Northrop Gamma "Polar Star"
{"id": "ld1-1643400021979-1643400022218-0", "version": "", "unitCode": "NASM", "linkedId": "", "type": "edanmdm", "content": {"descriptiveNonRepeating": {"record_ID": "nasm_A19360042000", "online_media": {"mediaCount": 17, "media": [{"thumbnail": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10626", "idsId": "NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10626", "usage": {"access": "CC0", "text": "Third party or legal restrictions may apply to your use of these images."}, "guid": "http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/gf443a1df16-1179-46da-b3d5-d858a273d187", "type": "Images", "content": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10626", "text_equiv": "Top view of metal aircraft, Northrop Gamma \"Polar Star\""}, {"thumbnail": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10627", "idsId": "NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10627", "usage": {"access": "CC0", "text": "Third party or legal restrictions may apply to your use of these images."}, "guid": "http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/gf474d6dc5f-8676-4533-a225-5547d9eca0cf", "type": "Images", "content": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10627", "text_equiv": "Top of metal Northrop Gamma \"Polar Star\" aircraft in museum"}, {"thumbnail": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10628", "idsId": "NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10628", "usage": {"access": "CC0", "text": "Third party or legal restrictions may apply to your use of these images."}, "guid": "http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/gf43f618d3f-bb94-4c32-a1fd-7eea8beb5e23", "type": "Images", "content": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10628", "text_equiv": "Nose and wooden sled-like landing gear of Northrop Gamma \"Polar Star\" aircraft in museum"}, {"thumbnail": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10629", "idsId": "NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10629", "usage": {"access": "CC0", "text": "Third party or legal restrictions may apply to your use of these images."}, "guid": "http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/gf417f60b2b-8707-45c8-8039-07d0fe72c13d", "type": "Images", "content": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10629", "text_equiv": "Nose and wooden sled-like landing gear of Northrop Gamma \"Polar Star\" aircraft"}, {"thumbnail": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10630", "idsId": "NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10630", "usage": {"access": "CC0", "text": "Third party or legal restrictions may apply to your use of these images."}, "guid": "http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/gf443e53f35-1933-42f2-ab56-5f5b9e517b01", "type": "Images", "content": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10630", "text_equiv": "Nose and wooden sled-like landing gear of Northrop Gamma \"Polar Star\" aircraft"}, {"thumbnail": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10084", "idsId": "NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10084", "usage": {"access": "CC0", "text": "Third party or legal restrictions may apply to your use of these images."}, "guid": "http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/gf4d228e967-7564-4062-b349-52876bbbb7f7", "type": "Images", "content": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10084", "text_equiv": "Front engine of metal Northrop Gamma Polar Star aircraft"}, {"thumbnail": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10085", "idsId": "NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10085", "usage": {"access": "CC0", "text": "Third party or legal restrictions may apply to your use of these images."}, "guid": "http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/gf4f82924c8-00c4-4ad6-91b9-ffb1b0dbf8bd", "type": "Images", "content": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10085", "text_equiv": "Wooden sled-like landing gear of Northrop Gamma Polar Star aircraft"}, {"thumbnail": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10086", "idsId": "NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10086", "usage": {"access": "CC0", "text": "Third party or legal restrictions may apply to your use of these images."}, "guid": "http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/gf40b9e1f8e-d3e5-43b1-80a6-a5c82c728c19", "type": "Images", "content": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10086", "text_equiv": "Texaco logo with red star in center of white circle on Northrop Gamma Polar Star aircraft"}, {"thumbnail": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10087", "idsId": "NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10087", "usage": {"access": "CC0", "text": "Third party or legal restrictions may apply to your use of these images."}, "guid": "http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/gf470f1edd8-8a70-4ff9-b8ef-3cb0ad9970d0", "type": "Images", "content": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10087", "text_equiv": "Exterior view of cockpit from Northrop Gamma Polar Star aircraft"}, {"thumbnail": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10088", "idsId": "NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10088", "usage": {"access": "CC0", "text": "Third party or legal restrictions may apply to your use of these images."}, "guid": "http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/gf46315eb4a-ce89-474f-bf55-c7a9c7c64662", "type": "Images", "content": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10088", "text_equiv": "\"Northrop\" logo with red bird in circle on tail of metal Northrop Gamma Polar Star aircraft"}, {"thumbnail": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10089", "idsId": "NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10089", "usage": {"access": "CC0", "text": "Third party or legal restrictions may apply to your use of these images."}, "guid": "http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/gf48a456b04-7713-4183-add8-704c9b44f5a5", "type": "Images", "content": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10089", "text_equiv": "Round bulb-shaped metal rear landing ski on bottom of Northrop Gamma Polar Star aircraft"}, {"thumbnail": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10090", "idsId": "NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10090", "usage": {"access": "CC0", "text": "Third party or legal restrictions may apply to your use of these images."}, "guid": "http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/gf460e153b9-8e0b-4b39-9ab6-dd3dcf1ccf45", "type": "Images", "content": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10090", "text_equiv": "Tail of Northrop Gamma Polar Star aircraft with \"Northrop\" logo and \"NR-12269\" in black\n                lettering"}, {"thumbnail": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10091", "idsId": "NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10091", "usage": {"access": "CC0", "text": "Third party or legal restrictions may apply to your use of these images."}, "guid": "http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/gf4e9391a95-ef4f-4fd2-bd61-e8ffdbd4a8ea", "type": "Images", "content": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10091", "text_equiv": "Underwing of Northrop Gamma Polar Star aircraft with \"NR-12269\" in black lettering"}, {"thumbnail": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10622", "idsId": "NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10622", "usage": {"access": "CC0", "text": "Third party or legal restrictions may apply to your use of these images."}, "guid": "http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/gf40021a217-d9e5-43d6-925b-69eb7adc03d3", "type": "Images", "content": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10622", "text_equiv": "Three-quarter, front view of metal Northrop Gamma \"Polar Star\" aircraft in museum"}, {"thumbnail": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10623", "idsId": "NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10623", "usage": {"access": "CC0", "text": "Third party or legal restrictions may apply to your use of these images."}, "guid": "http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/gf4b190963d-c0ca-4f23-952e-52e356d8770e", "type": "Images", "content": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10623", "text_equiv": "Three-quarter, front view of metal Northrop Gamma \"Polar Star\" aircraft in museum display"}, {"thumbnail": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10624", "idsId": "NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10624", "usage": {"access": "CC0", "text": "Third party or legal restrictions may apply to your use of these images."}, "guid": "http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/gf41aad7dcb-cf10-45f3-8db9-9a0d6145c53c", "type": "Images", "content": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10624", "text_equiv": "Overall view of metal aircraft, Northrop Gamma \"Polar Star\""}, {"thumbnail": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10625", "idsId": "NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10625", "usage": {"access": "CC0", "text": "Third party or legal restrictions may apply to your use of these images."}, "guid": "http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/gf476d6158b-2c8c-441c-ba01-b040b86e1353", "type": "Images", "content": "https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-A19360042000-NASM2018-10625", "text_equiv": "Top view of metal Northrop Gamma \"Polar Star\" aircraft in museum display"}]}, "unit_code": "NASM", "title_sort": "NORTHROP GAMMA \"POLAR STAR\"", "guid": "http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nv97e01f1c7-9d57-4b07-b010-da60f0f9bb11", "record_link": "http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nv97e01f1c7-9d57-4b07-b010-da60f0f9bb11", "title": {"label": "Object Name", "content": "Northrop Gamma \"Polar Star\""}, "metadata_usage": {"access": "CC0", "text": "Third party or legal restrictions may apply to your use of these images."}, "data_source": "National Air and Space Museum"}, "indexedStructured": {"geoLocation": [{"L2": {"type": "Country", "content": "United States of America"}}], "object_type": ["Aircraft"], "name": ["Northrop Aircraft Inc."], "topic": ["Aeronautics"], "place": ["United States of America"], "usage_flag": ["Aviation", "Competition Flight", "Private", "Aircraft"], "online_media_type": ["Images"]}, "freetext": {"setName": [{"label": "See more items in", "content": "National Air and Space Museum Collection"}], "identifier": [{"label": "Inventory Number", "content": "A19360042000"}], "notes": [{"label": "Physical Description", "content": "1933; used on L. Ellsworth's Antarctic Expedition; silver."}, {"label": "Summary", "content": "On November 23, 1935, explorer Lincoln Ellsworth, with pilot Herbert Hollick-Kenyon, took off in the Polar Star from Dundee Island in the Weddell Sea and headed across Antarctica to Little America. Fuel exhaustion forced them to land 40 kilometers (25 miles) short of their goal on December 5, and they walked for six days to reach their destination. They settled in the camp abandoned by Richard E. Byrd several years earlier."}, {"label": "Summary", "content": "The British Research Society ship Discovery II sighted them on January 15, 1936, near the Bay of Whales. Hollick-Kenyon later returned to recover the Polar Star. The dent in the fuselage behind the engine was caused by a hard landing on the polar ice. The total distance flown by the Polar Star before its forced landing was about 3,862 kilometers (2,400 miles)."}, {"label": "Long Description", "content": "On November 23, 1935, explorer Lincoln Ellsworth, with Canadian pilot Herbert Hollick-Kenyon, took off in the Northrop Gamma Polar Star from Dundee Island in the Weddell Sea and headed across Antarctica to Little America. This was not the first time that Ellsworth had attempted a transantarctic flight in the Polar Star."}, {"label": "Long Description", "content": "Antarctica was the last continent to be discovered and the only one that was mapped entirely from the air. Aerial explorers from the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Norway, Canada, and France can be credited with this feat, and Lincoln Ellsworth was one of the most tenacious of these explorers."}, {"label": "Long Description", "content": "Ellsworth, a World War I pilot, was the son of a Chicago millionaire coal mine owner. He went on his first polar expedition in 1925 with the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. In May 1929, Ellsworth, Amundsen, and Italian dirigible pilot Umberto Nobile made the first transpolar flight in history, from Spitzbergen, Norway, to Alaska, in the airship Norge. It was Ellsworth\u00e2\u0080\u0099s use of the airplane for exploration, rather than his skills as a pilot, that earned him his place in aviation history."}, {"label": "Long Description", "content": "Ellsworth first took the Polar Star to the Antarctic in 1934. Sir Hubert Wilkins, the famous Australian polar explorer, went along as advisor, and the Polar Star\u00e2\u0080\u0099s pilot was Bernt Balchen. The expedition reached the Bay of Whales by ship on January 6,1934, and Ellsworth intended to make a round-trip flight with Balchen between the Bay of Whales and the Weddell Sea."}, {"label": "Long Description", "content": "However, the 15-foot-thick ice on which the Polar Star was standing broke apart and one of the skis slipped through a crack. The aircraft was almost lost, but after long hours of work it was recovered and put back on the ship to be returned to the United States for repairs."}, {"label": "Long Description", "content": "Ellsworth and the expedition went back to Antarctica in September. October and November were considered the best months for flying there, and this time Ellsworth planned to fly from Deception Island to the head of the Weddell Sea. However, before any flight could be made, the Polar Star had to be shipped to Magellanes, Chile, for repairs to a broken connecting rod, and by the time the aircraft returned to Deception Island, snow conditions made it impossible to use the runway."}, {"label": "Long Description", "content": "The expedition then tried Snow Hill Island on Antarctica\u00e2\u0080\u0099s east coast. On January 3, 1935, Ellsworth and Balchen made a successful flight to Graham Land, but clouds and snow forced them to return to Snow Hill Island after several hours."}, {"label": "Long Description", "content": "That November. Ellsworth and Hollick-Kenyon finally succeeded in flying the Polar Star across Antarctica. After their takeoff on the 23rd, they flew at an altitude of 13,400 feet; on crossing the 12,000-foot peaks of the Eternity Range, they became the first men to visit western Antarctica. Ellsworth named a portion of that area James W. Ellsworth Land in honor of his father."}, {"label": "Long Description", "content": "The Polar Star made four landings during its flight across the Antarctic. After a blizzard that occyrred during the night at the third camp, the inside of the plane was packed solid with drifted snow. The two explorers spent a whole day scooping out the dry, powdery snow with a teacup."}, {"label": "Long Description", "content": "On December 5, fuel exhaustion forced them down about 25 miles short of their goal of Little America. They walked for six days to reach there, and then settled down in the camp abandoned by Richard E. Byrd several years earlier."}, {"label": "Long Description", "content": "The British Research Society ship Discovery II sighted them on January 15, 1936. Hollick-Kenyon later returned to recover the Polar Star. The total distance flown by the Polar Star before its forced landing was about 2,400 miles. The U.S. Congress voted Ellsworth a special gold medal for his Antarctic exploration and \"for claiming on behalf of the United States approximately 350,000 square miles of land in the Antarctic representing the last unclaimed territory in the world.\""}, {"label": "Long Description", "content": "The Polar Star was one of two Northrop Gammas that were the first aircraft produced in 1933 by the newly established Northrop Corporation of Inglewood, California. The Gamma is a low-wing, all-metal cantilever monoplane with a 710-hp 9-cylinder Pratt & Whitney Hornet engine. The one built for Ellsworth had two seats in tandem with dual controls. The other of these first two Gammas was built for Frank Hawks, who at the time was a pilot for Texaco. Hawks\u00e2\u0080\u0099s Gamma was a singleseat model. On June 2,1933, Hawks set a west-east nonstop record in his Gamma, flying from Los Angeles to Floyd Bennett Field, New York, in 13 hours, 26 minutes, 15 seconds."}, {"label": "Long Description", "content": "In April 1936, Lincoln Ellsworth donated the Polar Star to the Smithsonian."}, {"label": "Alternate Name", "content": "Northrop Gamma <i>Polar Star</i>"}, {"label": "Key Accomplishment(s)", "content": "Transantarctic Flight Attempt"}, {"label": "Brief Description", "content": "On November 23, 1935, explorer Lincoln Ellsworth and pilot Herbert Hollick-Kenyon took off in the Polar Star to fly across Antarctica. Fuel exhaustion forced them to land 40 km (25 mi) short of their goal. They walked for six days to reach their destination."}], "creditLine": [{"label": "Credit Line", "content": "Donated by Lincoln Ellsworth"}], "name": [{"label": "Manufacturer", "content": "Northrop Aircraft Inc."}], "place": [{"label": "Country of Origin", "content": "United States of America"}], "physicalDescription": [{"label": "Dimensions", "content": "3-D: 950 \u00c3\u0097 304.8cm, 866.4kg (31 ft. 2 in. \u00c3\u0097 10 ft., 1910lb.)"}], "dataSource": [{"label": "Data Source", "content": "National Air and Space Museum"}], "objectRights": [{"label": "Restrictions & Rights", "content": "CC0"}], "objectType": [{"label": "Type", "content": "CRAFT-Aircraft"}]}}, "url": "edanmdm:nasm_A19360042000", "hash": "fbaa6bd9b1a00c19ee4f3cc0b2a78e725cd1a69a", "docSignature": "ea814bd915a879a76a73432dd4ed77e9", "timestamp": 1666664365, "lastTimeUpdated": 1653682060, "title": "Northrop Gamma \"Polar Star\""}