By: Egil H Thomassen For: www.europeanairlines.no One of the first books I bought, as a fresh aerophilatelist was N.C.Baldwin’s “Bridging the Atlantic”. It is stated in the book’s preface: “So far, as we are aware, no really comprehensive chronicle of projected and successful special and first flights has appeared hitherto in any language (about Atlantic flights). This work is therefore an attempt to fill the gap through a concise, essentially factual chronology of events”. This was written in 1945 and still holds true. The book tells of triumphs and tragedies, of the latter there are about 80 unsuccessful attempts...
Oliver Andre Rosto – A Life Dedicated to Aviation
The Norse-American aviator Oliver Andre Rosto (1881-1972) was the first Norwegian to design, construct and fly a monoplane. The first flight of this monoplane (later christened “Duluth No 1″) was on February 26, 1913 from the ice of Lake Superior at Duluth, Minnesota, USA. After this flight Oliver Andre Rosto was mainly active in the world aviation and worked as inspector for the Curtiss Aeroplane & Engine Factory in the USA, for Ericson Aircraft Ltd. in Baltimore and from 1928 to 1952 for the Civil Aeronautic Authority. At the age of 71 he started to work for Transocean Air Lines...
1939: THE ROUTE #1621 OSLO-GOTHENBURG-COPENHAGEN (-BERLIN)
[caption id="attachment_4310" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Painting by Keith Woodcock[/caption] AB Aerotransport was formed in March 1924 by, among others, Junkers Flugzeugwerk AG (a German aircraft factory that supported the formation of airlines throughout Europe) and the Swedish Florman brothers. The company started with routes Stockholm - Helsinki, Malmö - Hamburg and Malmö - Copenhagen, and managed to establish itself as the national airline in Sweden. In the period June – September 1939, it operated a route with landplanes to Norway. A short story. In 1926, AB Aerotransport inaugurated a route between Malmö, Copenhagen and Gothenburg and hoped that the Norwegian Junkers-owned...
Widerøe’s Flyveskole Study Tour to Germany
Widerøe’s Flyveskole (Wideroes Flying School) was the flying school of the airline Widerøe’s Flyveselskap itself formed in 1934. In the week of May 2 to 8, 1938, three pupils of the Widerøe’s Flyveskole made a study trip to Germany with the company’s Stinson SE-8M, LN-BAR. The participants were traffic pupils and were: Chr. F. Walter, Holger Hannestad, Trond Kindset. They were under the command of the school’s chief instructor Martin Hamre. Here a short report of the visit. The photographs have not been taken during the visit, but are merely used as illustrations. The report has been written by Martin...
The ‘Silver Spinner’ and ‘Tiger
[caption id="attachment_4103" align="aligncenter" width="680"] Children were facinated with aircraft and were here allowed to climb on the Friedrichshafen FF49C, N.3 of J. L. Tiedemanns Tobaksfabrik. (via Kay Hagby)[/caption] In 1920, the Norwegian tobacco compay 'J.L. Tiedemanns Tobaksfabrik' purchashed its first aircraft for advertisments flights and named it 'Silver Spinner'. During the next two years, a second aircraft was purchased, that was given the name 'Tiger'. We follow the history of the two aircraft. The 'Tiger' was involved in the first civil aircraft accident in Norway. In November 1920, the J. L. Tiedemanns Tobaksfabrik (a tobacco company from Christiania, now Oslo)...
Junkers F 13 joyrides in Oslo (1926)
[caption id="attachment_3868" align="aligncenter" width="834"] The Swedish-registered Junkers F 13, S-AAAB in the harbour of Oslo. it made numerous joyrides.[/caption] Capt. Doxrud worked with full energy on the formation of an airline company under the name of AS Norsk Aerotransport. Adrian Florman considered the choice of Capt. Doxrud as managing director of AS Norsk Aerotransport crazy. Furthermore it was clear that previous no airline company under the name of AS Norsk Aerotransport was either registered or formed in Norway. Thus no shares could be taken over by AB Aerotransport or Junkers Luftverkehr AG. They had to start all over again. But Capt. Doxrud did...
Royal Capital Tour with ‘Raceren’
In 1920, Tancred Ibsen started an airline called AS Aero. He purchased, among others, a Hansa Brandenburg W29, registered it as N.5 and was soon nick-named 'Raceren' - the racer. Ibsen had a good relationship with the newspapers in Norway. Of course, there was a win-win-situation, as he benefited from publicity in the newspaper about him and his seaplanes, and the newspaper had good stories to write about. The national newspaper Aftenposten came up with a good idea. In July, the newspaper asked Ibsen, if he was interested in making a bet: tour within 24 hours along the royal capitals...
The shortest visit to Norway ever: 29 minutes!
[caption id="attachment_3690" align="aligncenter" width="544"] Messerschmitt Bf 108-B1 D-ICNN which arrived at Kjeller on 10 August 1037[/caption] It left as fast as it arrived. On a lovely Summer day, 10 August 1937, at 1230, a small blue plane came down from the sky and landed nicely and fast on Kjeller’s green grass. After filling up 200 liters of fuel, the aircraft disappeared just as fast. It was at Kjeller for exactly 29 minutes. It must have been the shortest visit to Norway?! What kind of flight was this? It was a Messerschmitt Bf 108 B-1S Taifun - a German one-engine low-wing...
John Bochkon – A true Norwegian hero
[caption id="attachment_3630" align="aligncenter" width="229"] Photograph of John Bochkon. (via Hans Olav Løkken)[/caption] Sometimes you have to go through your papers and clean up and throw away some stuff. This time, I found a nice article by the hand of Hans Olav Løkken about an attempt to cross the North Atlantic, which ended with the death of Clyde Allan Lee and John Bochkon. The reason to mention this attempt is that the John was Norwegian and had a flying certificate issued by Orville Wright. He was born in Trondheim (Norway) on 8 March 1904. Due to sickness, he did not...
The first air mail flight of Naval Ltn Sven Brun ended upside-down
[caption id="attachment_3585" align="aligncenter" width="792"] The Supermarine Channel of the Marinens Flyvåpen (Naval Royal Air Corps)seconds before it crashed! (Nasjonalbiblioteket)[/caption] On the first flight on 12 July 1920, Naval Ltn Sven Brun departed with Supermarine Channel I, F.38, from Horten and flew to Christiania. Here the mail was taken on board. Immediately after take-off from Christiania, the flying-boat crashed and was destroyed beyond repair. On board was the journalist Leif Sinding from the newspaper ‘Morgenbladet’ and he wrote a long article about the accident and how he experienced it. The accident was described as follows: ”When we boarded the ‘aeroplane’ the...