Richard Byrd served in the United States Navy during the First World War, but was forced to undertake a desk job due to an ankle injury that had forced him to be medically retired a few years earlier. Nevertheless, in autumn 1917 he was sent for naval aviation training where he developed a love of flying.
Having volunteered for numerous challenging missions during the early 1920s, in 1925 Byrd travelled to Greenland to command the aviation unit of Arctic explorer Donald B. MacMillan’s most recent expedition. It was here that he was inspired to attempt to navigate the first flight over the North Pole, for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1926. Doubts have since been raised over whether he and the pilot, Floyd Bennet, actually reached the Pole as they claimed.
Byrd and three crewmates completed a non-stop transatlantic flight in 1927, and used the success of this mission to secure financial backing for an Antarctic expedition the following year. Arriving on the Ross Ice Shelf in January 1929, the explorers constructed the ‘Little America’ base camp from where they undertook photographic expeditions and geological surveys. Eventually, on 28 November, they launched the first ever flight to the South Pole.
The four-man crew boarded a Ford Trimotor airplane named the Floyd Bennett after Byrd’s previous pilot who had recently died, and at 1am on 29 November reached the South Pole where they flew beyond and to the left and right in case of any navigational errors. The round-trip took them more than 18 hours, and saw Byrd promoted to the rank of rear admiral on his return to America. He continued to undertake Antarctic expeditions, his last being in 1956.
