June 23, 1931: With Harold Gatty as navigator, pilot Wiley Post took off from Roosevelt Field, N.Y., in a Lockhead Vega dubbed Winnie Mae for an around-the-world flight. Post's eight stop course took him near the Arctic Circle, but his distance of 15,447 miles was too short to receive qualification from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) for a circumnavigation of the globe. His time of 8 days 15 hours 51 minutes was nevertheless faster the official FAI record set by the Graf Zeppelin, and he received great popular international acclaim. Two-years later, Post would repeat the feat without a navigator to become the first to fly solo around the world.
