Carl Ben Eielson

Eielson, Carl Ben (1897–1929), U.S. explorer and aviator. He and Australian Hubert Wilkins flew the first airplane across the Arctic Ocean from Point Barrow, Alaska to Spitsbergen, an Arctic Ocean island (April 1928), made the first air explorations of Antarctica (Dec. 1928), and charted unknown islands near the Antarctic Peninsula. Eielson became a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Service (1918), founded an Alaskan commercial air service (1923), and established the first Alaskan airmail route (1924).

See also: Antarctica.