New Amsterdam-Tokyo Air Route Over North Pole

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28606, 7 June 1958, Page 10

New Amsterdam-Tokyo Air Route Over North Pole

Flights which K.L.M. has now been making on paper from Amsterdam over the North Pole to Tokyo during the last few months have now already supplied much material for study for the time, from November 1, when KL.M.’s four-engined DC-7C aircraft will actually start operating on this route, travelling west to east in about 32 hours.

These aircraft will pass the Pole to and from Tokyo and Biak in either direction twice a week. Tokyo will in ’ fact not be . the terminal of this new route, but Biak in Netherlands New Guinea, located south of the Equator. To and from Tokyo and Biak, the DC-7C’s will make an intermediate landing at Anchorage in Alaska. The Anchor age-Amster-dam stretch will often be made without any intermediate landing. This will depend on the prevailing winds at flight altitude. The studies which are being made at present and of which the flights on paper form an important part, show that in about 40 per cent of the cases the Amster-dam-Anchorage stretch will be flown direct

It has not yet been decided at which airport the remaining 60 per cent of the flights will make intermediate landings. Delegations consisting of technical and operational staff are visiting suitable airports for this purpose.

The new route to Tokyo is about 8500 miles in lengthy whereas the existing ICL.M. route via Karachi and Bangkok, which wiU be maintained after the inauguration of the Pole route, has a length of 10,000 miles. Then it will be possible to fly by K.L.M. along the northern route out and along the southern route back to Tokyo Because the number of intermediate landings is smaller, the travel time to Tokyo on the new route will be about 32 hours, as against about 48 hours on the existing route. To Biak, the Pole route is more than 1200 miles longer than the southern route. However, since there are fewer intermediate landings, the travel time is about five hours shorter. Though the route goes across very thinly populated regions in the north, K.L.M. aircraft on this stretch will never be at more than two hours’ flying distance

from an airport. The secret “distant early warning” radar network of America and Canada is a series of forward radio positions reaching far up north, which will aid the aircraft in determining their position. In this preparatory stage, great attention is being; paid to the means of communications. Radio stations in Norway, Spitzburgeh. and Canada are important points of support for this purpose. The traffic control is largely in the hands of the American and Canadian air bases and of weather stations with the most up-to-date equipment. Flying across territories close to the magnetic pole, which is located south of the geographical pole and where compasses start whirling, requires the use of special instruments and maps. The DC-7C’s will therefore be equipped with special gyro-compasses which will enable the pilot to maintain the correct course under all circumstances in that part of the route where the degrees of longitude converge. The navigation maps for the new route have been provided with a system of lines, which agree with the readings of the gyro-compasses, thus avoiding any complicated calculations. The crews will be made familiar with this kind of navigation at special navigation courses.. Moreover, they are now already being trained on flight simulators and are making landings at Anchorage airport well in advance' of the actual proving flights, which are to take place in the months of September and October.

In general, the weather in the North Pole regions is good. Thunderstorms, for instance, are very infrequent and the passenger wifi, as a rule, enjoy a smooth flight. The weather for landing at 'airports in the north is good.

In Alaska the weather is better than in Europe. At Anchorage there are generally 362 days of fine weather in the year. The weather bureau at Schiphol will work out the weather forecast for the Amsterdam-Anchorage stretch, the latter part of which, from 90 degrees longitude west will be completed by the data received from the weather bureau at Anchorage.