More Than 100 Aircraft Gather To Honor Wiley Post and Will Rogers

Will Rogers/Wiley Post Fly-In celebrates an early coupling of aviation and pop culture.

Jonathan Welsh

Tuesday, August 16, 2022 at 04:04 PM ET

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The fly-in took place at Oklahoma's Dog Iron Ranch (OK37). [Courtesy: Will Rogers Memorial Museum & Birthplace Ranch]

Key Takeaways:

The Will Rogers/Wiley Post Fly-In and National Day of Remembrance in Oologah, Oklahoma, commemorates the August 15, 1935, plane crash that killed the famous humorist Will Rogers and pioneering aviator Wiley Post, also honoring all small plane crash victims.
Held at the Will Rogers Memorial Museum and Birthplace Ranch, the event brought more than 100 aircraft to the Dog Iron Ranch.
Will Rogers and Wiley Post were influential figures in the 1930s who actively promoted aviation's potential as a future transportation revolution, with Post advancing technology and Rogers popularizing the concept to a broad audience.

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Passing through Oologah, Oklahoma, last weekend, one might have thought it was 1935, with small airplanes landing on a turf strip in a ranch field, and sightings of two men who looked a lot like the record-setting pilot Wiley Post and famous entertainer Will Rogers.

In fact, the occasion was the Will Rogers/Wiley Post Fly-In and National Day of Remembrance at the Will Rogers Memorial Museum and Birthplace Ranch. The event marks the day, August 15, 1935, when Rogers and Post died in the experimental aircraft Post had built in Alaska using Lockheed Explorer and Orion components.