Chris Braathen

Most of us probably know polar heroes such as Roald Amundsen, Lincoln Ellsworth and Richard Byrd. Many have heard of Bernt Balchen, but few have heard of Christopher "Chris" Braathen. Ski expert, sled dog handler, and aircraft mechanic from Øvre Eiker, who was born in 1895, and was to become a brilliant engineer and aircraft mechanic, as well as a participant in three American expeditions to Antarctica.

He was decorated several times and we find a Cape Braathen at the north-east end of the Evens Peninsula on the north side of Thurston Island and west of West Antarctica's Ellsworthland. Thanks to his diaries and the private archive of the Mullens Braathen family, it has become possible to write about the experience and achievements of this simple and modest man.

In 1936, he supervised the work on the construction of Det Norske Luftfartselskap, Fred. Olsen & Bergenske's Sikorsky S-43, LN-DAG "Valkyrie" in the USA and on his return became chief mechanic at DNL. He had a wonderful future ahead of him, but the lives of him and his wife Molly were abruptly ended when they died in a plane crash over Oslo on 1 August 1937. In the same crash, Arild Widerøe, one of the founders of Widerøe's Flyveselskap A/S, died. as well as Prof. Dr. Sophus Widerøe and his wife Else Marie Brambani Widerøe.

The book describes in detail the three expeditions, his work in the USA and Canada as a mechanic and co-owner of an airline, as well as his work for DNL. The final accident over Oslo is also described in detail.

Much about the Byrd and Ellsworth Southpole expedition and about the  Sikorsky S-43 with DNL. Many pictures of the Fokker Universal, Ford Trimotor (both Byrd) and the Northrop Gamma (Ellsworth)

206 photos, maps and drawings,