Ingrid Pedersen Scrapbook

Ingrid Pedersen was a commercial pilot and flight instructor who became the first woman to pilot an aircraft over the North Pole in 1963. This collection consists of a scrapbook chronicling the aviation career of Ingrid Pedersen.

Ingrid Pedersen (1933--2012) was born in Stockholm, Sweden, and became a United States citizen in 1985. Pedersen obtained her Private Pilot license in 1957 and continued on to receive her Commercial, Instrument, and Airline Transport Ratings. In 1963, Pedersen become the first woman to pilot an aircraft over the North Pole, with her husband, Einar, as the navigator. Her aircraft on this historic flight was a Cessna 205, the Snow Goose. The flight originated in Fairbanks, Alaska, and was completed in Bodo, Norway. Between 1965 and 1987 Pedersen flew single engine Cessnas from Wichita, Kansas and Anchorage, Alaska, over arctic Canada, Greenland and Iceland, to Norway. As a commercial pilot in the Spitzbergen Islands from 1974-1975, she made successful landings on drift ice in the Arctic Ocean. During 1976-1977, Pedersen was on commission by the Norwegian Polar Institute and made seven landings on drift ice in the Arctic Ocean in order to place meteorological buoys between Spitzbergen, Greenland, and the North Pole. Beginning in 1979 she was a commercial pilot and flight instructor in Alaska and in 1992 she started work at the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum, where she served as Associate Director. In 1963 she received the Amelia Earhart Medal from the Alaska Chapter of the 99's and she was awarded the Gold Plaque by the Royal Swedish Aero Club in 1964. In 1995 she published a book about her Arctic flying experiences, entitled Perfume and Motoroil.