Martin B-10 Alaska Flight

In 1934 the Air Corps established a project for a mass flight to Alaska of its new type all-metal monoplane bomber, the Martin B-10. Such a flight would not only prove the feasibility of sending an aerial force to Alaska in an emergency, but it would be excellent training for personnel flying across isolated and uninhabited areas. Ten B-10s, under the command of Lt. Col. H.H. Arnold, left Bolling Field near Washington, D.C., on July 19. Flying by way of Winnipeg and Edmonton, they arrived safely in Fairbanks, Alaska, on July 24. For the next month numerous exploratory flights were made over Alaska, including missions for aerial photography of 23,000 square miles of territory in only three days. The planes took off from Fairbanks on Aug. 16 and returned to Washington, D.C., by way of Seattle, Wash., and Omaha, Neb. They landed at Bolling Field on Aug. 20, completing a round trip of more than 7,000 miles, much of it over uncharted wilderness. For commanding this flight, Arnold won the 1934 Mackay Trophy. Signed and numbered.