Northwest History. Alaska. Crosson, Joe.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1928
• Subjects: north; freight; airport; George E. King; Joseph Crosson; Fairbanks airplane corporation; Alaska; Fokker; B. M. W. motor; Hispano-Sulza Swallow; J. N. 4. D.; snow; transportation; minerals; furs; Nome; Bethel; Whitehorse; Yukon; Carl Eilson; arctic flyer; chief pilot; gold; Christmas trade; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Arctic; Fairbanks; Jagged; Pacific; Tundra
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/90122

Fly 300,000 Miles Up North. Fly 300,000 Miles Up North Three hundred thousand miles of flying, 1000 passengers and 30,000 pounds of freight tranported by air without loss or injury. This record, which might be notable if made on a regular run in a temperate climate with full airport and emergency landing facilities, was reported recently by George E. King and Joseph Crosson of the Fairbanks Airplane corporation. Fairbanks City in Alaska is near the center of that supposedly frigid territory; and it was in Alaska, with its jagged mountains, white in winter; its rivers of ice and its barren snow-blanketed tundra, that this human and mechanical accomplishment was made, sometimes in a temperature of 50 degrees below zero. The Fairbanks Airplane corporation has been operating a flying service in Alaska for three year. It is now being reorganized under a new name with additional equipment. Until now its equipment has been one Fokker with a B. M. W. motor and room for pilot and six passengers, one Hispano-Sulza Swallow for pilot and two passengers, and J. N. 4. D. of the same make, with a carying capacity of pilot and one passenger. Seven months of the year the planes are equipped with skis. The rest of the year being mind, wheel landing gear is used. Except for two weeks during the spring when the snow is melting, flying is continuous. Most of the year there is good visibility and little fog or sleet, two of the greatest menaces to aviation. The longest of the hops is about 600 miles. So far no regular schedules have been adhered to. King says that users of air transportation in Alaska calculated that journeys which by other available means of transit would take a week could be covered in an hour by air. The rate has been $1 a mile. "It coasts just about as much to travel by dog sled." King added, "after paying for dogs, supplies, the outfit and for the guide. The cost is the same by air, but days or weeks of time are saved." The commerce peculiar to the country uses air transport. Alaska's main business is minerals and furs. To get from Fairbanks to Nome or Bethel or to Whitehorse in the Yukon, a prospector by land transit would be from six weeks to two months on the way, encountering hazard and hardship. King or Crosson or Carl Eilson, famous arctic flyer and chief pilot of the company, will take him to his destination in seven and one-half hours. A remote prospector whose claims pay may have a considerable quantity of placer gold and none of the things it will buy. An airplane takes the gold to Fairbanks or Juneau and brings back supplies in exchange or banks the gold. Business men who need to go from point to point now go by plane. Trappers make use of it not only to transport themselves, but their valuable mink and silver fox pelts. During the months when fur is being sent south for the Christmas trade, air transport is of great value to trappers. If they can not deliver their bags to market in time for the busy season they lose money.