Winnie Mae's Pant Comes Home

A piece of the famous Winnie Mae airplane flown around the world in a record-setting flight by Oklahoma aviator Wiley Post will return to Oklahoma Saturday during a welcome home party and reception at Wiley Post Airport.

The event will take place at 1 p.m. inside Hangar 21 on Millionaire Drive.  The entrance is south of NW 63 off of Rockwell Avenue. The part from the Lockheed Vega will be the largest piece of the Winnie Mae on display outside of the aircraft itself, which is displayed at the Stephen Udvar-Hazy Air Museum at Dulles International Airport in Washington D.C.

The piece of the airplane, a wheel cover, is signed by Wiley Post with the inscription “8 days, 15 hrs, 51 mins” and the dates “July 23-July 1, 1931” – the dates and time of his historic flight.

The “pant” of the blue and white Winnie Mae was found earlier this year by a California woman whose parents were pilots. Post had taken the airplane to California to replace the part after it was damaged during the around-the-world flight with Harold Gatty.

The woman, Jackie Mullarky, found the part when renovating her parents’ Victorian home. She had planned to sell the wheel cover as scrap metal, but decided to do an Internet search on the date and name first.

“I was totally shocked. I couldn’t believe it,” Mullarky said in an interview with The Oklahoman in March, “then I found some pictures of the plane and said ‘That’s it.’”

Oklahomans Bill and Sue Halpain agreed to fly to California to pick up the part. Bill Halpain was trained by the same flight instructor as Post.

After its introduction and reception Saturday, the Oklahoma treasure will be on display at the 99s Museum of Women Pilots near Will Rogers World Airport until the Curtiss-Wright Wiley Post Hangar is complete in late 2007.