Carl Ben Eielson (1897–1929) was one of eight, possibly nine, children born to Norwegian immigrant parents. He grew up in the small town of Hatton, North Dakota. Of course, most towns in North Dakota were small, as it had been the Dakota Territory for less than eight years before Eielson’s birth. In fact, Hatton remains very small with a population of less than 1,000.
Flying for Alaska
Eielson returned to North Dakota with a passion for flying. While finishing his degree at the University of North Dakota, he convinced several businessmen to invest in the purchase of a biplane, the Curtiss JN-4, known as the “Jenny.” While barnstorming through the midwest, Eielson crashed the plane. The business venture over, he returned to his studies, this time in Washington at Georgetown University. While studying law and paying for tuition as a congressional guard, Eielson made the acquaintance of Daniel Sutherland, the representative for the Alaska Territory.Sutherland suggested that Eielson could obtain a job for him as a teacher in Alaska. Eielson was intrigued about the frigid territory, but more than teaching and the landscape intrigued him. Sutherland was a major proponent of aviation, and he promoted the need for air transportation in the territory, especially in areas that were difficult to reach (which was most of the later-to-be largest state in the Union).
Performance and Delivery
On July 4, 1923, Eielson made his maiden flight in Alaska from Fairbanks to Nenana―about 50 miles―where he conducted a stunt performance. His performance was well-timed, as it was nine days before President Warren G. Harding arrived as part of his “Voyage of Understanding” trip. Harding arrived in Nenana on July 15, 1923 to drive in the golden spike that completed the Alaska Railroad. Before Harding and many others, Eielson performed another stunt exhibition.Eielson continued to promote the importance of flight in Alaska as a means of moving people, goods, and growing the region’s population. He feverishly wrote Washington about these needs as well as his successful efforts. By the end of 1923, he received the federal contract for airmail delivery and became the first to deliver mail by air in Alaska. The government provided him with a De Havilland DH-4.
Greater Adventures, Greater Risks
During that same year in April, the U.S. Army Air Service began its flight around the world with four planes. On Sept. 28, 1924, the circumnavigation flight of the globe was complete, even though only two of the original four planes arrived at the final destination. One crash landed in Alaska. The historic aviation moment further inspired Eielson, who left Alaska for the nation’s capital to promote flight across the Arctic Ocean. He met with Gen. Billy Mitchell, for whom the B-25 Mitchell is named, to discuss cold weather flight. Although he was able to meet and discuss his thoughts with military decision-makers, nothing was done. With his airmail contract terminated and interest in cold weather flight waning, Eielson returned to his home state of North Dakota to work with his brother as a bond salesman.But work as a salesman didn’t prove long term. The Canadian arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson had come across Eielson’s reports, and quickly connected him with Australian polar explorer Sir George Hubert Wilkins. In 1925, Wilkins had proposed an Antarctic flight called the Australasian Polar Pacific Expedition. Funds for the expedition never came through, and Wilkins turned his attention north.
After Eielson and Wilkins were introduced, they soon made plans for a flight across the Arctic Circle. At the end of 1926, with Eielson as the pilot and Wilkins as navigator, the two made pioneer flights from Fairbanks to Barrow, a small community on Alaska’s northern shore. In April 1927, the two attempted a flight from Barrow across the Arctic Ocean, but after five and a half hours of flight, the engine failed. Eielson conducted an emergency landing on an ice floe where he fixed the engine and they decided to return to Barrow. Eielson was forced to make several more emergency landings along the pack ice.
The Big Firsts
The following year with the financial backing of the Detroit News, Eielson and Wilkins tried again. With a Lockheed Vega, the two took flight in April 1928 with plans to fly nonstop across the Arctic Ocean from Barrow, Alaska (now Utqiagvik) to Spitzbergen, Norway. The goal, according to Wilkins, was “to discover whether north of Barrow there [was] any land on which to establish a meteorological station.”Covering 2,200 miles, Eielson, along with Wilkins as navigator, made the first flight across the Arctic Ocean. At the end of the year and into early 1929, Eielson and Wilkins conducted the Wilkins-Hearst Antarctic Expedition where they flew across the Antarctic. Eielson, the young former law student with a passion for flying, became the first pilot to fly over the top and bottom of the earth.
For his efforts, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Harmon Trophy, awarded for outstanding international achievements in aviation. The Harmon Trophy was presented to him by President Herbert Hoover.