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A Century Ago, an Explorer and His Pilot Claimed to Be the First People to Fly Over the North Pole. Here’s Why Experts Doubt That Achievement
Key takeaways
- That day, the pair reported flying over the North Pole, which would have made them the first people ever to do so.
- By the 1920s, achievements in flight were headline-grabbing events that illustrated the future importance of air travel.
- Byrd and Bennett flew in a Fokker trimotor plane and took off from Spitsbergen, the largest island of Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, to reach the planet’s northernmost point.
That day, the pair reported flying over the North Pole, which would have made them the first people ever to do so.
By the 1920s, achievements in flight were headline-grabbing events that illustrated the future importance of air travel.
“It wasn’t until the mid-1920s that airplanes became reliable enough and big enough that you felt comfortable to undertake some of these trips, be it flying across any of the oceans or to the North or South Pole,” says Bob van der Linden, a curator at the National Air and Space Museum. “It was a very exciting period, particularly because the airplane was a brand-new invention.”
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