| Summary: | This is a guide to materials in The Bert R.J. (Fish) Hassell housed in the History of Aviation Collection, Special Collections and Archives Division, The University of Texas at Dallas. Bert "Fish" Hassell was a pioneer aviator and began his flying career in 1914. His idea for a shorter, more direct route from the United States to Europe through the Great Circle Route in the arctic led to his famous emergency landing on the Greenland ice cap in 1928. In 1954 he helped construct the Distant Early Warning System. In 1969 Hassell's plane was recovered from Greenland and airlifted back to Rockford, Illinois. Hassell's daughter, Mary Hassell Lyons, played a major role in the restoration and permanent display of his plane, as well as the publication of his autobiography, "Fish Hassell, a Viking with Wings: An Autobiography."
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