Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen
Encyclopedia
Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen was a Norwegian
aviation pioneer
, polar explorer and businessman. Among his achievements, he is generally regarded as the founder of the Royal Norwegian Air Force
.
Riiser-Larsen was born in Oslo
, Norway, in 1890. In 1909, aged nineteen, he joined the Norwegian Naval Academy
and in 1915 the newly formed Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service
. After World War I
, he served as the acting head of the RNoNAS's factory until a more senior officer was appointed. In 1921, he joined the Aviation Council, then part of the Norwegian Ministry of Defence
, as a secretary. This gave him the opportunity to study the fledgling military and civil aviation infrastructure for which the Council was responsible. He also became a frequent pilot on the air routes used by the new aviation companies.
, the famed polar explorer, asked him to be his deputy and pilot for an attempt to fly over the North Pole
. Riiser-Larsen agreed and secured the use of two Dornier Do J Wal seaplanes. The expedition, however, was forced to land close to the Pole, badly damaging one of the planes. After twenty-six days on an ice shelf
, first trying to shovel tons of snow to create an airstrip, until someone suggested the easier way of tramping the snow surface, the expedition's six members squeezed themselves into the remaining plane. Riiser-Larsen somehow managed to coax the overloaded plane into the air and flew the expedition back to the coast of Northern Svalbard..
The following year, Riiser-Larsen rejoined Amundsen for another attempt to fly over the Pole, this time with Italian aeronautical engineer Umberto Nobile
in his recently renamed airship
, the Norge
. Leaving Spitsbergen
on 11 May 1926, the Norge completed the crossing two days later, landing near Teller, Alaska
. The flight is considered by many to be the first successful flight over the North Pole, as the other claimants, Frederick Cook
, Robert Peary
and Richard Byrd
, were unable to verify their attempts in full.
In 1928, Riiser-Larsen became involved in searching the Arctic for Nobile after he had made a successful flight to the Siberian islands and visited the North Pole once more, but crashed near the coast of ther North Eastern part of Svalbard. Riiser-Larsen also became involved in a search for Amundsen, when he as passenger in a French naval flyingboat went missing while he was en route to join the search for Nobile. Eventually Nobile and most of his team were found, but Amundsen was not.
In 1927 Riiser-Larsen wrote an infamous and most unfair chapter about Nobile in Roald Amundsen's memoir book "Mitt Liv som Polarforsker" (My Life as Polar Explorer).
expeditions financed by the Norwegian shipowner and whaling
merchant Lars Christensen
during the late 1920s and 1930s. Ostensibly their goal was scientific research and the discovery of new whaling grounds, but Christensen also requested permission from the Norwegian Foreign Office to claim for Norway any uncharted territory that was found. By the end of the second expedition, two small islands in the Southern Ocean
, Bouvet Island
and Peter I Island
, had been annexed.
In 1929 Christensen decided to include aeroplanes in the next expedition and appointed Riiser-Larsen its leader. Riiser-Larsen then supervised and took part in mapping most of the Antarctic in this and three further expeditions. More territory was also annexed, this time the large area of the continent known as Queen Maud Land
.
as manager of its newly formed airline, DNL. He invited some former naval pilots to join the airline and soon made it the most successful in Norway. In 1946, DNL would be one of the four Scandinavia
n airlines merged to create the present-day Scandinavian Airlines System
(SAS).
When Nazi Germany
invaded Norway in 1940, Riiser-Larsen rejoined the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service. However, both the Norwegian Army
and Royal Norwegian Navy Air Services were quickly overwhelmed by the Wehrmacht
before he saw combat. Instead, he accompanied the Norwegian cabinet and military leaders into exile in London, before moving on to Toronto
, Canada
, to become the first commander of the Norwegian air forces' training camp, "Little Norway
".
At the beginning of 1941, Riiser-Larsen returned to London to take up the post of Commander in Chief of the Naval Air Service; then of the Combined Arms Air Force; and finally, in 1944, of the fully amalgamated Royal Norwegian Air Force
. By the end of the war, however, many of the pilots under his command had become critical of his leadership. He resigned, bitterly, from the Air Force in 1946.
, SIL and ABA to create SAS
. He then became an advisor to the SAS executive and a regional manager with responsibility for transcontinental air routes. One of these routes, although established after his retirement in 1955, represented the "fulfilment of a vision" : the route to North America over the North Pole.
Riiser-Larsen died on 3 June 1965, four days before his seventy-fifth birthday.
Norwegians
Norwegians constitute both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway. They share a common culture and speak the Norwegian language. Norwegian people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in United States, Canada and Brazil.-History:Towards the end of the 3rd...
aviation pioneer
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
, polar explorer and businessman. Among his achievements, he is generally regarded as the founder of the Royal Norwegian Air Force
Royal Norwegian Air Force
The Royal Norwegian Air Force is the air force of Norway. It was established as a separate arm of the Norwegian armed forces on 10 November 1944. The RNoAF's peace force is approximately 1,430 employees . 600 personnel also serve their draft period in the RNoAF...
.
Riiser-Larsen was born in Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
, Norway, in 1890. In 1909, aged nineteen, he joined the Norwegian Naval Academy
Norwegian Naval Academy
- External links :*...
and in 1915 the newly formed Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service
Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service
The Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service was alongside the Norwegian Army Air Service the forerunner to the modern-day Royal Norwegian Air Force.- History :...
. After World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, he served as the acting head of the RNoNAS's factory until a more senior officer was appointed. In 1921, he joined the Aviation Council, then part of the Norwegian Ministry of Defence
Norwegian Ministry of Defence
The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Defence is a Norwegian government ministry in charge of the formation and implementation of national security and defence policy, and for the overall management and control of the activities of subordinate agencies. The ministry is located at Glacisgata 1, Oslo,...
, as a secretary. This gave him the opportunity to study the fledgling military and civil aviation infrastructure for which the Council was responsible. He also became a frequent pilot on the air routes used by the new aviation companies.
Flying over the North Pole
Riiser-Larsen's years of polar exploration began in 1925 when his compatriot Roald AmundsenRoald Amundsen
Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the first Antarctic expedition to reach the South Pole between 1910 and 1912 and he was the first person to reach both the North and South Poles. He is also known as the first to traverse the Northwest Passage....
, the famed polar explorer, asked him to be his deputy and pilot for an attempt to fly over the North Pole
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface...
. Riiser-Larsen agreed and secured the use of two Dornier Do J Wal seaplanes. The expedition, however, was forced to land close to the Pole, badly damaging one of the planes. After twenty-six days on an ice shelf
Ice shelf
An ice shelf is a thick, floating platform of ice that forms where a glacier or ice sheet flows down to a coastline and onto the ocean surface. Ice shelves are only found in Antarctica, Greenland and Canada. The boundary between the floating ice shelf and the grounded ice that feeds it is called...
, first trying to shovel tons of snow to create an airstrip, until someone suggested the easier way of tramping the snow surface, the expedition's six members squeezed themselves into the remaining plane. Riiser-Larsen somehow managed to coax the overloaded plane into the air and flew the expedition back to the coast of Northern Svalbard..
The following year, Riiser-Larsen rejoined Amundsen for another attempt to fly over the Pole, this time with Italian aeronautical engineer Umberto Nobile
Umberto Nobile
Umberto Nobile was an Italian aeronautical engineer and Arctic explorer. Nobile was a developer and promoter of semi-rigid airships during the Golden Age of Aviation between the two World Wars...
in his recently renamed airship
Airship
An airship or dirigible is a type of aerostat or "lighter-than-air aircraft" that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust mechanisms...
, the Norge
Norge (airship)
The Norge was a semi-rigid Italian-built airship that carried out what many consider the first verified overflight of the North Pole on May 12, 1926. It was also the first aircraft to fly over the polar ice cap between Europe and America...
. Leaving Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Constituting the western-most bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea...
on 11 May 1926, the Norge completed the crossing two days later, landing near Teller, Alaska
Teller, Alaska
Teller is a city in Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 268. According to a 2009 estimate, the population had increased by exactly one person....
. The flight is considered by many to be the first successful flight over the North Pole, as the other claimants, Frederick Cook
Frederick Cook
Frederick Albert Cook was an American explorer and physician, noted for his claim of having reached the North Pole on April 21, 1908. This would have been a year before April 6, 1909, the date claimed by Robert Peary....
, Robert Peary
Robert Peary
Robert Edwin Peary, Sr. was an American explorer who claimed to have been the first person, on April 6, 1909, to reach the geographic North Pole...
and Richard Byrd
Richard Evelyn Byrd
Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd, Jr., USN was a naval officer who specialized in feats of exploration. He was a pioneering American aviator, polar explorer, and organizer of polar logistics...
, were unable to verify their attempts in full.
In 1928, Riiser-Larsen became involved in searching the Arctic for Nobile after he had made a successful flight to the Siberian islands and visited the North Pole once more, but crashed near the coast of ther North Eastern part of Svalbard. Riiser-Larsen also became involved in a search for Amundsen, when he as passenger in a French naval flyingboat went missing while he was en route to join the search for Nobile. Eventually Nobile and most of his team were found, but Amundsen was not.
In 1927 Riiser-Larsen wrote an infamous and most unfair chapter about Nobile in Roald Amundsen's memoir book "Mitt Liv som Polarforsker" (My Life as Polar Explorer).
The Norvegia expeditions
The Norvegia expeditions were a sequence of AntarcticAntarctic
The Antarctic is the region around the Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica and the ice shelves, waters and island territories in the Southern Ocean situated south of the Antarctic Convergence...
expeditions financed by the Norwegian shipowner and whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
merchant Lars Christensen
Lars Christensen
Lars Christensen was a Norwegian shipowner and whaling magnate with a keen interest in the exploration of Antarctica.-Career:...
during the late 1920s and 1930s. Ostensibly their goal was scientific research and the discovery of new whaling grounds, but Christensen also requested permission from the Norwegian Foreign Office to claim for Norway any uncharted territory that was found. By the end of the second expedition, two small islands in the Southern Ocean
Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60°S latitude and encircling Antarctica. It is usually regarded as the fourth-largest of the five principal oceanic divisions...
, Bouvet Island
Bouvet Island
Bouvet Island is an uninhabited Antarctic volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean, 2,525 km south-southwest of South Africa. It is a dependent territory of Norway and, lying north of 60°S latitude, is not subject to the Antarctic Treaty. The centre of the island is an ice-filled crater of an...
and Peter I Island
Peter I Island
Peter I Island is an uninhabited volcanic island in the Bellingshausen Sea, from Antarctica. It is claimed as a dependency of Norway, and along with Queen Maud Land and Bouvet Island comprises one of the three Norwegian dependent territories in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic. Peter I Island is ...
, had been annexed.
In 1929 Christensen decided to include aeroplanes in the next expedition and appointed Riiser-Larsen its leader. Riiser-Larsen then supervised and took part in mapping most of the Antarctic in this and three further expeditions. More territory was also annexed, this time the large area of the continent known as Queen Maud Land
Queen Maud Land
Queen Maud Land is a c. 2.7 million-square-kilometre region of Antarctica claimed as a dependent territory by Norway. The territory lies between 20° west and 45° east, between the British Antarctic Territory to the west and the Australian Antarctic Territory to the east. The latitudinal...
.
Commerce and war
In 1939, the Norwegian military was downsized and Riiser-Larssen was among those officers finding themselves out of work. However, he was quickly offered a new job by the shipping company Fred. Olsen & Co.Fred. Olsen & Co.
Fred. Olsen & Co. is a large shipping company based in Oslo, Norway. The company was founded by Petter Olsen in 1848. Today it is the holding company that controls the Olsen family's interest through Bonheur and Ganger Rolf.-History:...
as manager of its newly formed airline, DNL. He invited some former naval pilots to join the airline and soon made it the most successful in Norway. In 1946, DNL would be one of the four Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n airlines merged to create the present-day Scandinavian Airlines System
Scandinavian Airlines System
Scandinavian Airlines or SAS, previously Scandinavian Airlines System, is the flag carrier of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and the largest airline in Scandinavia....
(SAS).
When Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
invaded Norway in 1940, Riiser-Larsen rejoined the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service. However, both the Norwegian Army
Norwegian Army Air Service
The Norwegian Army Air Service ' was established in 1914. Its main base and aircraft factory was at Kjeller. On 10 November 1944 the NoAAS was joined with the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service to form the Royal Norwegian Air Force....
and Royal Norwegian Navy Air Services were quickly overwhelmed by the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
before he saw combat. Instead, he accompanied the Norwegian cabinet and military leaders into exile in London, before moving on to Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, to become the first commander of the Norwegian air forces' training camp, "Little Norway
Little Norway
The Flyvåpnenes Treningsleir , the official name) or "Little Norway" was a Norwegian Army Air Service/Royal Norwegian Air Force training camp in Canada during the Second World War.-Origins:...
".
At the beginning of 1941, Riiser-Larsen returned to London to take up the post of Commander in Chief of the Naval Air Service; then of the Combined Arms Air Force; and finally, in 1944, of the fully amalgamated Royal Norwegian Air Force
Royal Norwegian Air Force
The Royal Norwegian Air Force is the air force of Norway. It was established as a separate arm of the Norwegian armed forces on 10 November 1944. The RNoAF's peace force is approximately 1,430 employees . 600 personnel also serve their draft period in the RNoAF...
. By the end of the war, however, many of the pilots under his command had become critical of his leadership. He resigned, bitterly, from the Air Force in 1946.
Return to business
In 1947, Riiser-Larsen again became the head of DNL, a few months before it merged with DDLDet Danske Luftfartselskab
Det Danske Luftfartselskab A/S, or DDL, was Denmark's flag carrier airline since 1918, and is the oldest airline still in existence...
, SIL and ABA to create SAS
Scandinavian Airlines System
Scandinavian Airlines or SAS, previously Scandinavian Airlines System, is the flag carrier of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and the largest airline in Scandinavia....
. He then became an advisor to the SAS executive and a regional manager with responsibility for transcontinental air routes. One of these routes, although established after his retirement in 1955, represented the "fulfilment of a vision" : the route to North America over the North Pole.
Riiser-Larsen died on 3 June 1965, four days before his seventy-fifth birthday.