The World's First Polar Skyway

While doing some research on science journalist of the '50s, Michael Gladych, I come across other interesting science journalists as well. One of them is Ansel Talbert of the New York Herald Tribune. Looking into Mr. Talbert's travel in the '50s, I found that he'd taken a flight from Denmark to Alaska. At first, the only remarkable thing about the flight was that HRH Prince Axel of Denmark and Iceland was on board, (if you're from the Sates like me, I bet you didn't know there was a prince of Denmark and Iceland!)

A little investigation made even this fact seem trite when Prince Axel was revealed as the CEO of SAS airlines, the carrier for the flight in question. Not all was lost though... Far from it!

It turns out the flight was the first commercial flight to take advantage of the U.S. Air Force's newly released polar maps! For the first time ever, a group of passengers flew from Denmark to Tokyo, stopping only in Alaska, in just 8,000 miles, removing 2300 miles from the old route!

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