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...
Mr Batts flies in Norway
By: Rob Mulder For: www.europeanairlines.no Behind this curious title lies the history of the American aviator Carl Truman Batts, who on behalf of the American Curtiss Company arrived in April 1919 in Bergen, Norway to fly one of the products of the Curtiss Company, the Curtiss MF Seagull, the post-war version of the successful Curtiss MF flying boat. Here is the story of his stay in Norway. During his stay in Norway he made numerous flights and visited cities like Tønsberg, Kristiansand, Stavanger, Bergen, Kristiania and Hamar. The Norwegians, who referred to him as ”Mr Batts”, just loved him and...
The “Junkers Spitzbergen Expedition” (1923)
By: Rob Mulder For: www.europeanairlines.no In 1923 Roald Amundsen attempted to fly from Wainwright, Alaska (USA) across the North Pole to the islands of Spitsbergen. Amundsen’s friend Consul Haakon Hammar and Junkers propaganda director Friedrich Andreas Fischer von Poturzyn organised a relief party to help in case Amundsen’s aircraft would not complete the flight. But Roald Amundsen had to cancel the flight due to problems with the Junkers JL-6. Roald Amundsens failed polar flight In the USA the Junkers Larsen JL-6 had proven itself on numerous long distance flights, among them one in October 1920 from New York to Los...
Thor Solberg and his expeditions
By: Rob Mulder For: www.europeanairlines.no After a successful flying career in the United States of America, Thor Solberg had only one dream left: Flying from the USA to Norway in the footsteps of the Norwegian Viking explorer “Leiv Eiriksson”. He made a first attempt in 1932 but had to abort it and he had to wait until 1935 before he could resume his flight. Upon arrival in Norway he formed an airline company and started with taxi- joy ride and charter flights. At the beginning of the Second World War he stored his aircraft and resumed business as soon as...
Carl Truman Batts 1892-1969
1916 The war speeded up the development of aircraft as no other factor could. Airplanes of greater speed and reliability were built and put into use. One day, we were to see the speedy French "Spad" the foreign fighter plane shipped to Newport News for exhibition purposes. Carl Batts, who had taught Paul Culver to fly the land machine, was chosen to fly it and he looped and rolled at a rate we had never seen before. Those swift planes could fly 120 miles an hour and maneuver with lightning speed. They were armed with a machine gun rigidly mounted...