D
uring the
first part of
the last century,
Roald Amundsen was
a household name. The
Norwegian explorer had gained
international fame for his explorations
of the Arctic and Antarctic. During the
1920s, a well-financed expedition to
discover the Northeast Passage to the
North Pole had met with frustration and
failure as the exploration ship Maud
(named for the Queen of Norway) kept
getting trapped in the ice. Funds had run
out and Amundsen’s numerous creditors
were chasing after him for payment (see
“Maud’s Long Voyage” in the July issue of
our companion magazine Sea Classics).
The explorer was one to embrace thelatest
in technology
and it became
evident that the way to
escape being trapped by ice for months
at a time was to utilize the new science
of aeronautics and simply overfly the
massive ice fields until the goal of the
North Pole was achieved. Amundsen
would later write, “And now — suddenly
all in one go — it will all maybe change.
Cold and darkness will be exchanged for
light and warmth; the long, laboriouswanderings for a quick flight. No
rationing, no hunger or thirst — only a
short flight. In truth — the possibilities
are great.”
It was not as easy as it sounds.
Amundsen obtained and utilized early
Curtiss and Junkers aircraft, but these
planes met with failure in the extremely
harsh environment. Amundsen had the
good fortune to meet American Lincoln40 AIR CLASSICS/August 2022
BY NORGE
TO THE POLE
AFTER MULTIPLE FAILURES TO REACH THE NORTH POLE BY SHIP,
FAMED NORWEGIAN EXPLORER ROALD AMUNDSEN TURNED TO THE SKY FOR A SOLUTION
BY JON LARSON