If At First...Thor Solberg - Transatllantic Air Pioneer

On August 23, 1932, central New Jersey's second greatest aviator took off from Floyd Bennett Field in an attempt to pilot the first northern-route flight to Europe. Thor Solberg, a thirty-nine-year-old Norwegian who had come to America in 1928, had been working at a picture frame factory in Brooklyn - and saving every penny to realize his dream of establishing an air-route from New York to Norway.

Accompanying Mr. Solberg was radioman Carl Petersen. A fellow Norwegian, Petersen had already been to the Antarctic on Admiral Byrd's first expedition of 1928-30 and would return there again on his second expedition of 1933-35.

Solberg, left, and Petersen, right, before taking off on August 23, 1932.
Their plan was sponsored by the Enna Jettick  (get it?) Shoe Company.

Solberg and Petersen had some competition. Also departing that day, from an airfield at Barre, Vermont, flying the same type of aircraft - a Bellanca K biplane with the 12 passenger seats removed and customized for a trans-Atlantic flight - and with the very same destination, Oslo, was Norwegian-American Clyde Lee.

25 August 1932 New York Daily News

Lee and radioman John Bochkon had a slight head start and navigated through a tremendous storm to complete the first leg of the trip, landing at Harbor Grace, Newfoundland. Solberg and Petersen flew through the same storm on their way to Harbor Grace - a storm that was described by Solberg as one of the worst he had ever seen. At one point, they were completely blinded by snow and did not know whether they were over land or water.

24 August 1932 New York Daily News

Every newspaper in the nation carried reports - morning and evening editions - of the aviators' progress. Besides the two teams racing to be the first to fly to Oslo, George Hutchinson, along with his wife, daughters, engineer, radio operator, and cameraman, was attempting to establish an air route from New York to London via Greenland and Iceland. And Amelia Earhardt was becoming the first woman to fly non-stop from California to New Jersey! 

24 August 1932 Daily Messenger

As Lee and Bochkon readied their plane at Harbor Grace for the long transatlantic hop to Oslo, they learned that their rivals had been forced into a water landing 60 miles offshore. Solberg had tried to climb above the storm before the engine stalled and he had to put the plane down. They were rescued by fishermen, and the badly damaged plane was towed to port.

31 August 1932 New York Daily News

Over the next several days while Solberg and Petersen tended to their wrecked airplane they waited anxiously for news of Lee's progress.  The news never came. Lee and Bochkon were never heard from again and are presumed to have gone down in the Atlantic.

It was nearly three years before Thor Solberg was able to realize his dream, finally touching down at Bergen, Norway on August 16, 1935.