Learning Center Our Enshrinees

Noel Wien

• First to fly from Fairbanks to Seattle, Fairbanks to Nome, beyond the Arctic Circle, across the Bering Strait, and was first to make a round-trip flight between Alaska and Asia.
• Forced to land on a gravel bar when he ran out of fuel returning from the first flight north of the Arctic Circle. Since there were no other pilots who could look for him, Wien walked 70 miles in three days, crossing ice-choked rivers with only three biscuits for food.
• Received his formal pilot’s certificate, Pilot License No. 39, signed by Federation Aeronautique Internationale official Orville Wright (enshrined 1962) in 1925
• Founded Wien Air Alaska in 1927, the first airline in Alaska, and one of the first airlines in the United States.
• Pioneered the use of jets from gravel runways, as well as innovative ways to carry both cargo and passengers in Boeing 737 jetliners. 
•  Nicknamed “the Arctic Ace,” “the Lindy of the North,” and “the father of Alaska bush flying.”