SAS Polar flight

The first trans-arctic flight with a commercial aircraft

After delivery of its first DC-6B early in 1952, on November 19, 1952 SAS made an exploratory flight over the North Pole. At 8.30am on November 19, 1952, SAS’ first DC-6B, ‘Arild Viking’, took off from Los Angeles. 28 hours and six minutes later it touched down in Copenhagen, following two intermediate stops at Edmonton, Canada, and Thule, Greenland. The DC-6B became the first commercial airplane to fly over the Polar region.



The route meant that SAS had to redesign the planes to avoid damage when landing for refueling in remote areas along the route where the temp could as low or even lower than -40 c.

Navigation was also a challenge as no compass will function correctly so far north, and a special navigation grid was designed called the poor grid where the lat's and long's where extended over the pole thus giving the navigator something to navigate by with help from the stars, and even building thier own radio stations along the the way to secure communication with the aircrafts.

The aircraft and following aircrafts where equipped with arctic survival kits including tents shovels food and rifles to shot any polar bears with.

On May 23, 1953 SAS's DC-6B piloted by chief pilot, Mikal Aschim made a commercial flight round-the-world departing from Oslo Norway to Thule Greenland and onward westerly with stops in Alaska, Aleutian Islands, Tokyo Japan, Manila Philippines, Bangkok Thailand, Karachi Pakistan, Beirut Lebanon, Rome Italy, Frankfurt Germany, Copenhagen Denmark returning to Oslo Norway on May 29, 1953.

Carried on this flight were forty medical staff rotational personnel to support NORMASH (Norwegian Mobile Army Surgical Hospital).
The task of NORMASH was to position itself behind the Korean War battle lines to give immediate first surgical treatment to injured soldiers.

In 1954 SAS became the first airline to fly a scheduled route using the Polar shortcut, with service between Copenhagen and Los Angeles.
Acquisition of the longer range DC-7C in 1956 allowed SAS to offer nonstop operation over the Pole as far as Tokyo, making it the first airline to operate a round-the-world route over Polar regions.

On September 8, 1956 SAS initiated its Royal Viking deluxe air service with fully reclineable seats.

First airline to fly directly over the North Pole

In 1953, a test flight between Bodø, Norway, and Fairbanks, Alaska, became the first commercial aircraft to ever fly directly over the geographical North Pole.
SAS also became the first airline to introduce a special Polar navigation system to overcome the problems of flying over the magnetic North Pole.

On the 15th November 1954 at 19:18 local time the "Helge Viking" (OY-KMI) took off in Copenhagen for the first commercial flight over the North Pole (flight number SK 931).
The plane was a Douglas DC-6 B with a wing span of 35.8 m equipped with four 2500 hp Pratt & Whitney propeller engines 18-cylinder twin row radial piston.

The maximum cruising speed of this aircraft is 507 km/h.
The range is 7600 km with a service ceiling of 25,000 ft.
The long-range aircrafts used by SAS had a capacity of 50 to 75 passengers.

Capt. Povl Jensen and his crew, incl. the chief pilot and the chief navigator of SAS, flew via Söndre Strömsfjord (Greenland) to Winnipeg (Canada) where a scheduled crew-change took place.

Above the Canadian tundra they met the sister plane "Leif Viking" (LN-LMP) that was on its way from Los Angeles to Copenhagen on the same route. From Winnipeg Capt.
Mikal Aschim and his crew continued the flight to Los Angeles, where they arrived on the 16th November at 22:20 (with a delay of just 3 minutes). The total travelling time was 27 h 15 min and the time airborne was 24 h 25 min.

On board of the plane were the three Prime Ministers of the Scandinavian countries: Hans Hedtoft (Danmark), Tage Erlander (Sweden) and Oscar Torp (Norway) as well as a group of prominent journalists.

The inauguration of the polar route was the biggest single aviation event in Scandinavia. In Copenhagen more than 10.000 spectators joined the ceremony for the departing plane and, roughly 24 hours later, the ceremonial welcome greeting for the arriving plane.

In 1957 SAS inaugurated the transpolar service Copenhagen-Anchorage-Tokyo with the new Boeing DC-7 C. The flying time was reduced from 52 to 32 hours.
By tying together the southern route and the polar route, SAS had earned the right to put "First over the pole and around the world" over the door on its DC-7 C's.

On February 24, 1957 the "Guttorm Viking" took off from Copenhagen to Anchorage Alaska and Tokyo. Simultaneously, the "Reidar Viking" departed from Tokyo.
At 9:10 PM the two aircraft met over the North Pole.

In 1954 SAS became the first airline to fly a scheduled route using the Polar shortcut, with service between Copenhagen and Los Angeles. Acquisition of the longer range DC-7C in 1956 allowed SAS to offer nonstop operation over the Pole as far as Tokyo, making it the first airline to operate a round-the-world route over Polar regions. On September 8, 1956 SAS initiated its Royal Viking deluxe air service with fully reclineable seats.

Launching the world’s first Polar shortcut

The new route cut the travel time between California and Scandinavia from 36 hours to 22 hours. SAS had no competition on the Polar route for five years until 1959.



Source:

SAS Scandinavian Airlines
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/969181/
http://www.polerouter.de/frameset-story.htm
http://www.wingnet.org/rtw/RTW004B.HTM

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