Over The North Pole

Today, a flight going over the North Pole would not necessarily be an inconceivable event, but for the same thing to happen in 1926, might be a very unusual event. Nevertheless, not impossible, and according to their claims, polar explorer Richard E Byrd and co-pilot Floyd Bennett flew over the North Pole on May 9, 1926, in the Josephine Ford, a triple-engine Fokker monoplane. I suppose the reason that the statement was made “according to their claims” was because the only documentation available in that era would have been their own word. So, assuming the claim is true, this would have been the first time an aircraft flew over the top of the world. It would be literally going where no man has ever gone before.

Byrd and Bennett took off from Spitsbergen, Norway, and reportedly covered the 1,545-mile trip to the pole and back in 15 hours and 30 minutes. The main reason for the questions concerning the validity of the trip lies in the discovery of Byrd’s diary in 1996. While it didn’t clearly state that the two men didn’t make it to the North Pole, the diary seems to suggest that he and Bennett may have turned back 150 miles short of the pole because of an oil leak. While that was not confirmed, if it is true, then Italian adventurer Umberto Nobile, American Lincoln Ellsworth, and Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen (who was in 1911 the first person to reach the South Pole by land) would receive the credit for their airship flight over the North Pole on May 12, 1926, three days after Byrd and Bennett’s flight.

While his place as the first to fly over the North Pole is somewhat in question, Byrd’s place in polar exploration is firmly set. He established a US base in Antartica in 1929, and late in the same year, accompanied by aviator Bernt Balchen, he made the undisputed first aircraft flight over the South Pole. Some experts felt that Byrd could not have flown the distance to the North Pole and back in 16 hours. They also questioned his recording of a strong tailwind that had aided Josephine Ford back to Spitsbergen. Byrd’s logbook, records and calculations were hurried to a select panel of scientists at the National Geographic Society. After checking and rechecking the data, the committee confirmed that Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett had indeed been the first men to fly over the North Pole. Unfortunately, the men didn’t know they had been vindicated. Floyd Bennett had died of pneumonia in 1928, and Byrd died in his sleep of a heart ailment at the age of 68 on March 11, 1957, at his home at 7 Brimmer Street in the Beacon Hill neighborhood in Boston.