Eighty years ago today

[barit1]

We lost two famous Oklahomans ("Sooners") eighty years ago. On this date in 1935, pioneering aviator Wiley Post and humorist Will Rogers died in a crash of Post's hybrid seaplane, made up of mixed Lockheed parts, near Point Barrow, Alaska.

Lockheed refused to have anything to do with Post's assemblage of spare parts; the horizontal tail was too small for static stability of the airplane. When the engine failed on TO, the ship pitched down uncontrollably.


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[Spooky 2]

There was/is a former Pacific Northern/Western Airlines/Delta Air Lines pilot by the name of Joe Crosson. His father was well know bush pilot in Alaska during that time period and flew the bodies of both Post and Rogers out of Barrow. There is a great story about this in a book he has written but for the life of me I cannot recall the name. The father later became the Chief Pilot for Pan American's Alaska division. The name of the book is Mercy Pilot.

These bush pilots from that era were certainly a different breed.

[India Four Two]

Mercy Pilot : The Joe Crosson Story by Dirk Tordoff: Epicenter Press 9780970849373 (http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=9027648809&searchurl=sts%3Dt%26tn%3DMercy+pilot%26ds%3D20)

[barit1]

Thank you, I24!