Bernt Balchen
Balchen, Bernt (1899–1973), a United States aviator. Balchen was a skilled flier who became an expert in handling planes on polar flights. In 1925 he organized the successful air rescue of Arctic explorers Roald Amundsen and Lincoln Ellsworth. In 1927 he was the pilot on Richard E. Byrd's transatlantic flight; on Byrd's Antarctic expedition of 1928–30 he piloted the first flight over the South Pole (1929).
Balchen was born in Norway. He served as an aviator in the Norwegian Navy before being brought to the United States by Byrd in 1926. He became a United States citizen in 1931. During World War II, Balchen was a colonel in the U.S. Army Air Forces and headed an air ferry service supplying the Norwegian underground. He was president of Norwegian Airlines, 1946–48, and then returned to the U.S. Air Force, serving 1948–56.