I WILL FLY AWAY
26 February 2014 » Uncategorized | respond
Amundsen never arrived at the planned destination – or maybe he did.
Noone really knows what happened that day. Amundsen was 56 years old.
When my dear friend Jürg at Porsche Design in Austria introduced me to hanggliding in the late eighties I soon understood that if I had been introduced to this 10 years earlier in my life I probably wouldn´t have survived those years. My principle for pushing boundaries by deliberately passing the point of no return in the process of learning, is not applicable to flying. I used this on the water and it worked well. In flying it all works different. One has to develop skills slowly and carefully.
Amundsen was a man who knew how to survive in the arctic by learning slowly, being present over time. His involvement and experimentation with flying in the arctic region, taking off with the tiny beautiful plane Curtiss Oriole underlines his endless energy to push boundaries. His belief in making the impossible possible. Through his life he met many who wanted to pull him down but he always raised again. Respect.
His departure into infinity on a quiet summer day from Tromsø was his final victory.
We wish to honor Amundsen for being the man he was. We wish to make a future House of Maud a place to memorize Amundsen, his energy and his ability to make people be at their best. His postive energy was and still is a true inspiration. Also for me.
Maud Returns Home project group, with the Tandberg Company in front, has taken the initative to reconstuct an original Curtiss Oriole plane and introduce this in a future House of Maud. This is in our opinion the best way we can sympolize and honor Amundsens endless will to move forward with the help of new technology and super qualified people.
This winter we have signed an agreement with Century Aviation in Washington State, USA, to have an original rebuild made of the Curtiss Oriole “Kristine”. The plane that did the first flying in history from the arctic ice cap. “Kristine” was brought into the ice on board Maud in 1922, and Odd Dahl, later one of our nations greatest scientists, piloted the plane with Maud skipper Wisting as a crew. The plane only had a few flights around Maud before she had a crash damage beyond repair.
In the new released film from the Maud expedition one can follow these incredible flying attempts in the surroundings of Maud, and the energy and enthusiam expressed in these film cuts underlines how Amundsen could inspire and encourage his men to bring out the best in everyone.
jan w
American dream: as I crossed over to the hangar to have the first glanze the Curtiss Oriole i got the notion of thinking, Amundsen – wish you were here..
Oh Lord – if I had the wings of an angel – I´ll fly away
The Curtiss Oriole “Kristine” in all her glory alongside Maud well into the arctic desert.
We trust Karen and Mark from Century Aviation to perform an exellent job restoring our Kristine to a prestine condition, to become an essential corner stone in a future House of Maud.
Two old Curtiss bodies will become one “Kristine” after more than a thousand work hours.
Century Aviation has restored and built many replicas of historic planes for state and private museums all over the wold. They are real professionals.
