ENTRY

Richard E. Byrd (1888–1957)

SUMMARY

Richard E. Byrd was a naval aviator and explorer of both the Arctic and Antarctica who became famous in 1926 as the first man credited with flying to the North Pole. During World War I (1914–1918), he conducted antisubmarine patrols in the North Atlantic and became a pioneer in navigating long distances, both on water and in the air. Byrd’s desire to test navigational equipment in extreme climates took him to Greenland in 1925, and from there he pushed north using a sun compass and shortwave aerial radio transmissions. His roundtrip, aerial expedition to the North Pole, funded by wealthy American industrialists, was completed in about sixteen hours on May 9, 1926, and earned Byrd international fame. His pioneering feat has long been questioned, at times persuasively, by skeptical scientists who claimed that he could not have made the trip in such a short amount of time. Later in his career, Byrd established the United States presence in Antarctica and flew to the South Pole.

Early Years

Richard Evelyn Byrd was born on October 25, 1888, in Winchester, Virginia, to Richard Evelyn Byrd (1860–1925), an attorney, and Eleanor Bolling Flood. Byrd’s family was long prominent in Virginia: his older brother was Harry Flood Byrd Sr., who served as governor (1926–1930), U.S. senator (1933–1965), and head of the Byrd Organization, a statewide political machine. Byrd attended the Shenandoah Valley Military Academy and graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington in 1907. In that same year, he enrolled at the University of Virginia, but he left the university in 1908 to attend the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. Byrd received an ensign’s commission in 1912 and served on several battleships. On January 20, 1915, he married Marie Donaldson Ames and the couple later had one son and three daughters.

Byrd injured a foot while participating in gymnastics at the Naval Academy. The foot never healed properly and it forced his retirement from the Navy in March 1916. Byrd possessed skills that the Navy did not want to lose, however, as U.S. involvement in World War I loomed, and he soon returned to active duty, becoming a naval aviator in April 1918. He conducted antisubmarine patrols in Nova Scotia as the commander of two naval stations. A pioneer of overwater navigation, Byrd helped the U.S. Navy plan the first successful transatlantic flight when in 1919 he accompanied the NC-4 from Rockaway, Long Island, to Nova Scotia. From there the airplane flew on to Plymouth, England. Byrd also became a spokesperson for aviation’s importance to national security as the Navy’s liaison officer to Congress from 1919 until 1921. He was integral in bringing about the legislation that created the Navy’s Bureau of Aeronautics.

Polar Exploration

Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett Receive Medal of Honor

Byrd persuaded the U.S. Navy and science organizations that he could return from flying over Greenland and the neighboring polar regions with valuable hydrographic, magnetic, and geographical information, including the possible discovery of new territory. He also planned to test aviation equipment in an extreme climate, which was new to the Navy. In 1925, he led the naval party that accompanied Arctic veteran Donald B. MacMillan and his expedition to Greenland. Byrd and his unit flew fifty hours, covering about 30,000 square miles. The team accomplished two significant flights over the interior of Ellesmere Island, but established only two short-distance cache sites, meaning that no landings at a planned longer-distance base on the coast of the Arctic Ocean could be made. His plan to make a dash for the North Pole on August 30 was overruled by the Navy. Byrd had made the first flights over the Greenland Ice Cap and Canada’s Queen Elizabeth Islands, however, and he was the first to land in Ellesmere Island waters. Using several air navigational aids of his own design, Byrd also pioneered the use of a sun compass as well as shortwave aerial radio transmission. Most important, his aviation proved to be a modern polar expedition asset: more territory could be covered in one day’s flight than in a month of sledding.

Byrd and pilot-mechanic Floyd Bennett, also part of the MacMillan expedition, attempted to become the first to fly over the North Pole in 1926. Financed by automobile heir Edsel Ford and oil heir John D. Rockefeller Jr., the men left from Brooklyn, New York, on April 5, 1926, with a fifty-two-member Arctic aviation expedition. They planned to use a Fokker trimotor monoplane with retrofitted skis and Wright J-4B 200-hp engines for the attempt. The expedition arrived at Kings Bay, Spitsbergen, on April 29. Roald Amundsen had already arrived with the intention of flying to Northern Greenland and then on to the North Pole. To beat Amundsen, Byrd and Bennett left just after midnight on May 9 for a nonstop flight directly to the Pole. Alternating at the controls, the men reported that they reached the North Pole at 9:02 a.m. and returned to Kings Bay at about 4:30 p.m. They averaged about 85 miles per hour on the 1,360-mile round trip, at times reaching speeds of more than 100 miles per hour. The expedition returned via Europe to New York City on June 23, where Byrd received a promotion to commander and the Medal of Honor.

The time of their arrival caused some to question whether Byrd had traveled the round trip to the Pole. Calculations by polar explorer Bernt Balchen showed that Byrd could not have made the trip in only fifteen and a half hours. Other critics, including noted Swedish scientist G. H. Liljequist, suggested that an oil leak in the plane had forced Byrd and Bennett to fly a lateral back-and-forth course just over the horizon until a reasonable amount of time had elapsed. The National Geographic Society investigated and confirmed Byrd’s navigational calculations. But in May 1996, the Ohio State University’s Byrd Polar Research Center revealed that his expedition notebook included erasures and calculations that tended to support the argument against his having reached the North Pole. The journal suggests that Byrd turned back toward Spitzbergen just short of the eighty-eighth degree of latitude, more than one hundred miles short of the Pole.

Later Years

Map of Bryd's Second Antarctic Expedition

Byrd spent the remainder of his career promoting aviation and exploration. He aimed to make the first nonstop flight from the United States to Europe, but Charles Lindbergh succeeded before he did. Byrd, however, with Balchen, Bert Acosta, and George Noville, flew the first transatlantic airmail to France on June 29, 1927, demonstrating the feasibility of commercial transatlantic flight by multiengine aircraft.

Byrd also continued his polar explorations by leading an expedition to Antarctica in 1928. He, along with a crew of forty-two men, eighty-four sled dogs, two ships, and three airplanes, established a coastal base called Little America. As part of a four-man crew, he flew to the South Pole on November 28, 1929. The flight won him a Navy Cross and promotion to rear admiral. The expedition crew also discovered the northwestern portion of Antarctica, which Byrd named Marie Byrd Land in honor of his wife. He made a subsequent trip to Antarctica in 1934 with a one-year expedition, and later returned in 1940 as the commanding officer of the U.S. Antarctic Service, created to establish a permanent base on the continent for additional exploration. He mapped 700 miles of coastline before World War II (1939–1945) forced the end of the service in 1941. Byrd spent the war as commander of a special Navy mission that helped establish airfields in the Pacific and he witnessed the surrender of Japan aboard the U.S.S. Missouri. In 1946, he returned to Antarctica as commander of the Navy’s operation that used aerial photography to map more than 1.5 million square miles of the continent. Byrd died in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 11, 1957, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

MAP
TIMELINE
October 25, 1888
Richard E. Byrd is born in Winchester.
1907
Richard E. Byrd graduates from the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington.
1908
Richard E. Byrd leaves the University of Virginia to attend the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
1912
Richard E. Byrd receives an ensign commission in the U.S. Navy.
January 20, 1915
Richard E. Byrd marries Marie Donaldson Ames. The couple later has one son and three daughters.
1916—1918
Richard E. Byrd retires temporarily from the U.S. Navy due to a foot injury that does not heal.
April 1918
After a brief retirement Richard E. Byrd is reassigned to active duty as a naval aviator.
1919
Richard E. Byrd helps the U.S. Navy plan the first successful transatlantic flight when he accompanies the NC-4 from Rockaway, Long Island, to Plymouth, England, via Nova Scotia.
1925
Richard E. Byrd leads the naval party that accompanies Arctic veteran Donald B. MacMillan and his expedition to Greenland.
April 5, 1926
Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett leave Brooklyn, New York, with a fifty-two-member expedition to explore the Arctic by air.
May 9, 1926
Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett become the first men to fly to the North Pole, completing their roundtrip aerial expedition in about sixteen hours. This pioneering feat later is questioned by skeptical scientists who claim Byrd and Bennett could not have made the trip in such a short amount of time.
June 23, 1926
Richard E. Byrd's Arctic aviation expedition returns to New York City, where Byrd receives the Medal of Honor and a promotion to commander.
June 29, 1927
With Bernt Balchen, Bert Acosta, and George Noville, Richard E. Byrd flies the first transatlantic airmail to France, demonstrating the feasibility of commercial transatlantic flight by multiengine aircraft.
1928
With a crew of forty-two men, eighty-four sled dogs, two ships, and three airplanes, Richard E. Byrd travels to Antarctica and establishes a coastal base called Little America.
November 28, 1929
As part of a four-man crew, Richard E. Byrd flies to the South Pole.
1934
Richard E. Byrd returns to Antarctica for a one year expedition.
1940
Richard E. Byrd returns to the Antarctic as commanding officer of the U.S. Antarctic Service with a mission to establish a permanent base on the continent for additional exploration.
1946
Richard E. Byrd returns to Antarctica as commander of the Navy's operation that uses aerial photography to map more than 1.5 million square miles of the continent.
March 11, 1957
Richard E. Byrd dies in Boston, Massachusetts.
FURTHER READING
  • Bryant, John H. and Harold N. Cones. Dangerous Crossings: The First Modern Polar Expedition, 1925. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2000.
  • Byrd, Richard E. Skyward. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1928.
  • Goerler, Raimunde E., ed. To the Pole: The Diary and Notebook of Richard E. Byrd, 1925–1927. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1998.
  • Hoyt, Edwin P. The Last Explorer. New York: John Day, 1968.
  • Montague, Richard. Oceans, Poles, and Airmen. New York: Random House, 1971.
CITE THIS ENTRY
APA Citation:
Neumann, Caryn. Richard E. Byrd (1888–1957). (2020, December 07). In Encyclopedia Virginia. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/byrd-richard-e-1888-1957.
MLA Citation:
Neumann, Caryn. "Richard E. Byrd (1888–1957)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 23 Sep. 2023
Last updated: 2021, December 22
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