Wiley Hardeman Post was a famed American aviator during the interwar period and the first pilot to fly solo around the world. Known for his work in high-altitude flying, Post helped develop one of the first pressure suits and discovered the jet stream. On August 15, 1935, Post and American humorist Will Rogers were killed when Post's aircraft crashed on takeoff from a lagoon near Point Barrow in the Territory of Alaska.
Wiley Post
Winnie Mae, Wiley Post's Lockheed Vega when it was on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
Wiley Post with Harold Gatty in Germany, 1931
Wiley Post in his third pressure suit
A pressure suit is a protective suit worn by high-altitude pilots who may fly at altitudes where the air pressure is too low for an unprotected person to survive, even when breathing pure oxygen at positive pressure. Such suits may be either full-pressure or partial-pressure. Partial-pressure suits work by providing mechanical counter-pressure to assist breathing at altitude.
A U-2 pilot suit
An indirect-compression pressure suit without the exterior ballistic covering, showing the many complex fabric folds, internal fold support rings, and flexible stacked cable hinge assemblies of constant-volume flexible joints.
Showing the functional components of a direct-compression capstan anti-G pressure suit: A - inflation hose connection to external air supply, B - flexible elastic tube contained inside an inelastic fabric tunnel along the length of a limb, C - alternating fabric bands to compress suit when capstan inflates, D - laced folds for customizing the fit of the fabric suit to tightly match the wearer's anatomy.
Italian aviator Mario Pezzi in his high-altitude pressure suit, circa 1937
