History Of Aviation In Alaska
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History Of Aviation In Alaska
Aviation in Alaska has a central importance In the vast, lightly populated state with severe weather issues. The short highway system links a few major population centers; railroads are of even lesser importance. Ocean ports, islands and river towns are served by ocean-going vessels. Air service makes up the rest. Air service by "bush pilots" to the Interior and western Alaska, as well as the Aleutian Islands, allowed for the influx of settlers, the year-round contact of villages with the state's larger cities and services, mail and supplies, and rapid transportation of people and goods throughout the state. Katherine Johnson Ringsmuth, ''Alaska's Skyboys: Cowboy Pilots and the Myth of the Lost Frontier'' (2015). Commercial service Commercial service in Alaska began with Wien Air Alaska in 1927. It expanded in the 1930s with Pacific Alaska Airways, Barnhill & McGee Airways, McGee Airways and Star Air Service, with the latter two eventually becoming the core of Alaska Airlines ...
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Bush Pilots
Bush flying refers to aircraft operations carried out in the bush. Bush flying involves operations in rough terrain where there are often no prepared landing strips or runways, frequently necessitating that bush planes be equipped with abnormally large tires, floats, skis or any other equipment necessary for unpaved runway operation. It is the only viable way of delivering people and supplies into more difficult to reach, remote locations. Etymology This term ''bush'' has been used since the 19th century to describe remote wilderness area beyond clearings and settlements hence ''bush flying'' denotes flight operations carried out in such remote regions. In Australia, in particular, bush refers to areas that might be called forest or wilderness in other countries. Purpose Bush flying is the primary and sometimes the only method of access across Northern Canada, Western Canada, Alaska,the Australian Outback and many other parts of the world. History In Canada, the first real use ...
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Carl Ben Eielson
Carl Benjamin "Ben" Eielson (July 20, 1897 – November 9, 1929) was an American aviator, bush pilot and explorer. Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska is named in his honor. In 1997 Carl Ben Eielson was inducted into the North Dakota Aviation Hall of Fame. Background Carl Benjamin Eielson was born in Hatton, North Dakota to Norway, Norwegian immigrant parents. His interest in aviation went back to his childhood. Following the entry of the United States into World War I, Eielson found his chance to become an aviator. Eielson learned to fly in the U.S. Army Air Service in 1917. In January 1918 he enlisted in the newly formed aviation section of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. World War I ended while Eielson was in flight training. Eielson returned to North Dakota to help in his father's store and finish his degree at the University of North Dakota. During the winter of 1919–20, he and others founded the Hatton Aero Club, the first flying club in North Dakota. After graduating from t ...
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Aviation History Of The United States
Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air balloons and airships. Aviation began in the 18th century with the development of the hot air balloon, an apparatus capable of atmospheric displacement through buoyancy. Some of the most significant advancements in aviation technology came with the controlled gliding flying of Otto Lilienthal in 1896; then a large step in significance came with the construction of the first powered airplane by the Wright brothers in the early 1900s. Since that time, aviation has been technologically revolutionized by the introduction of the jet which permitted a major form of transport throughout the world. Etymology The word ''aviation'' was coined by the French writer and former naval officer Gabriel La Landelle in 1863. He derived the term from the v ...
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Weeks Field
Weeks Field was the first airport for Fairbanks, Alaska, existing from 1923 to 1951, when most operations were moved to Fairbanks International Airport. In later years, the term Weeks Field came to be known for neighborhoods of Fairbanks in the path and vicinity of the former airstrip. Most of the area became a city (later borough) park and residential areas, with the few surviving buildings serving mostly commercial functions. Weeks Field was built in 1923 on the site of a baseball field named Weeks Ball Park, which had served as an impromptu landing strip for airplanes prior to the construction of the airport. On July 4, 1923, Carl Ben Eielson flew the first commercial aircraft flight in Alaska from Weeks Field. The baseball field/race track was named after John W. Weeks. Noel Wien and Bill Yunker made the first non-stop flight between Anchorage and Fairbanks on 6 July 1924, taking off from Delaney Park Strip and landing at Weeks Field in under 4 hours. On 20 Oct. 1928, Wi ...
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List Of Airports In Alaska
This is a list of airports in Alaska (a U.S. state), grouped by type and sorted by location. It contains all public-use and military airports in the state. Some private-use and former airports may be included where notable, such as airports that were previously public-use, those with commercial enplanements recorded by the FAA or airports assigned an IATA airport code. Due to the small population combined with the large area of the state, much of which is wilderness, most of Alaska is both uninhabited and almost entirely undeveloped. This leads to many towns with no roads leading to them, which are only accessible by airplane (although many coastal villages are also accessible by ship, they nonetheless do not contain any roads accessible by the rest of North America). Because of this, virtually every town in Alaska has an airport. This leads to Alaska having by far the most airports in the country per capita, containing roughly 1 out of every 400 Americans but nearly 1 out of every 5 ...
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List Of Airlines In Alaska
The following is a list of airlines that are based within the U.S. State of Alaska: Passenger carriers *Alaska Air Group **Alaska Airlines is based in Seattle and owned by the Alaska Air Group out of Washington state, and is the primary operator serving Alaskan communities and connecting Alaska with the rest of the U.S. mainland. It operates scheduled commuter, domestic and international services from its airline hub in Anchorage. *Bering Air is headquartered in Nome, Alaska. It operates domestic scheduled passenger and charter services, as well as air ambulance and helicopter services. Its main base is Nome Airport, with hubs at Ralph Wien Memorial Airport in Kotzebue and Unalakleet Airport north of Unalakleet, Alaska. Bering also flies to Anadyr and Provideniya in the Russian Far East. * Evergreen Helicopters, a part of Evergreen International Airlines, a cargo airline based in McMinnville, Oregon, USA., operates out of Anchorage where it offers a diversified fleet of heav ...
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Northwest Staging Route
The Northwest Staging Route was a series of airstrips, airport and radio ranging stations built in Alberta, British Columbia, the Yukon and Alaska during World War II. It extended into the Soviet Union as the ALSIB (ALaska-SIBerian air road). Origins The route was developed in 1942 for several reasons. Initially, the 7th Ferrying Group, Ferrying Command, United States Army Air Corps (later Air Transport Command) at Gore Field (Great Falls Municipal Airport) was ordered to organize and develop an air route to send assistance to the Soviet Union through Northern Canada, across Alaska and the Bering Sea to Siberia, and eventually over to the Eastern Front. The US-Canadian Permanent Joint Board on Defense decided in the autumn of 1940 that a string of airports should be constructed at Canadian expense between the city of Edmonton in central Alberta and the Alaska-Yukon border. Late in 1941 the Canadian government reported that rough landing fields had been completed.Carter 1983, pp. ...
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Alaska World War II Army Airfields
During World War II, Alaska was a major United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) location for personnel, aircraft, and airfields to support Lend-Lease aid for the Soviet Union. In addition, it was in Alaska that the Empire of Japan bombed and seized United States soil and as a result the USAAF was actively engaged in combat operations against them. Airfields Combat airfields * Adak Army Airfield, : Adak Island, Aleutian Islands, 1942-1945 : Transferred to Alaskan Air Command; Became Davis Air Force Base (1947); Transferred to Department of the Navy, 1950 as Naval Air Station Adak * Amchitka Army Airfield, : Amchitka Island, Aleutian Islands, 1943-1945 : Transferred to Alaskan Air Command; Became Amchitka Air Force Base; Closed 1948, now abandoned * Alexai Point Army Airfield, : Attu Island, Aleutian Islands, 1943-1945, Closed 1945, now abandoned. * Casco Cove Army Airfield, : Attu Island, Aleutian Islands, 1943-1945 : Transferred to Alaskan Air Command, Inactivated 1945; ...
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History Of Aviation
The history of aviation extends for more than two thousand years, from the earliest forms of aviation such as kites and attempts at tower jumping to supersonic and hypersonic flight by powered, heavier-than-air jets. Kite flying in China dates back to several hundred years BC and slowly spread around the world. It is thought to be the earliest example of man-made flight. Leonardo da Vinci's 15th-century dream of flight found expression in several rational designs, but which relied on poor science. The discovery of hydrogen gas in the 18th century led to the invention of the hydrogen balloon, at almost exactly the same time that the Montgolfier brothers rediscovered the hot-air balloon and began manned flights. Various theories in mechanics by physicists during the same period of time, notably fluid dynamics and Newton's laws of motion, led to the foundation of modern aerodynamics, most notably by Sir George Cayley. Balloons, both free-flying and tethered, began to be use ...
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History Of Alaska
The history of Alaska dates back to the Upper Paleolithic period (around 14,000 Anno Domini, BC), when Hunter-gatherer, foraging groups crossed the Beringia, Bering land bridge into what is now western Alaska. At the time of European contact by the Russian colonization of the Americas, Russian explorers, the area was populated by Alaska Natives, Alaska Native groups. The name "Alaska" derives from the Aleut language, Aleut word ''Alaxsxaq'' (also spelled ''Alyeska''), meaning "mainland" (literally, "the object toward which the action of the sea is directed"). The U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867. In the 1890s, gold rushes in Alaska and the nearby Yukon, Yukon Territory brought thousands of miners and settlers to Alaska. Alaska was granted territorial status in 1912 by the United States of America. In 1942, two of the outer Aleutian Islands—Attu Island, Attu and Kiska—were occupied by the Japanese during World War II and their recovery for the U.S. became a matter of ...
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Roy S Dickson
Roy is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origin. In Anglo-Norman England, the name derived from the Norman ''roy'', meaning "king", while its Old French cognate, ''rey'' or ''roy'' (modern ''roi''), likewise gave rise to Roy as a variant in the Francophone world. In India, Roy is a variant of the surname ''Rai'',. likewise meaning "king".. It also arose independently in Scotland, an anglicisation from the Scottish Gaelic nickname ''ruadh'', meaning "red". Given name * Roy Acuff (1903–1992), American country music singer and fiddler * Roy Andersen (born 1955), runner * Roy Andersen (South Africa) (born 1948), South African businessman and military officer * Roy Anderson (American football) (born 1980), American football coach * Sir Roy M. Anderson (born 1947), British scientific adviser * Roy Andersson (born 1943), Swedish film director * Roy Andersson (footballer) (born 1949), footballer from Sweden * Roy Chapman Andrews (1884–1960), American natu ...
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Noel Wien
Noel Wien (June 8, 1899July 19, 1977) was an American pioneer aviator. He was the founder of Wien Alaska Airways. Biography Wien was born in Lake Nebagamon, Wisconsin, but the family moved to a homestead in 1905, to a place now called Cook, Minnesota. In May 1921, he learned to fly a JN-4 in 8 hours, from Major Ray S. Miller, commander of the 109th Minnesota Air Squadron and manager of the Curtiss Northwest Airplane Company's flying school. Unable to pay the bond required to solo, Wien took a job with E.W. Morrill 15 June 1921, helping to fly and maintain his Standard J-1 while barnstorming. After a few more flying jobs, on 2 Sept. 1922, Wien had enough money to put a downpayment on a Thomas-Morse S-4, which he owned for two weeks, unable to make the final payment. Wien then started working for Clarence W. Hinck's Federated Flyers Flying Circus, earning $300 a month, before Hinck's sold out his operation in Jan. 1924. Wien was then hired by Jimmy Rodebaugh, in May 1924, to f ...
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