Since Andrée's magnificent failure to fly to the North Pole in a balloon in 1897, two great epochs have been marked in polar aviation. The first was the epoch of adventure, lasting nearly 60 years, which attracted to its ranks such men as Roald Amundsen, Lincoln Ellsworth, Umberto Nobile, Richard Byrd, Charles Lindbergh, Gino Watkins and the real father of Arctic aviation, Hubert Wilkins. Many others added their quota of experience until enough was known, and the technique of long-range polar flying had developed sufficiently far, for a regular air line to start operations across the North Polar Basin. That was on 15 November 1954 when Scandinavian Airways System (SAS) opened the first air route over the top of the world, from Europe to North America. This heralded the second epoch—the one of consolidation, and the purpose of this article is to describe very briefly the course of developments during these last seven and a half years.

Antarctic travellers have long dreamed of motor sledges as the successor to dog teams and man-hauling. Shackleton adapted an Arrol-Johnston motor car in 1907 by putting runners under the front wheels, and Scott used two fully tracked motor sledges in 1911. Owing to mechanical troubles, success came slowly. But by 1942 the Eliason motor sledge was patented and working in Sweden. Two kinds of motor sledge are now used in the United States Antarctic Research Program: the Eliason Model K-12 and the Polaris Model K-95.