Lockheed Vega “Winnie Mae”

One of those airplanes with a good amount of history under its wings, yet fairly unknown to most people.

In the late 1920’s the Lockheed Vega was designed as a passenger aircraft (5 to 7 passengers). However, the way it made history was by breaking altitude records and flying around the world at the hands of a one eyed pilot: Wiley Post.

Mr. Post started to use his boss’s airplane with the intention of racing, but later purchased it from him. Eventually, He seriously modified the airplane to fly around the world, adding fuel tanks, navigation equipment, etc along with a navigator (Harold Gatty).

A few flights around the world had done already, but they had taken weeks and months. Wiley Post’s circumnavigation was the first time to be done IN A TIMELY MANNER: 8 days and 16 hours in the summer of 1931.

Two years later flying solo (without a navigator), with an autopilot prototype, he flew again around the world in 7 days and 19 hours.
Mr. Post later started experimenting with this airplane for flights using what we know now as the “jet stream” (a fast wind that happens in the high parts of the atmosphere, used to their advantage by modern airliners).

Beside my model, I’ve included a picture of Mr. Post with his eye patch standing up in the cockpit, and one I took of the real airplane at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA.