Do you know what jet streams are? No no, these aren’t the streams of jet that you can see when a flight cruises at speed. Don’t confuse it with an ocean current of drifting seawater either. A jet stream is a fast-moving, narrow current of air meandering in the atmosphere. 

It isn’t unique to Earth, and occurs in the atmosphere of several planets, including Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. On Earth, jet streams encircle the globe and are westerly winds, meaning they flow from west to east. They are located near the tropopause, which is the atmospheric boundary demarcating the troposphere and stratosphere – the two lowest layers of the Earth’s atmosphere. 

While the discovery of jet streams is a story unto itself, the human who first experienced it first-hand had an eventful life himself too. This was American aviation pioneer Wiley Post, a record-breaking flyer who inspired a generation of aviators. 

Born in 1898, a teenaged Post found his life’s calling during a county fair in Oklahoma in 1913. His first view of an aircraft was enough for him to realise what he wanted to do with the rest of his life – fly!

One-eyed Wiley

In the years that followed, he mastered the classes at an aviation school, learnt radio technology while training to be a pilot during World War I (the war ended before he completed his training), before going to work on an oil rig. The unsteady work made him turn to other means, which led him to being jailed for armed robbery before being paroled.

Wiley Post posing directly in front of the nose of his Winnie Mae. | Photo Credit: Frank Griggs (Smithsonian Institution) / flickr

Returning to the oil fields, Post lost his left eye in an oil field accident in 1926, but even the partial loss of vision wouldn’t prevent him from doing what he wanted to. Instead, he used part of the settlement money to buy his first aeroplane and he was soon about to make his claims to fame.

Around the World in Eight Days

After winning an air race from Chicago to Los Angeles in 1930, he partnered with Australian navigator Harold Gatty to fly around the world in the Lockheed Vega 5-C aircraft named Winnie Mae. They covered a distance of over 24,000 km in a record time of 8 days, 15 hours, and 51 minutes from June 23 to July 1, 1931. Later the same year, their account of the trip was published as Around the World in Eight Days. 

The memorial at Wiley Post’s grave calls him the “Father of modern aviation” | Photo Credit: Wesley Fryer / flickr

Two years later, Post was at it again, this time on his own. Aboard his Winnie Mae, Post shattered his own record as he completed the first solo flight around the world on July 22, 1933 after flying for 7 days, 18 hours, and 49 minutes. He demonstrated significant aviation technologies during this flight, including two new aeronautical devices – radio direction finder and an autopilot 

Having completed a couple around the world flights, Post next set his sights on altitude. As his Winnie Mae wasn’t pressurised, he designed and created a pressurised suit flight – a precursor to what astronauts wear today. 

Not officially recognised

By December 1934, he was ready to make his attempt to set a new altitude world record. On December 7, Post bettered the then existing record, having reached an altitude of over 50,000 feet. His record, however, wasn’t officially recognised as the two mechanical barographs aboard his aircraft didn’t agree within the prescribed margin required for validation of an altitude claim. This flight, however, enabled Post to become the first human to experience jet stream personally. 

For someone who lived and breathed flying and who experienced immense joy and fame by flying, Post also met his end in a flying accident. Flying aboard a hybrid floatplane along with his friend and humorist Will Rogers in 1935, Post lost control of the craft as it was aerodynamically unstable, killing both on board. His flying career didn’t last long, but he had established himself as one of the most colourful characters in the early years of aviation by then. 

The discovery of jet streams has four different stories to it. Tying them together is this mysterious, invisible force of nature. 

1883 Krakatoa explosion

While the first indications of such a phenomenon were proposed from the start of the 19th Century, it was likely first noticed during the 1883 Krakatoa eruption, one of the most catastrophic volcanic explosions in history. The deadly eruption spewed hundreds of tons of volcanic ash and toxic fumes into the air, to heights as high as 80 km. This meant that they were caught by jet streams. As a result, they were spread far and wide, spreading throughout our planet. The Earth’s overall temperature dipped by 0.4°C in the year following the eruption as we experienced a volcanic winter. 

Oishi’s 1920s discovery

Wasaburo Oishi was a Japanese meteorologist and founder of Japan’s first upper-air observatory. Focussing on the happenings of the upper atmosphere, Oishi suspected that strong, extremely fast-moving air currents existed. 

From a site near Mount Fuji, Oishi launched a number of weather balloons to prove his theory right as the high-altitude currents pushed his balloons east. He published his findings, describing them as a strong wind in the upper air. 

Oishi’s discovery, however, largely remained local to Japan and was mostly unheard of in the rest of the world. In case you are wondering why it panned out this way, despite Oishi publishing his findings, there’s a rather peculiar story to go along with it. 

An enthusiastic Esperanto speaker, Oishi published much of his findings in this language – an artificial language devised in 1887 aiming to be a universal second language and an international medium of communication. As not many shared his passion for this language, his works remained mostly unknown until decades later.

The fact that it remained unknown to the larger world did, however, help Japan during World War II. They utilised jet streams to launch attacks on the U.S., with the balloon bombing of Oregon in 1945 being a prime example. The six people who died as a result of this bombing are the only known fatality in the continental U.S. during WWII as a direct result of enemy action. 

Post’s 1934 experience

Did you know that many credit Wiley Post as the discoverer of jet streams? We know that isn’t the case, especially after what you’ve just read about Oishi in particular. What we can say for certain, however, is that Post was the first to experience it first-hand. 

Wiley Post’s first pressure helmet. | Photo Credit: Craigboy / Wikimedia Commons

Following his successful around the world flights, Post got to work on high-altitude flights, aiming to be where no human had been before. Understanding the need for a pressurised suit, he designed what he called the “Man From Mars” pressurised flight suit. 

Along with technical assistance from B.F. Goodrich Company, Post created a suit that seemed like a cross between early scuba diving equipment and a knight’s armour. It included a tall cylindrical helmet along with leather gloves and boots.

Even though Post didn’t officially break the altitude record, this flight enabled him to experience the presence of a fast-moving stream of air. This, we now know, was a jet stream. 

Seilkopf’s stream

You’d think it wasn’t possible to “discover” the jet stream again, but it was exactly that which happened in 1939. This time, it was German meteorologist Heinrich Seilkopf who rediscovered the phenomenon. In addition to describing the phenomenon, Seilkopf coined the term Strahlströmung to refer to it. Strahlströmung literally means jet currents, and the name jet stream was soon born. The years following World War II have helped us better understand jet streams and the important role that they play in the functioning of the Earth’s atmospheric circulation.