The Aviation Historian — January 2018

40 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN Issue No 22

Bremen—Hamburg—Copenhagen and
Gothenburg, arrived a few days later at Kjeller,
Oslo’s airfield for landplanes about 15 miles
(25km) north of the city.
Gunnestad operated the Avian, given
the Norwegian registration N-38 (the same
registration as the Moth he had crashed in
France), in Norway for training, demonstration
flights and joyrides, all of which helped him
establish an excellent reputation as a pilot and
teacher. Indeed, many of Norway’s future pilots
learned their trade at Norsk Lufttransport A/S
(Norwegian Air Transport Ltd), the flying school
Gunnestad established in January 1930.
Besides these activities, he also spent two
summers flying the night airmail service
between Oslo, Gothenburg and Copenhagen
for Norwegian company Halle & Peterson and
later for the Norwegian Army Air Services. On
August 3, 1931, he crashed in Army D.H.60M
Moth N-45 (c/n 1435) near Kjeller on the
inbound mail flight and was severely injured,
but miraculously survived.
For some time Gunnestad had been pondering
why nobody had made a direct flight across the
North Sea from Norway to England after Gran’s
flight in the opposite direction in 1914. The more
Gunnestad thought about it, the more he liked
the idea. He became determined to prove the
feasibility of a direct flight, despite a distinct
lack of landplanes in Norway able to make such
a crossing. One aircraft was a strong contender,
however — the brawny Lockheed Vega.
In June 1929 Consul Lars Christensen, the
owner of several Norwegian whaling companies,
purchased Wright J-5 Whirlwind-powered Vega 1

NR33E (c/n 34) from the USA and put it on the

Norwegian register as N-41 (to become LN-ABD

from 1932). This six-seat high-wing monoplane,

designed by Jack Northrop, was of sturdy

construction with a streamlined fuselage and

robust wings. After its first flight in July 1927, the

type went on to set numerous world records.

Norway’s first encounter with the Vega was

when Australian polar explorer Sir George

Hubert Wilkins and Norwegian-American Carl

Benjamin Eielson flew across the Arctic Ocean

from Alaska to Spitsbergen in April 1928, after

which the aircraft was exhibited in Norway.

Impressed by its long-range capabilities, Consul

Christensen saw that the Vega would be well-

suited for whale-spotting during his whaling

expeditions in the Antarctic, and of great use on

expeditions to discover land for Norway at the

South Pole. During an expedition to Greenland,

Christensen’s Vega was given the name

Qarrtsiluni, an Inupiaq word meaning “waiting

in the darkness to burst forth”, a metaphor for

the soul of the whale. Gunnestad knew that this

aircraft would be be ideal, but would the Consul

let him borrow it?

PREPARING THE WAY

On September 12, 1933, before asking

Christensen, Gunnestad visited naval captain

Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen, aviation consultant to the

Consul, and who had recently become Managing

Director of Det Norske Luftfartselskap, Fred

Olsen & Bergenske AS (DNL — Norwegian

Airlines). Riiser-Larsen, who had been on

some of Christensen’s South Pole expeditions,

thought Gunnestad’s idea was worth pursuing

Bearing the same registration, N-38, as the D.H.60X

Moth Gunnestad crashed in the streets of Calais

(formerly G-EBSU, c/n 428) in March 1929, Cirrus-

engined Avro Avian IV N-38 (c/n 323) was acquired

by Gunnestad a matter of weeks later and became

LN-ABF in the early 1930s. It later became part of

the pilot’s Fornebu Flyveselskap fleet from 1934.

GUNNESTAD COLLECTION