An Oklahoma City sculptor is seeking to erect a 50-foot-tall statue of aviation pioneer Wiley Post along Route 66 in nearby Edmond.
Post’s accomplishments are numerous: the first to fly solo around the world, a key developer of one of the first pressure suits and a discoverer of the jet stream. Post was born in Texas, but his family moved to Oklahoma when he was 5, and he grew up in the Sooner State.
According to The Oklahoman newspaper, the statue would be called “Beacon of Vision”:
Nathan Pratt, a Cheyenne-Arapaho artist and inventor who works with ceramics, glass, woods, concrete, metal and more hopes to establish a 50-foot-tall sculpture of the famous aviator dressed in a pressure suit he developed during the early 1930s to fly his beloved “Winnie Mae” aircraft higher and faster than anyone, yet. […]
Finding a suitable location took time, until Edmond city officials suggested a piece of city-owned land on the southwest corner of Post Road and State Highway 66.
Edmond’s city council approved the concept earlier this year, making it possible for Pratt to begin working on the project’s engineering plans and to seek financial backing for a piece of art that likely will cost close to $1 million to build. So far, Edmond’s Visual Arts Commission has agreed to contribute $30,000 for his project.
The sculpture will consist of metal tubing enclosed by sculpted metal panels forming its exterior. His goal is to have the piece built and dedicated by 2026, when the highway’s centennial is celebrated.
Pratt created this video about Post and his project:
More about Pratt’s project can be found here.
Alas, Post is best known as the other fatality in the Alaska plane crash in 1935 that killed popular movie star and humorist Will Rogers. Post deserves better.
(Screen-capture image from video of the proposed Wiley Post statue for Edmond, Oklahoma)