plane maintained its course. Despite facing mechanical failures, including a bent propeller and a crash landing in Flat, Alaska, Post’s persistence proved that long-distance solo flight was commercially and technically viable.
