fly SAS across the North Pole to the Far East, 1954

"The new shortcut between two worlds"

"In the early 1950s, the magnetic North Pole was more than 1,000 kilometers south of the navigational North Pole, so the compasses would point south when they should be reading north – or would go back and forth. A new method was required. Bendix came up with a gyro, which pointed to a set direction for as long as the airplane was flying.

"Another major technological breakthrough was the development of the solar compass, which used polarized light that made it possible for the navigators to see the location of the sun, even when it was below the horizon. The third element that Pedersen’s team needed was a polar map the Americans had developed during World War II."

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