75th Anniversary - First Transpolar Flight

[Pilawt]

The first transpolar flight landed 75 years ago today at my home field, Pearson Field in Vancouver WA. The huge single-engine Ant-25 with its three man Soviet crew took off from Moscow 63 hours earlier, and was greeted here by the Commanding Officer of Vancouver Barracks, General George C. Marshall.

http://www.columbian.com/news/2012/jun/20/chkalovs-1937-flight-inspired-young-flier-be/?print

 

[Jim Logajan]

I thought the first transpolar flight was made by either the airship Norge or Byrd in a Fokker?

 

[Pilawt]

I thought the first transpolar flight was made by either the airship Norge or Byrd in a Fokker?

True ... Chkalov's would be the first nonstop intercontinental transpolar flight.

Both the Norge and Byrd's Josephine Ford took off from the island of Svalbard; Byrd's flight was an out-and-back to its point of departure.