[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 96 (Thursday, July 1, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8162-S8163]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   NOEL WIEN--ALASKA AVIATION PIONEER

 Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, on July 6, 1924, the first non-
stop flight between Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska occurred. The 
flight was made in an old water-cooled Hissopowered Standard J-1 open-
cock-pit biplane and was flown by Noel Wien and Bill Yunker.
  The Wein name is synonymous with Alaska aviation. It is said that 
Noel Wien's flight between Anchorage and Fairbanks was the start of 
Wein Air Alaska. I will quote for the Record an account of the early 
days as told by Noel Wein.

       The change has been great both in aviation and the city of 
     Fairbanks since that memorable day, July 6, 1924, when, 
     sitting behind an old water-cooled Hisso powered Standard J-1 
     open-cockpit biplane, Bill Yunker and I landed here after 
     flying non-stop from Anchorage.
       We had flown up at night, thus taking advantage of the 
     smoother air. The smoke was very thick for the last 80 miles 
     and kept us guessing all the time. It was even difficult to 
     follow the railroad tracks from Nenana on in.
       There was intrigue about the stillness of the air and the 
     frontier atmosphere of Fairbanks, which made me like the 
     north from that first day.
       For two weeks we couldn't find our way cross-country due to 
     the forest fire smoke, but when it cleared up we were busy. 
     People her took to the air quickly. They were of the hardy 
     type, willing to take a gamble. Ben Eielson had made a number 
     of flights that spring, before I arrived. He had also started 
     a company the year before, in the summer of 1923, and had 
     brought in an old reliable OX-5 Curtis Jenny JN-4D open 
     cockpit World War I training plane.
       Due to the interest created by Eielson's earlier 
     pioneering, we had little trouble getting flying business to 
     the outlying mining camps. Livengood, located 60 miles 
     northwest of here, was one of the best of the gold producing 
     camps. The first season in 1924, we made 34 flights to 
     Livengood, and in the summer of 1925, 43 flights.
       All went smoothly until mid-summer of 1925. We had 
     purchased a supposedly major overhauled plane from Lincoln, 
     Nebraska, one of the Hisso Standard build-up headquarters. 
     The engine worked fine on the flight over to Livengood, but 
     on the return trip something happened. All of a sudden the 
     water from the cooling system of the engine gave us a shower 
     bath. I knew that because of the loss of water the engine 
     would get so hot it would stop running. We were about half-
     way back to Fairbanks, near Wickersham Dome. I spotted a 
     shelf to one side of the dome which seemed like the only 
     possible chance to get down without breaking up or going 
     over on our back. We were cruising lower than the 2,500 
     foot shelf, so we had to use power to get up to it. The 
     old engine was steaming plenty when we got to a landing 
     approach. It turned out to be a fair landing place and we 
     stayed right side up and landed without breaking anything. 
     It turned out that the water pump had broken in flight, 
     which in turn had thrown the water out.
       The two passengers and myself walked in to Olnes, on the 
     Chatanika River, over the tussuk covered trail. One 
     passenger, an old Sourdough, had no trouble walking out. The 
     other passenger, an insurance adjuster, had flown over on 
     both business and pleasure. This passenger, I would say, was 
     my first tourist, and possibly the first flying tourist 
     passenger in Alaska. He had on oxford shoes and was about to 
     give up before we arrived at the Chatanika River.
       It is not my intent in these articles to be writing of my 
     experiences, but instead to give some idea of the progress 
     made in aviation and the change of times in the north.
       Having had to discontinue flying in the fall of 1924 
     because of the open cockpit of the old Hisso Standard, a 
     decision was made to try to get a cabin plane with an air 
     cooled motor for use in wintertime. Because I was going 
     ``outside'' for the winter to visit my folks in Minnesota, it 
     worked out well for me to make a tour of the states to see 
     what was being built. I found that about all that was being 
     built was a very small number of open cockpit planes with old 
     XO-5 and Hisso motors. One exception was the Huff Deland 
     company which was building planes with an open front seat for 
     two passengers and a pilot seat in the rear. This plane had 
     an early model Wright air cooled engine of about 200 
     horsepower, but we had decided not to settle for anything but 
     a cabin plane.
       Both the Wright company and the Curtiss company did their 
     best to locate the type of plane we wanted, but their efforts 
     were unsuccessful. We finally had to settle on a Dutch built 
     Fokker F-111 or F-3, a six-place monoplane which K.L.M. and 
     early German airlines had already been using on some kind of 
     schedule service in Europe. This plane had been built in 1921 
     and it was already the spring of 1925. There still were no 
     cabin planes being built in the United States.
       The Atlantic Aircraft Company, a dealer for Fokker, had 
     three ships available. We bought one of them that had been 
     used some, for $9,500. We shipped it all the way to Fairbanks 
     via the Panama Canal. It had a German 6 cylinder engine of 
     235 horsepower. The cabin was very plush with curtains and 
     all the trimmings. This ship proved conclusively that a cabin 
     airplane was the type to use in Alaska even though we could 
     not use it through the winter of 1925-26 because it had no 
     brakes except for a tail skid which helped to stop it. It 
     had a rather streamlined monoplane wing and took a minimum 
     of 1,000 feet

[[Page S8163]]

     to stop after the three points were firmly on the ground. 
     We had some close shaves on sand bars and fields 1,000 or 
     under, during the summers of 1925-26. Our flying out of 
     Fairbanks was the only cross-country flying in the 
     Territory at that time. There was one other airline at 
     Ketchikan where Roy Jones was doing some flying with an 
     old two-place navy training flying boat. We were 
     successful with the flying of the Fokker F-111 and made 
     the first commercial flight to Nome, carrying 4 passengers 
     and 500 pounds of baggage, a 1,200 pound load. We flew 
     non-stop back here in 6 hours and 55 minutes. That's all 
     for now. Noel.--Originally published in the ``Wien Alaska 
     Arctic Liner'' August 1956.

  On July 6, 1999, the 75th anniversary of the first non-stop flight, 
the sons of Noel Wien, Richard and Merrill, will pay homage to their 
late father's legacy. In commemoration, they will retrace the journey 
in a refurbished Boeing Stearman biplane, which was built in 1943. This 
type of plane was used to train pilots in World War II. They will leave 
from the Delaney Park Strip in Anchorage, which is now a public park, 
and land at Fairbanks International Airport. The original landing site 
in Fairbanks, Weeks Field, has since been developed and houses the Noel 
Wien Public Library.
  After all his years of flying, Richard gained a whole new respect for 
his father's flying ability when he and his son, Michael, flew the 
refurbished biplane from Seattle. They made the trip in early May and 
encountered winter conditions during the flight. It did not take long 
to realize that they weren't within the confines of a closed, heated 
cabin.
  Both Richard and Merrill continued in their father's footsteps. They 
are both commercially rated pilots with thousands of flying hours 
between them. They were both involved with Wien Air Alaska and then 
when the family sold it, the brothers opened up a helicopter business. 
Although Richard and Merrill are no longer involved in the commercial 
side of aviation, it's in the blood.
  Organizing this event was a labor of love for Richard Wien. He also 
credits his major sponsor the Alaska Airmen's Association for helping 
to make it happen in addition to other individuals and organizations. 
He is embarking on this trip to honor his father and also the 75th 
anniversary of the first airmail run made by Ben Eielson.
  My heartiest congratulations to Richard and Merrill Wien for 
organizing this wonderful tribute to their father and also for keeping 
the pioneering aviation spirit alive through this commemorative 
flight.

                          ____________________