Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett: First to Fly over the North Pole

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‘We took off hundreds of pounds of fuel to lighten the load, dug out of the snowdrift and taxied the Josephine Ford up the hill to try again,’ Byrd wrote later (Floyd Bennett claimed they removed 1,000 pounds). The members of the American expedition held an emergency council. They determined that the Fokker could make the trip to the Pole with slightly less fuel than expected, so some of the gasoline was removed to lighten the load. Every bit of nonessential gear was also removed from the fuselage. Since spring was coming to the Arctic, the icy nature of the skiway had become slushy, acting as a drag on the skis. The next attempt would have to be made as near to midnight as possible ‘when the night’s cold wind would make the snow harder and therefore easier to take off from,’ Byrd reasoned.

At approximately a half-hour past midnight on May 9, Byrd and Bennett once more clambered into the cockpits of the Fokker. Neither man had slept for nearly 36 hours, but both were too excited to rest. The skiway was iced in front of the skis to make a quicker start. A rope was tied to the rear ski and secured to a stake in the ground, holding the plane until all three engines were at full power, and then the rope was cut to allow the takeoff run. With engines revving to full power, the Josephine Ford lumbered down the skiway and slowly crept into the still air.

Using dead reckoning off the landmarks on Spitsbergen to establish their exact location, the pair soon climbed to 2,000 feet. As they sped northward, they were surprised at how near the polar ice pack was to land. Byrd recalled the deaths of earlier Arctic explorers and the difficulties encountered by Admiral Robert E. Peary on his dog-sled expedition to the North Pole less than two decades before: ‘It was with a feeling of exhilaration that we felt that for the very first time in history two mites of men could gaze upon her [the Arctic's] charms, and discover her secrets, out of the reach of those sharp claws.’

During the first stages of the flight, Bennett acted as pilot for 40 minutes per hour, while between his 20-minute shift at the controls Byrd focused on the difficult task of navigating the polar regions. Accuracy was the key to success, for if they miscalculated their exact position, the men would not only miss the North Pole but would also be dangerously off course on their return flight home. The brilliance of the sun beating on the ice gave the illusion that land and sky had merged without a discernible horizon, making the reading of a sextant more difficult. Likewise, a magnetic compass was undependable since no one knew what the magnetic variations might be between the North Pole and Spitsbergen. Byrd also lacked a gyroscopic compass, although he felt it would not have aided navigation greatly.

What Byrd did rely upon, however, was a special sun compass invented by Albert H. Bumstead, chief cartographer of the National Geographic Society. The sun compass worked somewhat like an old-fashioned sundial, only in reverse. With the time of day being known, the shadow of the sun bisects the hand of a 24- hour clock and indicates north. Since exact time was essential, Byrd carried two chronometers. He also used a drift indicator, a device lowered through a trapdoor in the plane to help measure–by indicating sideways motion over ground objects–the wind effects that continually pushed Josephine Ford off course.

As the Fokker passed over the Arctic ice, Byrd and Bennett could see ‘mountains astern gleaming in the sun at least a hundred miles behind us. That was our last link with civilization,’ Byrd wrote. ‘The unknown lay ahead.’

Documentation of the flight was of prime importance to prove they had indeed flown over the North Pole. To keep his logbook as accurate as possible–and to make sure they stayed on course–Byrd lowered his drift indicator through the trapdoor every three minutes. Several times he did so without gloves and suffered a mild case of frostbite.

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Tags: Adventurers & Trail Blazers, Aviation History, Expeditions, Historical Discoveries, Historical Figures

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