Northwest History. Aviation 8. Wilkins' Expedition, United States.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1928
• Subjects: Australian aviator-explorer; Point Barrow; Fairbanks; Alaska; Spitzbergen; George H. Wilkins; Carl Ben Eielson; Lockhead Vega monoplane; gasoline; sneak; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Aviation; Arctic; Eielson; Pacific; Wilkins; Barrow; Spitsbergen
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/86108

Ready To Sneak Upon Arctic: Australian Explorer Hopping Off From Barrow In Early April. READY TO SNEAK UPON ARCTIC Australian Explorer Hopping Off From Barrow in Early April. FAIRBANKS, Alaska, March 6. (/P) —With his aerial dash to Spitsbergen from Point Barrow tentatively set for the first week in April, Captain George H. Wilkins, Australian aviator-explorer, and Lieutenant Carl Ben Kielson, his sourdough pilot, were marking time here today in readiness for the preliminary hop to the arctic base. The Lockhead Vega monoplane was put together here in five days and was taken up for its first test in Alaska yesterday. Today it was pronounced ready for final loading of fuel and supplies for the 500-mile jump to Point Barrow, where additional stores of gasoline and oil are available. In choosing early April for the dash across the arctic "blind spot" of the polar sea, Wilkins is playing the lengthening daylight against the annual fog which rapidly kills visibility. Although the fog banks start rolling with the coming of spring, Wilkins believes intermittent, dispersals of the mist will permit him to sneak through.