From Pole to Pole

by Garth James Cameron

  Curtiss Oriole Kristine with Oscar Omdal and Roald Amundsen. Amundsen took delivery at Mineola, Long Island on April 6, 1922. The Oriole was to be carried aboard Amundsen’s ship Maude and used for short range reconnaissance in the Arctic.

  He had a much more ambitious plan for a second aeroplane he wished to acquire. He read about a new type of aeroplane that had set an endurance record of almost 27 hours. On December 29–30, 1921, Edward A Stinson and Lloyd Bertaud had stayed aloft for 26 hrs. 19 min. 35 sec. The aircraft was a Junkers F13 designed and built in Germany and marketed in the United States as the Junkers-Larsen JL-6. It was an advanced aircraft for its day, being of all metal construction with a cantilevered monoplane wing and an enclosed cabin for four passengers, although the two pilots were housed in an open (sometimes characterized as a semi-enclosed) cockpit. This was at a time when most aeroplanes were open cockpit biplanes of wood and fabric construction, with the wings braced by struts and internal and external wires. The machine was streamlined and had a futuristic look. The cabin was lined and the seats for the passengers were upholstered. The seats had seat belts and the cabin upholstery provided a degree of soundproofing. Everything about the Junkers was in marked contrast to the slow, open, two-seat cockpits of the war surplus Curtiss JN-4 Jenny (in North America) and Avro 504K (in Great Britain and its Empire) that aviation minded people were most likely to encounter. Amundsen believed that the all-metal structure was suited to Arctic conditions. The American agent for the type was the Danish-American businessman John A Larsen. Larsen had obtained the agency and a licence to construct the type in the United States. Although he imported 23 F13s he did not use the manufacturing license. In 1920, he sold eight aircraft to the US Post Office. In 1920–21 three of the Post Office aircraft caught fire in the air and all three were destroyed with the loss of at least seven lives. Amundsen may not have been aware of the accidents. The US Air Service investigated the accidents and came up with modifications that cured the problem. In the Air Service report it was noted that the aircraft was promising but its handling required suitably trained pilots. The aircraft seemed to have the range to make a non-stop flight from the north coast of Alaska to the North Pole and on to Kings Bay, Svalbard. The distance to be covered was about 1,835 nm and the Junkers cruised at 75 kt. giving it a still air range of about 2,000 nm. There was, of course, a huge difference between staying aloft for over 26 hours near an airfield in fine weather, with no navigation issues and the option of landing if the weather changed or a fault developed, and the flight Amundsen wished to make. He was always an optimist and he decided to procure a Junkers and attempt the flight. He intended to divert to Cape Columbia in northwestern Greenland if circumstances prevented him from reaching Svalbard.

  Amundsen and Omdal about to fly the Curtiss Oriole, probably at Mineola on April 6, 1922.

  Amundsen needed pilots and his first choices were two of his countrymen. Odd Dahl (1898–1994) was not only a pilot but a mechanic, a motion picture cameraman and radio operator. Amundsen also hired Norwegian naval aviator Oscar Omdal (1895–1927) to be one of his two pilots. Omdal was both a pilot and a mechanic. When he was hired he had military and civilian flying experience and had served in the Norwegian Navy. The 1922–23 expedition was the first of three of Amundsen’s expeditions he would take part in. Omdal was present at Long Island when the Oriole and F13 were handed over in April of 1922. Amundsen and Omdal familiarized themselves with the aircraft by making flights in both of them. The Curtiss and the Junkers each had distinctly different features and handling characteristics. The Curtiss was a conventional strut and wire braced biplane with a light wing loading, a low stalling speed, and a steep glide with the throttle closed. The F13 was a streamlined monoplane with no external wires or struts, a high wing loading and a high stalling speed. Its glide without power was shallow compared to the Curtiss. Omdal had to adapt to the characteristics of both machines. The F13 was named Elisabeth (in large letters on both sides of the fuselage), painted grey overall with a black engine cowling, Norwegian colors on the wings and tail and the distinctive Junkers-Larsen logo on both sides of the fuselage. The metal skin of the machine was corrugated in a very distinctive way and Junkers aircraft used that type of covering for 25 years. The modern appearance, the luxurious seating in an enclosed cabin, and it’s relatively high performance made the F13 the 1920s equivalent of an executive jet. Amundsen decided to fly from New York to Seattle in the Junkers. The flight would be in stages, and he would then have the machine dismantled and loaded aboard the Maude to be carried to Point Barrow on the Arctic Coast of the Territory of Alaska. The flight would give Omdal valuable experience of the F13 and of navigating on long cross-country flights. Amundsen had always stressed the role of careful preparation in achieving successful expeditions. On April 10, 1922, Amundsen and four companions took off from an airfield at Long Island, New York bound for the first stop at Cleveland. Near Clarion, Pennsylvania they encountered trouble of some kind and the Junkers turned over when landing in a field. The pilot and passengers escaped with bruises, but the aircraft was badly damaged. The cause of the accident is not clear, and reports suggest that bad weather (a hail storm), a shortage of petrol, or an overheating engine caused the unplanned landing. The Pittsburgh Press for April 12, 1922, reported that “Tuesday’s hail storm forced him to land.” The most likely scenario is that bad weather caused the pilot to make a precautionary landing in a field which turned out to be soft. The undercarriage sank into the soil causing the aircraft to flip onto its back. The Junkers’s streamlined airframe, high wing loading, and high stalling and approach speeds would have made it a challenging machine to fly for pilots used to the high drag and light wing loading of the biplanes typical of the day. A pilot unfamiliar with the Junkers might have found it more difficult to judge the approach and flare out for landing. Omdal was on board and was probably flying the airplane. The aeroplane was dismantled at the scene and returned to New York. Within days Amundsen had acquired a second Junkers and this was crated and sent to Seattle to be loaded aboard the Maude for the voyage to northern Alaska.

  At some point Amundsen hired a Canadian pilot to fly the Junkers on the great flight to the North Pole and Svalbard, with Omdal and Dahl as back-ups. The Canadian pilot was Elmer G Fullerton who arrived in Seattle on May 30, 1922 to join the expedition. He had been a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force during World War I and had experience of flying the F13. Imperial Oil purchased two Junkers F13s from Larsen in 1920 and had them flown from New York to Edmonton, a distance of over 1,600 nm. This delivery flight was a notably long one for the era and made good sales copy for Larsen. Imperial Oil named them Rene and Vic and employed the aircraft to support the survey of oil reserves discovered in the Northwest Territory of Canada where surface travel was difficult, particularly during the winter. One of the pilots dropped out at Edmonton and was replaced by Fullerton. Fullerton and George Gorman flew the aircraft up to the McKenzie and Fort Norman areas of the Territory. The pilots were pioneers of bush flying in remote areas during the winter and had many mishaps and adventures as a result of a demanding operational environment and a lack of experience of this type of flying. At one point one of the Junkers was flown with a locally produced propeller. Fullerton had flown the Junkers on wheels, skis, and floats and was familiar with flying from ice and snow in an Arctic winter. He was aboard the Maude when the Oriole was flown on skis. The pilot was Odd Dahl with Captain Oscar Wisting (Captain of the Maude) as observer. After the second flight the Curtiss was damaged on landing and could not be repaired locally.

  Oscar Omdal, Roald Amundsen, and John M Larsen with Junker F13 Elisabeth. Larsen was the Junkers agent for North America and imported more than 20 F13s. He also had a license to manufacture the Junkers design but did not do so. Amundsen took delivery of an F13 in April 1922. This was damaged on the first leg of a delivery flight from New York to Seattle. He was loaned a second F13 which was shipped to Seattle and loaded on the Maude to be taken
to Point Barrow on the Arctic Ocean coast of northern Alaska.

  Omdal and Amundsen boarding a Junkers F13 in cold weather gear. If the planned flight Alaska-North Pole-Svalbard had been attempted they would have spent up to 30 hours flying and navigating in sub-zero temperatures in the aeroplane’s open cockpits. A 75 kt. slipstream awaited the navigator while leaning out of the cockpit to take sun sights with a sextant.

  The Junkers had been loaded aboard Maude at Seattle and transported to the northwestern coast of Alaska. It was then transferred from the Maude to the schooner C S Holmes, a trading vessel, to be carried to Point Barrow. Ice conditions were not favorable and the crated aircraft plus a prefabricated hut and supplies for the winter were unloaded at Wainwright. In 1926, Alaska was sparsely populated and America’s last frontier. Alaska had been a territory since 1912 and would not become a state until long after Amundsen’s day (it became the 49th state of the United States on January 3, 1959).The population of the territory in 1920 was just over 55,000. By the time they arrived at Wainwright, conditions were not suitable for an immediate flight to the Pole and beyond. They erected the hut, named it Maudheim, and stored the Junkers for the winter. Omdal stayed with the Junkers while Amundsen left for Nome for the winter. The plan was to make the attempt on June 21 or 22, 1923, when the sun would be at its highest. Fullerton had elected not to stay with the expedition and dropped out of the story at about this time. Omdal was assigned to the Junkers for the great flight and Dahl would stay with the Maude. Dahl’s skills included those of radio operator. He had been trained in radio at Marconi’s in Great Britain.

  The Curtiss Oriole Kristine on the sea ice by the Maude off Wrangel Island in the Russian Arctic. It was intended for short range ice reconnaissance. It was flown by Odd Dahl with Captain Oscar Wisting as a passenger. It was damaged on landing from its second flight and was not used again.

  The flight was taken seriously in Norway with Flight reporting on May 31, 1923 that the Norwegian government had voted 60.000 kroner for two seaplanes to be taken to the ice edge north of Svalbard to meet and escort the Junkers to Kings Bay. It may be inferred that the real reason was for them to conduct a search and rescue flight if Omdal and Amundsen did not arrive. Amundsen’s flight plan included diverting to Cape Columbia on Ellesmere Island (the most northerly point of Canada) if the weather on track was too bad. There was also a plan to use the Curtiss and Junkers to lay down a fuel cache about 400 miles to the north. How the aviators would find the cache without a radio beacon (not available in 1923) on the drifting ice pack was never explained. Amundsen sledged to Nome for the winter, returning to Wainwright in 1923 to find that Omdal had assembled the Junkers. The expeditions gear included wheels, skis and floats for the F13. A photo dated April 27, 1923 shows Amundsen and Omdal, dressed in cold weather gear, about to board the F13 which has Christine painted on the port fuselage side, just behind the cabin door. The aircraft is on wheels and is resting on a grassy surface with no sign of ice or snow. The photo may be mis-dated and may have been taken in New York before the F13 was shipped to Alaska. If it was taken in 1923, it appears the aircraft was flown on wheels in Alaska. The aircraft was fitted with skis by the start of May, and on May 11, 1923, Omdal flew the Junkers on a test flight from the frozen lagoon at Wainwright as a movie camera rolled. The camera operator caught the action when the Junkers’s port undercarriage leg and ski was damaged on the first landing. A photo taken at Wainwright shows Amundsen and Omdal standing beside the Junkers which has floats fitted but is minus its wings. It is not clear whether it was flown with the floats but Amundsen did write that they were “unserviceable.”

  He abandoned the flight at this point but it is not clear whether the damage was the reason or he had reassessed the situation and decided that it was just too risky. One author has written that Amundsen had now calculated that the Junkers could carry no more than 18 hours of fuel when operating on skis. The skis would also produce more drag than the wheeled undercarriage and lower the cruising speed and therefore reduce the range available on whatever amount of fuel could be carried. Amundsen had planned to make flights out on to the frozen Arctic Ocean to lay down fuel caches. Amundsen’s business manager Haakon Hammer offered to operate an F13 from Svalbard to lay down further caches from his end. The whole idea was clearly unworkable, as the ice moved miles per day in unpredictable patterns. Without radio beacons and precise navigation (this was the 1920s) there was no chance of finding a fuel cache on the ice en-route and a safe landing and take-off from the ice was unlikely if they did find it. This meant they would have to take off from Wainwright with fuel for about 30 hours. This would require a long and smooth runway. The length required would have to have been determined by a series of test flights with the load increased on each flight. Assuming they took off safely, they would have navigate accurately and control the aeroplane in conditions of poor visibility, and the technology required was simply not available to them in 1923. Historian, pilot and air navigator, John Grierson admired Amundsen but wrote:

  “This was the most unimaginative plan ever put forward by Amundsen, whose extensive knowledge of the ice was not matched by his understanding of aircraft operations.”

  Hammer had gone ahead with his part of the plan, and when he received a telegram from Amundsen saying that he would not be making the flight in 1923 was faced with a decision about what to do. He had obtained a Junkers F13 on floats registered D 260 and named it Eisvogel (Kingfisher). After doing some joy rides for notables at Bergen it was being shipped north to Tromso when Hammer received Amundsen’s telegram. Hammer decided to continue on to Svalbard and make a photo survey of northern Spitsbergen. His expedition included pilot Harold Neumann, photographer Walter Mittelholzer, scientist Kurt Wegener, reserve pilot Duks, mechanic Holbein, and Junkers service representative Lowe.

  The aircraft was assembled at Green Harbor and operations were commenced. They started with a 2 hrs. 12 min. flight and followed this with flights lasting 2 hrs. 45 min. and 6 hrs. 40 min. The flights covered much of Spitsbergen, and still photographs and film were taken. On the last flight Neumann had pressed on in spite of one of the magnetos failing, and the engine developing less than full power and running roughly for the entire flight. The passed over Danes Island at one point and could see the remains of Andrée’s and Wellman’s buildings clearly from 7,000 ft. On return it was found that the magneto was burnt out. There were no spares, so that was the end of the flying. The photos and motion picture film were outstandingly beautiful due to Mittelholzer’s skill and the exceptionally clear atmosphere. With the engine running rough they were lucky to get up to over 7,000 ft. and 80° north on the final flight. This expedition returned to Germany having made the first photographic flights above the Arctic Circle.

  Haakon Hammer’s Junkers F13 floatplane at Green Harbor, Svalbard in July 1923. Hammer is second from the left standing on the float. He had planned to coordinate with Amundsen on Amundsen’s flight from Alaska to the North Pole and Svalbard. Hammer was already on his way when Amundsen cancelled his flight and Hammer decided to continue. The F13 was flown by Harald Neumann and made some notable flights exploring and photographing Svalbard. The result was a book of photographs of Svalbard from the air.

  Pilot Harald Neumann with Haakon Hammer’s Junkers F13 floatplane during the 1923 Svalbard Expedition.

  In the meantime Amundsen had been pondering the lessons of the failed North Pole flight expedition. He later wrote:

  “I had now become convinced, from our experience at Point Barrow, that the Junker plane could not make the flight, and that the only hope of success lay in getting flying boats. In other words I had concluded that efforts to land on the very rough Arctic ice with skis or similar devices was not practical. We must have airplanes specially designed to light on and take off from the water, snow and ice.”

  The only aircraft that would meet his requirements was the Dornier Wal designed by Claudius Dornier in Germany and manufactured in Italy.

  “At
this point I ran full steam into a series of events that led to the most distressing, the most humiliating, and altogether the most tragic episode of my life.”

  Amundsen was planning new expeditions and trying to sort out his finances and pay off his debts. His brother Leon had been his business manager for many years and served Amundsen well. However in 1923 he calculated that Roald owed him $25,000 and feared that the total debts owed would mean he would be unlikely to get his money. Leon resigned and tried to have Roald’s house sold to satisfy the debt. In 1921, Roald had asked Hammer to act as his agent and gave him a power of attorney to conduct all kinds of business in his name. Hammer was an American of Danish origin and was carrying on business in Seattle as a ship broker. This appointment turned out to be a mistake as, just when Amundsen needed a conservative approach to his financial affairs, Hammer took some great financial risks in his name. Amundsen later described Hammer as being ‘a criminal optimist’ and the facts support that assessment. Hammer committed him to the purchase of three Dornier Wal flying boats at $40,000 each when there seemed to be no real chance of raising the money. Amundsen had often taken financial risks, but this time it appeared as if he was never going to work his way back to solvency. Amundsen consented to an order declaring him bankrupt. He toured the United States writing articles for the newspapers and lecturing to raise money, but audiences were thin and profits low. Late in 1924, he was in a hotel room in New York feeling gloomy and thinking that it would take him 60 years to pay off his debts, when the phone rang, and an acquaintance from seven years before offered to change his life forever.