The Flying North PDF
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AVIATOR'S THEFLYING NORTH BY JEAN POTTER The classic history of the Alaskan bushp ilots. AVIATOBRO'OS KSHELF THEFLYING NORTH "A Stirling and excitingb ook." -The New York Times A STUNNING STORY OF CONQUEST ABOVE THE FORBIDDING TERRAIN OF ALASKA. Here is the exciting true story otfh e daring men who pioneered flight over the perilous, blinding white Alaskan tundra. It is a personastl ory of commitment ands acrifice, of triumph and tragedy in the face of the unknown-of the courageous bushp ilots who took off into the icy air with a fearless spirit which drove themt o conquer and open the Northerns kies to what is now a thunderingi nternational airway. I, 2 3 9 4 6 0 76783 D029 > ^ : [SBN --SB':3 -53141,-5 THE FLYING NORTH JEAN POTTER er^r BANTAM BOOKS Toronto New York London Sydney THE FLYING NORTH A Bantam Book / published by arrangement with Comstock Editions, Inc. PRINTING HISTORY Comstock edition published December 1972 3 printings through March 1977 Bantam edition / November 1983 ABOUT THE COVER ARTIST ROBERT BROWN has been freelancing as an illustrator for ten years. Most of his work has been for paper bound book covers. Bob is a pilot interested in ultra light aircraft He has researched backgrounds for a series of paintings of remarkable aviation historical events. He lives in North Babylon, New York. All rights reserved. Copyright 1943 by the Curtis Publishing Company. Copyright 1947 by Jean Potter. Cover art copyright <© 1983 by Robert Brown. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by mimeograph or any other means, without permission. For information address; Comstock Editions, Inc., 3030 Bridgeway, Sausalito, CA 94965. ISBN 0553239465 , Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the wdrds"Bantam Books" and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca JRegistrada. Bantam Books, Inc., 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10103. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA H 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ' - TO , DASHIELL HAMMETT &iJLt n c & ^ Contents PAGE Preface xl CHAPTER 1 1 The Dogs Look Up 2 Flyingest People 6 3 Earliest Birdmen 22 4 The Life of Ben Eielson 29 5 The Death of Ben Eielson 55 6 Spilling Dollars 66 7 Noel Wien 73 8 Over My Station Right Now 84 9 Joe Crosson 87 10 Willing Hands and Feet 104 11 Fred Moller 111 12 She Can Be Cruel 125 13 Harold Gillam 130 14 Bob Reeve 149 15 Jesus and the Whale 170 16 Sig Wien 174 17 A Man Can Do Anything 183 18 Archie Ferguson 190 19 New Skyways - 213 20 Jack Jefford 214 Index 231 FORTY YEARS LATER Preface to the 1983 Edition This book is based on intensive interviews that I conducted nearly forty years ago with leading pioneer pilots of Alaska, who also read the text for accuracy; in large part, it is their own story. Some of . these pilots also helped me prepare the biographies of two fellow pioneers who were no longer alive. Four of the nine pilots to whom I devoted chapters were still flying actively in the mid1940s, so the book was written partly in the present tense. Today eight of the nine pilots are dead and the survivor (Sig Wien) has stopped flying. I am sobered to realize that the book is now a piece of American history: a unique authentic account of the early development of aviation on our northern last frontier where "trailblazing" to an ex traordinary degree was accomplished in the air. Time, in fact, has made a treasure of these pilots' recollec tions. Their dream of Alaska's future importance in an air age has since been realized so dramatically that their prophetic words and perilous flights seem even more worth reporting than when this book was written. Expansion of flight within and through Alaska has been tremendous. Today, to quote an airline executive in California, traffic at the vast, modern air port at Anchorage (pop. 173,000) "makes major U.S. airport cities with many times that population look like Podunk." In the past two decades alone, passengers handled at the Anchor age International Airport have increased tenfold to an annual three million, one third of these transiting on major domestic and foreign carriers including Scandinavian Airlines, Varig Brazilian Airlines, Japan Air lines, and Air France to name only a few. I am thankful to have interviewed the pioneer pilots while it was still possible. The late celebrated author, Dashiell Ham mett, who was not one to use an exaggerated word, once called the record of early aviation in Alaska "breathtaking." It is a record of awesome courage in humane service, of the most arduous progress, of which Americans everywhere may be proud. I will be glad if it inspires some of my countrymen in pioneer work today, in our era of spectacular technological ad vance during which real progress—in serving the basic needs of humanity including its need for survival—has fallen distress ingly short. This would seem to be the frontier of the future. JEAN POTTER CHELNOV Rome March 1983
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