“I hit the kill switch just in time to keep 'Winnie Mae' from showing off while standing on her nose. It would have been fatal to our hopes." –Wiley Post Throughout his incredible career, Mr. Wiley H. Post has relentlessly strived for excellence and continually pushed the limits of aviation. Despite the many difficulties and obstacles he faced, he never knew the meaning of giving up. He made numerous discoveries during the Golden Age of Aviation era. In these next paragraphs you will see several “snapshots” of the extraordinary life of a one-eyed pilot who dramatically changed aviation. Wiley H. Post, the pilot who put everything on the line to fly not just a little faster, at a little higher altitude, but a little further than anyone else, just one more time. It was November 1898 when one of our country's most influential aviators came into the world with bright eyes. Wiley Hardeman Post was born in a small town in Texas. When the boy was only five years old, his family moved to another small town near Maysville, Oklahoma. It was in that small town in Oklahoma that they would begin their new life. Wiley's general disdain and apathetic attitude toward academics led to his withdrawal from school only in eighth grade. One afternoon the young teenager took a trip to the county fair in Lawton, Oklahoma. The county fair hosted an air show that gave the Wiley Post its first glimpse of a manned aircraft. It was at that moment that he realized his destiny: to become a pilot. Without delay he enrolled in aviation school in Kansas City, Missouri. Post had high hopes of flying for his country, but the war ended faster than he could sign the dotted line. After a few years, while working as a laborer in the oil fields, he would finally get an untimely second chance to fulfill his destiny.