Byrd's heroic 1926 North Pole failure
Abstract Richard E. Byrd's record of the 9 May 1926 flight on which he claimed to have reached the North Pole was unsealed several years ago by the archives of Ohio State University. A close examination of Byrd's writings, calculations, and erasures in this diary shows clearly that, althou...
| Published in: | Polar Record |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
2000
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247400015953 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247400015953 |
| Summary: | Abstract Richard E. Byrd's record of the 9 May 1926 flight on which he claimed to have reached the North Pole was unsealed several years ago by the archives of Ohio State University. A close examination of Byrd's writings, calculations, and erasures in this diary shows clearly that, although he and Floyd Bennett achieved a farthest-north-seen and made a heroic attempt to attain the Pole, they never reached that destination. Despite efforts by some organisations and individuals to pretend that there is still a serious controversy, Byrd's own diary data variously confirm the belief long held by most polar experts: that the expedition on the dirigible Norge —led by Roald Amundsen and Lincoln Ellsworth, and piloted by Umberto Nobile — was the first to attain the Pole, on 12 May 1926. |
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