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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 January 2010
In October 1954, Aries IV, a Canberra aircraft from the Royal Air Force Flying College, made the first flight by a British jet over the North Geographical Pole. This paper describes the navigation aspects of that flight, together with a later series of training flights for which it was a preparation.
For several years it has been the practice for navigator students at the Royal Air Force Flying College to carry out high-latitude flights as part of the normal syllabus of training. Hitherto only piston-engined aircraft have been used, but in 1954 it was decided to extend the scope of activities to include Canberras, the first flights to take place in December of that year from an airfield in northern Norway. A preliminary survey was necessary to confirm the practicability of the proposed navigation technique under actual conditions, and it was agreed that this should take the form of a flight towards the North Geographical Pole. A further object of the survey was the selection of a suitable operating base; the choice lay between Bardufoss and Bödo.