shows the Curtiss Oriole Kristine presented to Arctic explorer Roald
Amundsen by Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Corporation, 1922.
Photo at top left is Lt. Oskar Omdal. Capt. Roald Amundsen as at the
During the late 19th
century, many Americans and Europeans romanticized distant and unexplored
lands; the more exotic a place seemed, the more exciting it was. Africa
and the Arctic consequently captured people's attention. Although many
individuals had contemplated exploring the north polar region throughout
history, it was not until the late 1800s--after several scientific and
technological advances had taken place--that adventurers could mount
serious expeditions into the area. As explorers set out into the Arctic, a
major race began to see who could be the first to reach the North Pole.
Land-based expeditions got to the Pole first in 1909 (although some
scholars are still debating this "fact"), but another contest quickly
ensued among aviators to see who could be the first to fly to the "top of
the world." Pilots also began battling to see who could be the first to
soar across the entire width of the Arctic. In all, from the late 1800s to
the mid 1950s, several aviators competed to establish records in the
projection map of the Arctic Ocean, centered on the North Pole, showing
of two flights of pilot Carl Eielson and George Hubert Wilkins over the
Their aborted March 1927 flight (and route followed by foot back to
and their more successful April 1928 flight from Point Barrow Alaska, to
Dead Manīs Island
in the Svalbard Group, near Spitsbergen, Norway, are shown.
The first flight over
the Arctic occurred in 1897 when Swedish engineer Solomon Andree tried to
pilot a hydrogen-filled balloon from Spitsbergen, Norway, to the North
Pole. Andree lifted off on July 11 and reached almost 83° N latitude
before his balloon went down and he disappeared. It was not until 1930
that another team of explorers discovered his remains. Although Andree's
expedition failed, it did start others thinking about using balloons to
explore the polar region.
The first serious
attempt to use airplanes in the Arctic occurred in 1923 when Norwegian
explorer Roald Amundsen--who in 1911 had been the first person to reach
the South Pole--tried to fly from Wainwright, Alaska to Spitsbergen with
fellow Norwegian Oscar Omdal. Unfortunately, Amundsen and Omdal's aircraft
became damaged and they had to abandon their journey. Nevertheless, by May
1925, Amundsen was back at it again, this time with American explorer
Lincoln Ellsworth, and a small crew. On May 21, the group tried to reach
the North Pole using two Dornier Wal "flying boats." After taking off from
Kings Bay in Spitsbergen, they made it to approximately 88° N latitude
before making an emergency landing due to mechanical problems. Stranded,
they spent more than three weeks carving out a runway on the ice so that
they could takeoff and return home. Although the expedition ultimately
failed, it was the first attempt to fly an airplane to the pole.
Portrait of Richard Byrd.
A year after the
Amundsen-Ellsworth expedition, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Richard Byrd
and pilot Floyd Bennett joined the ranks of those trying to reach the Pole
via the skies. On May 9, 1926, the two men took off from Kings Bay in a
trimotor Fokker aircraft and headed toward the top of the world. After 15
hours, 30 minutes (or 15 hours, 57 minutes, depending on the source), Byrd
and Bennett returned to Spitsbergen and claimed to have circled the North
Pole. Within the year, both men would receive the U.S. Congressional Medal
Josephine Ford, the plane that Richard Byrd flew to the North Pole on his
1926 polar expedition.
However, despite Byrd
and Bennett's apparent triumph, controversy quickly marred their feat.
Several people questioned whether they had even made the trip. Some
aviators doubted that the men could have flown that far given the trip's
short elapsed time and whether a trip that fast was within their plane's
capabilities, given its usual average speed. There are several other
reasons why some historians doubt whether Byrd and Bennett made it to the
North Pole, but generally, most people continue to regard them as the
first to fly over the top of the world.
Norge dirigible in England.
Amundsen, somewhere in Alaska, around 1925.
Only a few days after
Byrd and Bennett returned, Amundsen and Lincoln Ellsworth boarded the
Italian dirigible Norge (meaning Norway) in Spitsbergen and headed for the
Pole. They had wanted to be the first to fly over "the top," but after
Byrd and Bennett's record setting journey, they could hope only to be the
first to fly over the Pole in a dirigible. On May 12 (or 13, depending on
which side of the globe and international date line one is on), the Norge,
piloted by Italian Umberto Nobile, crossed the Pole en route to Alaska.
The flight marked both the first dirigible journey over the Pole and also
the first crossing of the entire Polar Sea. It also enabled Amundsen to
become the first person to have visited both the North and South Poles.
Norge preparing for the second stage of its polar flight, in its hangar in
Pulham, England, 1924.
At approximately the
same time that the Byrd-Bennett and the Nobile-Amundsen-Ellsworth
expeditions were taking place, Australian adventurer George Wilkins joined
forces with Alaskan bush pilot Carl Ben Eielson and began a series of
attempts to traverse the Arctic Ocean in an airplane. They tried several
times in 1926 and 1927, but failed each time. Then, in April 1928, they
flew a single-engine Lockheed Vega from Point Barrow, Alaska, to
Spitsbergen. It was the first successful crossing of the Polar Sea in an
airplane. Both men became international celebrities. Wilkins received a
knighthood and became known as Sir Hubert, while Eielson claimed the
Harmon International Trophy for being the year's best aviator.
photo shows the flying boat used on Roald Amundsenīs North Pole expedition
on the return of the expedition to Oslo, Norway, in June 1925.
In May 1928, about a
month after Wilkins and Eielson's achievement, the first major Arctic
aerial tragedy occurred and claimed the lives of several polar explorers.
The incident began when Umberto Nobile and his crew attempted to fly a new
dirigible, the Italia, over the Arctic. Nobile and the Italia crashed
during the return journey and Roald Amundsen and several adventurers
immediately mounted the first significant Arctic aerial search and rescue
mission. Amundsen and his crew died when their plane went down during the
search. Even though Nobile and five of his crew eventually made it to
safety, some of the era's best polar explorers had died in the process.
In the 1930s and the
1940s, the Russians began to dominate Arctic aviation. On June 18, 1937,
pilot Valery Chkalov and two crewmembers flew a single-engine ANT 25
airplane from Moscow to Vancouver, Washington, via the North Pole. The
entire flight took 62 1/2 hours, some 5,500 miles (8,851 kilometres), and
established a new nonstop, long distance flight record. Within a month,
another three-man crew, led by Mikhail Gromov, piloted his ANT 25 to yet
another endurance record when they flew non-stop from Moscow to San
Jacinto, California, by way of the North Pole, a journey of some 6,300
miles (10,139 kilometres), in 62 hours, 20 minutes. Then, on April 23,
1948, three Russian aircraft carried several scientists to the North Pole
to establish a scientific base, landing at exactly 90° N latitude. It was
the first time that any aircraft had ever actually touched down precisely
at the North Pole. A year later, on May 9, two Soviet scientists set
another record when they became the first people to parachute onto the
In the 1950s, two
Americans established a couple of important Arctic aviation records. On
May 29, 1951, U.S. Navy Captain Charles Blair flew a P-51 Mustang fighter
from Bardutoss, Norway to Fairbanks, Alaska, via the North Pole. It was
the first solo flight over the North Pole and the Arctic. The non-stop
journey had taken 10 hours, 27 minutes, and traversed some 3260 miles
(5,246 kilometres). Blair received the Harmon International Trophy for his
achievement. A few years later, in 1955, American Louise Arner Boyd became
the first woman to reach the North Pole by air. Boyd, a woman who had
explored the Arctic on foot for many years, chartered a DC-4 aircraft at
age 67 and had a Norwegian crew fly her over the Pole.
From the 1960s to the
present day, aircraft and pilots have largely helped transport and support
land-based expeditions across the Arctic region as well as played a key
role in search and rescue missions. However, there have been a few
significant polar flights in the second half of the 20th century. On
November 14-17, 1965, the Rockwell Polar Flight took place under the
sponsorship of Rockwell-Standard Corporation. This flight was the first
round-the-world flight to pass over both the North and South Poles,
basically going "over the top" and "under the bottom." The flight
established eight world speed records for jet transport aircraft and also
conducted scientific studies that focused on cosmic ray absorption and
high-altitude meteorology. In addition, as recently as the year 2000, two
other Arctic aerial "firsts" took place. That year, British adventurer
David Hempleman-Adams finally realized the dream of 19th century Solomon
Andree when he flew to the North Pole in a hot-air balloon. And on April
17, 2000, American aviator Gus McLeod became the first person to reach the
North Pole in an open-cockpit plane. Perhaps these two flights will help
renew interest in Arctic aerial exploration, one of aviation history's
most fascinating chapters.