On 29 May 1951, Charles F. Blair Jr. flew over the North Pole in a P-51C Mustang fighter aircraft.
He bought the P-51C Mustang in 1950 and named it “Excalibur III”. The aircraft had already been modified for long-distance air racing but Blair and equipped the Mustang with a more powerful 1,650 hp Rolls-Royce Merlin engine and navigational equipment of his own design.
On 29 May 1951, Charles F. Blair Jr. took off from Bardufoss in Norway and flew through the Arctic and over the North Pole to Fairbanks, Alaska. He became the first pilot in the world to complete a solo flight through the Arctic and over the North Pole. It was also the first solo polar flight in a single-engined aircraft.
More information about the pilot and his aircraft can be found in one of our previous articles, 29 May 1951 – P-51 Mustang over the North Pole.
Cover photo: Eric Salard, Flickr, used under CC license BY-SA 2.0/4.0
