Bush Pilots - Supplies and People to the North and Minerals

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Northern Exploration by Bush Plane and Imperial Oil Flight

Supplies and People to the North

The trip of the two Junkers had many problems, but the effort demonstrated that air travel into the north was possible because the aircraft were capable of long flights. Some needs had to be taken care of on the ground, however, to make northern flying more feasible. There had to be landing fields along the way, with better communication to link them. High-grade fuel and oil had to be made available at these fields. The Fort Norman effort had been a success since many questions were answered and solutions put into place.

Pilot Matt Berry and Engineer Frank Hatrley

By the mid-1920s, more efforts were being carried out to use aircraft to survey for minerals in the unexplored north. Pilot C.S. Caldwell, working for the Northern Syndicate, used a Vickers Viking flying boat to transport prospectors into the north to search for minerals. These flights were successes.

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