Augustus Thomas Post Jr. (8 December 1873 – 4 October 1952) was an American adventurer who distinguished himself as an automotive pioneer, balloonist, early aviator, writer, actor, musician and lecturer.

He then bought one of the earlier made automobiles, crafted by Charles Duryea,[2] and helped found the Glidden Auto Tours,[3][4] an automotive distance drive and competition used to promote a national highway system.

[5] As founder of the Aero Club of America[5][11] he served as official timer for Orville Wright's historic 57-minute flight at Fort Myer, Virginia in 1908.

[12] Early that same year and in winter's cold at Hammondsport, New York, Post worked with Alexander Graham Bell's Aerial Experiment Association[13] where he represented the Aero Club and helped test new equipment and gliders.

[5] Post also made meaningful contributions to the establishment of the US air mail service, and to the creation of one of the first major academic programs in Aeronautical Engineering, which was at New York University.

[18] In his later life Post worked as part of the National Association for Music in Hospitals, performed with the New York Symphony Chorus, and continued to support the causes and groups he had helped establish.

He also established the first bus service which ran between the Waldorf Hotel and the Brighton Beach Race Course, giving the horse-drawn carryalls of the day serious competition.

[8] Though Post was considered an excellent driver,[33] he received an additional ticket for running up on a sidewalk while attempting to park in front of the house of Daniel Sickles, at 23 Fifth Avenue.

The event caught the attention of millionaire automotive enthusiast Charles Glidden, who furnished a cup and put up prize money for whoever finished first.

He survived a number of aeronautic disasters, including the rupture of the balloon "Conqueror" in which he was flying with A. Holland Forbes in the Gordon Bennett Race in Berlin in 1908.

[15] The race's ten balloons set off from St. Louis, Missouri; two days later, Post and Hawley landed in a remote, uninhabited area of Quebec near Lake St. John.

While the balloonists were lost in Canada, Post created lean-tos to keep them dry when snow and rain fell, and he caught fish, using improvised lures, to supplement their food stores.

[54] He encouraged participation in the field of aviation for all, including women and minorities, and as secretary of the Aero Club of America he signed the first woman's pilot license issued after World War I, that of Laura Bromwell.

Coolidge responded immediately saying, "Convinced, as I am, of the great importance of aviation in connection with the national defense, and of the necessity for its development as a means of transport and communication in peace, I feel that all encouragement should be extended to such efforts as the University is putting forth.

"[62] The experimental program was a success, and in 1925, two years after its inception, Daniel Guggenheim announced a gift of $500,000 that would fund a new building that included a propeller laboratory, other labs, and a wind tunnel.

[67] Post was an expert on Curtiss planes, which became the workhorses of the Aviation Section of the U.S. Army Signal Corps in World War I. Lansing approved the assignment.

[68] Post's fluency in French[69] and German[41] made it possible for him to gather information and send home detailed reports and observations on the relative strengths and weaknesses of allied and enemy aircraft.

[70] These titles were not associated with his special military service; they were honorary designations conferred by the New York Police Department for his work in helping establish an NYPD aerial unit.

[70]In addition to his service in Britain and France, Post was also a member of the Four Minute Men, a group of volunteers who worked for The Committee on Public Information, an independent government agency dedicated to promoting national awareness of and support for military actions.

Post's contributions as a Four Minute Man, specifically educating the public on the capabilities of aircraft for war and peace, earned him a certificate of honor for his service.

[82] In 1906, Post set off from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in a balloon called "Le Centaur", with Alan Hawley and French aeronaut Count Henry de la Vaulx.

The men cut ballast in an effort to slow the balloon's descent and attempted to land in a farmer's field in North Colebrook, Connecticut, but the basket was dragged a considerable distance by the wind before holding fast.

[41] The fabric of the balloon then tore and the basket plummeted from a height of approximately 4,780 feet, based on the aneroid barograph record that was signed by the race officials.

The men took hold of the support ring above them and lifted their feet as the basket smashed halfway through the tiled roof of a house in the Berlin suburb of Friedenau.

Side gusts hit it, and whirligigs that had bothered the veterans all afternoon spun it like a top, but Post plunged safely through all these dangers, dove down like a fish hawk and lit with a spinning propeller in the center of the field."

[89] While he was banking to make a low turn, the tail of his Curtiss biplane hit a tree, causing the plane to fall 60 feet and smash into the ground.

[91] Their findings were intended to be sent to the Rockefeller Institute, but they were unable to gather data as the weather system came up suddenly at approximately 3 o'clock in the morning when they were traveling at a height of 8,000 feet.

In 1914—the same year he was writing about the possibility of transatlantic flight—he also appeared on Broadway in 103 performances of the original production of Omar the Tentmaker[95] by Richard Walton Tully.

[97] While writing articles like "Up in the Air" for American Magazine[98] and "Kite Balloons: The Eyes of the Artillery",[69] which he translated from French to English, he was also building his reputation as a baritone with the New York Symphony Chorus and the Municipal Opera Association.

He performed at society functions and gave lectures to a variety of groups including The Explorers' Club, the Harlem Prison, The Research Institute for Extra Sensory Perception, and The National Women's Press Association.