Did He or Didn't He? That is the question.

Lt. Com. Byrd and aircraft. Notice the paddles he is holding in his left hand.

 

On October 25, 1888, in Winchester, Virginia, Esther Bolling Flood Byrd and Richard Evelyn Byrd Sr. welcomed young Richard Evelyn Byrd the 4th into the world. Dick Byrd, as he was usually known, received his early education at Shenandoah Valley Academy. He manifested his love of travel and adventure at the age of twelve or thirteen when he traveled alone to visit a family friend in the Philippines.

 

Young Richard Byrd was a fine athlete but not an outstanding student. and attended the Virginia Military Institute for two years before transferring to the University of Virginia. However, due to financial difficulties, young Richard Byrd the 4th decided to start over and accepted an appointment to the United States Naval Academy as a midshipman on May 28, 1908.

 

A Naval Career

Four years later, on June 8, 1912, Byrd graduated from the Naval Academy as an Ensign in the U.S. Navy, followed by an assignment to the battleship USS Wyoming on July 14, 1912.

 

A photograph of the battleship USS Wyoming.

 

While serving on the USS Wyoming Ensign Bryrd twice, while fully clothed, dove into the waters of the Caribbean Sea to rescue sailors who had fallen overboard. This resulted in his first letter of commendation, followed later by a Silver Lifesaving Medal.

 

Byrd then had assignments to several other naval vessels, including the presidential yacht USS Mayflower.

A photograph of the USS Mayflower from the Mariners' Museum and Park Collection.

 

On January 20, 1915, the handsome young naval officer married Marie Donaldson Ames, a wealthy Boston heiress he had met during her frequent childhood visits to Virginia. They lived in Boston and over the following years gave birth to one son and three daughters. 

 

Unfortunately, on March 15, 1916, Byrd was frustrated as he was medically retired on 3/4 pay because he broke his foot while serving aboard the USS Mayflower in 1916. This was because he had a fragile foot that he had broken several times before. 

 

Although on the navy's permanently retired list, he returned to active duty for World War I and was promoted to lieutenant junior grade retroactive to his previous service time. Byrd then received flight training and finally won his wings on April 17, 1918.

 

During World War I Byrd never saw action, but he commanded air stations in Nova Scotia, helped the navy plan the first transatlantic flight, and developed a bubble sextant to aid in aerial navigation without visual landmarks. After the war Byrd played a key role in expanding the navy's aeronautical program, for which Congress promoted him to lieutenant commander.

 

The Byrd Sextant

 
A photograph of a restored Byrd Nautical Sextant.

 

A photograph of Richard Byrd using a Byrd sextant aboard an aircraft.

 

An Aviation Pioneer

It became clear to Byrd that further advancement in the U.S. Navy was unlikely, and so he left the Navy once again, and then decided to become an independent aviation pioneer. To accomplish this goal he needed money, and he thought that if he could find wealthy patrons to sponsor him, he could then make spectacular flights earning fame and fortune by writing, lecturing, and selling rights to his adventures.

 

In 1925 Byrd commanded the aviation unit of the arctic expedition to the northern part of Greenland which was led by arctic veteran Donald B. MacMillan. The expedition lasted from June through October 1925. However, it was largely unsuccessful.

 

Between the bad weather and his bikering with MacMillan, little was accomplished. But, during the expedition Byrd met Navy Chief Aviation Pilot Floyd Bennett and Norwegian pilot Bernt Balchen. Both men would later contribute to Byrd's expeditions. 

 

Byrd then finally received backing from John D. Rockerfeller Jr. and Edsel Ford for his planned Arctic and Antarctic attempts to reach the North and South Poles by airplane. The first attempt was to reach the North Pole. Byrd, considered by many to be a poor pilot, teamed up with Chief Floyd Bennet as pilot and himself as the navigator for the proposed flight.

 

Byrd was convinced he would be the first man to fly over the North Pole. After all, he had gained experience by being the first to overfly the great icecap that covered much of Greenland. Byrd clearly understood that planning and preparation would somewhat offset the dangers presented at the top of the world.

 

The North Pole Flight

 

By late 1925, Byrd began the expensive process of collecting gear for his planned North Pole expedition. To accomplish this goal he sought help from Edsel Ford, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Vincent Astor, and Rodman Wanamaker.

 

Obviously, Byrd need an airplane to make the trip to the North Pole, and so he chose the American Built Fokker Trimotor, the Dutch Kokker F.VIII-3M, as the plane for his polar flight. He christened the aircraft Josephine Ford in honor of Edsel Fort's daughter.

 

A photograph of the Josephine Ford being prepared for departure.

 

The Fokker F.VIII is the three-engine ten place airliner designed by the Dutch manufacturer Fokker, and was licensed to be built in several countries, including the United States. Fokker aircraft were built in the United States by Atlantic Aircraft Corporation, a Fokker subsidiary.

 

Aircraft Specifications for Fokker F.VIIb/3m:

• Crew: 2 pilots;
• Passengers: 8;
• Propulsion: 3 Wright J-5 Whirlwind Radial Engines;
• Engine Horsepower: 220 hp;
• Max Cruise Speed: 106 mph;
• Service Ceiling: 14,000 feet;
• Range: 684 miles;
• Empty Weight: 6,725 pounds;
• Max Takeoff Weight: 11,464 pounds;
• Wing Span: 17 feet 2 inches;
• Length: 47 feet 11 inches;
• Height: 12 feet 10 inches.

 

What attracted Byrd to the Josephine Ford was that it had already flown over 15,000 miles before Byrd purchased her, and she had a virtually trouble-free track record. The air-cooled engines were lightweight, and that was an important consideration for taking off from an icy landing strip.

 

Centered in each wing were 100 gallon tanks, and Bryd installed two additional tanks in the fuselauge of 110 gallons each. In addition, Byrd decided he needed a scout and photography plane, so he purchased a small two-seat Curtiss Oriole christened Richard the Third after his own father.

 

A Curtiss Oriole airplane being towed by hand through the snow.

 

Specifications of a Curtiss Oriole:

 

• Crew: One pilot;
• Capacity: Two passengers;
• Length: 25 feet 0 inches;
• Wingspan: 36 feet 0 inches;
• Height: 10 feet 1 inch;
• Empty weight: 1,428 pounds;
• Gross weight:   2,036 pounds;
• Powerplant: Curtiss OX-5 water-cooled V-8 engine, 90 hp;
• Maximum speed: 86 mph;
• Cruise speed: 69 mph;
• Range: 582 miles;
• Service ceiling: 8,000 feet.

 

The plan was to fly from the island of Spitzbergen to the North Pole and back again. When his ship, the Chantier, steamed into King's Bay on April 29, 1926, the only dock was occupied by a Norwegian gunboat the refused to surrender the dock to Byrd.

 

A map showing Spitzbergen Island, the largest island north of Norway.

 

The gunboat was supporting the efforts of famed explorer Roald Amundsen to be the first to fly to the North Pole in the dirigible Norge from the same location.

 

The race was on!

 

Not to be deterred, Byrd quickly had the ship lower four life boats, lower the Fokker into the four boats lashed together, and row the Josephine Ford to shore. Once on shore the crew hauled the heavy airplane up a slope on skis. This was followed by the men making an ice runway on the snow surface.

 

Byrd and Bennett take off from King’s Bay, heading off to the North Pole. (Library of Congress)

 

Just to make things harder, Byrd and his pilot Chief Bennett made three attempts to take off, but as no one had ever flown a Fokker Trimotor with skis before, they had to learn as they went.

 

Finally, on May 9 1926, at 1:58 am, Byrd and Bennett sucessfully flew the Josephine Ford of and headed to the North Pole. With Byrd using the sun compass to navigate, the pair flew between 2,000 and 3,000 feet over the ice fields interspersed with open leads of water.

 

Eight hours into the flight Byrd and Bennett discovered an oil leak in the right hand engine, knowing that if the engine quit the heavy Fokker might not be able to remain flying on just two engines! Bennett suggested they land, but the ice field below was so broken up that they quickly decided against it.

 

Being only an hour or so from the North Pole they flew on and, at nine hours and two minutes into the flight Byrd calculated they were at the North Pole. Byrd made a number of sextant observations to confirm where they were while Bennett flew the Fokker around the imaginary point just to make sure.

 

Once Byrd was satisfied they turned southward and headed back to Spitzbergen. On the way back the oil leak stopped in the right engine, and the speed picked up as the aircraft weight was reduced from burning off a lot of fuel.

 

The Return Home

Upon returning to the United States Byrd was treated like a hero, was given a tickertape parade in New York City, and Congress promoted him to Commander and presented him the Congressional Medal of Honor. This was followed by a tour arond the country in the Josephine Ford, celebrating the accomplishment.

 

But, not everyone was convinced that Byrd and Bennett had actually made it to the North Pole. This sparked a controversy that remains to this day: did Byrd actually reach the North Pole? Both sides attacked each other but the argument was never resolved.

 

Did He or Didn't He?

In 1955, Raimund Goerler, an archivist at Ohio State University, discovered a large collection of items in a cardboard box given to OSU by the Byrd Family. This gift was because OSU named their Polar Research Center the Byrd Polar Research Center.

 

In the box they discovered a smudged and water-stained book containing hand-written notes from Byrd's 1926 North Pole flight, as well as notes about his historic 1927 trans-Atlantic flight and his earlier expedition to Greenland in 1925.

 

Goerler went to Gerald Newsom to get help in interpreting the navigational notes he had discovered. Newsom was the professor emeritus of astronomy at Ohio State University, and was previously unaware of the controversy. In fact, Newsom taught celestial navigation as a graduate student, and was still interested in the subject.

 

He was first curious about the solar compass Byrd used to find his way to and from the North Pole. The compass was state-of-the-art for its time, with a clockwork mechanism that turned a glass cover to match the movement of the sun around the sky. By peering at a shadow in the sun compass Byrd was able to gauge whether the aircraft was heading north.

 

Among the artifacts in the Byrd Polar Research Center is a copy of the barograph recording made during the flight, showing atmospheric pressure. A small calibration graph was labeled with altitudes for different pressures, allowing Byrd to determine how high the plane flew throughout the flight. Byrd used the altitude to set a device mounted over an opening in the bottom of the plane, and with a stopwatch he timed how long it took for features on the ice below to move in and out of view.  The stopwatch reading then gave the plane’s ground speed.

 

Because the open cockpit where Byrd took his measurements he wrote messages in a book and handed them to Bennett so he could make his course corrections. Newsom expected page after page of calculations, and he noted there were no ground speeds recorded in the book. In addition, the barograph and calibration graph were very small.

 

A change of atmospheric pressure of one inch would equal only one quarter of an inch on the barograph. Newsom said "That's tiny." If Byrd was off by even a tenth of an inch on the barograph recording, then his altitude would be  off by 18% and the ground speed would be off by 18%. Byrd had a chance for error every time he took a reading througout the flight.

 

In the end Newsome stated "That they returned at all is a major accomplishment, and the fact that they arrived back where they were supposed to - that shows Byrd knew how to navigate with his solar compass correctly."

 

Also, because the airplane flew high enough to see nearly 90 miles to the horizon Byrd may not have reached the North Pole, but in the worse case he almos certainly saw it through the cockpit window.

 

So, the question remains: Did he reach it or not? Let me know your thoughts. The person who comes up with the best answer by the end of June 2025 will win a small prize.

 

I hope you enjoyed this trip through some of the history of aviation. If you enjoyed this trip, and if you are new to this newsletter, sign up to receive your own weekly newsletter here: Subscribe here!

 

Until next time, keep your eyes safe and focused on what's ahead of you, Hersch!