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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, I have three watermelons growing in the backyard garden that I planted with my daughter, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday we’re back with another installment of the Friday Forum.
Today’s Fun Fact:
Today is July 22 and on this day in 1933 Wiley Post became the first person to complete a solo flight around the world. His trip around the world took 7 days, 18 hours, 49 minutes. Wiley Post was born in Texas but moved to my home state of Oklahoma when he was five. He saw his first airplane in 1913 at the county fair in Lawton, OK. He worked as a roughneck in the Oklahoma oilfields, studied radio technology at the University of Oklahoma, and began his aviation career at the age of 26 for a flying circus.
Wiley won the National Air Derby from Los Angeles to Chicago in 1930, completing the trip in 9 hours, 8 minutes, 2 seconds. Wiley and his navigator, Harold Gatty, became the first to transverse the globe in a fixed winged aircraft 1931, completing the trip in 8 days, 15 hours, 51 minutes. The previous record was set by the Graf Zeppelin with a time of 21 days.
Wiley Post helped develop a pressurized suit that allowed him to fly up to 50,000 feet. This led Post to discover the jet stream and made the first major practical advances in pressurized flight.
Wiley Post and his good friend, newspaper columnist and humorist, Will Rogers, were killed when the aircraft they were in, flown by Post, crashed near Point Barrow, Alaska in 1935. Both Rogers and Post have airports named after them here in Oklahoma City. Also interesting, (at least to me) Post is buried about 6 miles from where I live in the same cemetery as my grandpa and many other members of my family.
Friday Forum
Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share contributions from Faith and Bonita. You can participate in the Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278.
Join our SILY Facebook group and let’s get to know one-another!
I’m Darrell Darnell and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
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