SOVIET FLIERS PIONEER AIR ROUTE ACROSS NORTH POLE. The daring Soviet aviators who linked two hemispheres by air over the North Pole are pictured in the upper photograph after they landed at Pearson Field, Vancouver. Wash., ending their non-stop flight from Moscow to San Francisco, 592 miles short of their goal. From left to right are: Alex Beliakov, navigator; Valerie Chkalov, chief pilot and George Baidukov, co-pilot. In the lower right is shown the aeroplane which hopped off from Moscow on the non-stop trans-polar flight. At the left is Valeric Chkalov. chief pilot of the single motored aeroplane which failed to beat the world’s long distance flight record set by M. Rossi and P. Godos by a few hundred miles. The two French fliers set a record of 5,657 miles when they flew from New York to Syria in 1933. The Soviet pilots set their aeroplane down in a perfect landing because of poor visibility, after flying 5300 mile.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20260, 31 July 1937, Page 9

SOVIET FLIERS PIONEER AIR ROUTE ACROSS NORTH POLE. The daring Soviet aviators who linked two hemispheres by air over the North Pole are pictured in the upper photograph after they landed at Pearson Field, Vancouver. Wash., ending their non-stop flight from Moscow to San Francisco, 592 miles short of their goal. From left to right are: Alex Beliakov, navigator; Valerie Chkalov, chief pilot and George Baidukov, co-pilot. In the lower right is shown the aeroplane which hopped off from Moscow on the non-stop trans-polar flight. At the left is Valeric Chkalov. chief pilot of the single motored aeroplane which failed to beat the world’s long distance flight record set by M. Rossi and P. Godos by a few hundred miles. The two French fliers set a record of 5,657 miles when they flew from New York to Syria in 1933. The Soviet pilots set their aeroplane down in a perfect landing because of poor visibility, after flying 5300 mile.