Bernt Balchen

Bernt Balchen

Bernt Balchen in flight combination on the occasion of his South Pole flight, 1929

Bernt Balchen , DFC, (born October 23, 1899 in Tveit , Kristiansand , Norway ; † October 17, 1973 in Mount Kisco , New York , United States ) was a Norwegian polar explorer , aviation pioneer and US colonel .

Life

Bernt Balchen was a member of Richard Evelyn Byrd's 1st Antarctic Expedition . Between November 28 and 29, 1929, he was the first person to fly over the South Pole as the pilot of the three-engine Ford Trimotor aircraft named Floyd Bennett . In 1933/34 and 1934/35 he was with Lincoln Ellsworth in Antarctica to dare the first transantarctic flight with him, but was not successful. In May 1949 he flew over the North Pole , becoming the first person to fly over both poles. For this achievement he was awarded the Harmon Trophy in 1953 .

During the Second World War , he led a training camp for exiled Norwegians near Toronto who wanted to fight in the US Air Force . He later controlled the construction of the US base Qaanaaq in Greenland and the Luleå-Kallax Air Base in northern Sweden.

He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

His awards serving the U.S. Armed Forces include the Distinguished Flying Cross , Distinguished Service Medal , Legion of Merit, and Air Medal . In 1973, the year he died, he was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame . Norway awarded him the Order of Saint Olav (Commander with a star). The Balchen Glacier and the mountains of Mount Balchen and Balchenfjella in Antarctica are also named after him as the mountain Balchenryggen on the island of Spitsbergen . He is also indirectly the namesake for the Oberstbreen .

Works

• Come north with me. An autobiography. Hodder & Stroughton, Norwich 1958, p. 318.
• with Corey Ford, Oliver La Farge : Kampen om Grønland. Samlerens forlag, Copenhagen 1947, p. 137.

Web links

• Bernt Balchen in the National Aviation Hall of Fame (English)

• Bernt Balchen in the database of Find a Grave (English)