Materials are arranged in the order created during the interview process with the first file containing earlier dated items used to prepare for the interview.
Accession No. PA.2000.0061: Fred Austin, 2000 September
[identification of item], Fred Austin Oral History, SPEC.PA.56.0079, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Archival Program, Ohio State University
Contains audiocassettes.
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Processed by: Audrey Wimbiscus, 2020 October; Finding aid written by: Audrey Wimbiscus, Sam Devereaux, 2020 November
Fred Lester Austin (1914-2003) was an American pilot. He received his pilot’s license in Troana, California in 1934, then worked as a flight instructor there. In 1940, Austin began working with Trans World Airlines (TWA) in Kansas City, Kansas as a co-pilot. After he became a Captain with TWA in 1942, Austin flew to several Alaskan locations, including Nome and the Aleutian Islands. In 1959, Austin became the Chief Pilot at TWA in Los Angeles, California.
During a 1964 meeting of the Explorers’ Club, the club’s president explained that he believed all flights that could be flown in the lower atmosphere had been flown. Austin and Harrison Finch, another pilot at TWA, disagreed because no one had flown around the world over both Poles, especially without refueling. Austin and Finch began planning to take the flight themselves and called it Operation Polecat; in honor of the man who financed most of the flight, it is often referred to as the Rockwell Polar Flight. Harrison and Austin flew a Boeing 707 with 25 other passengers out of Honolulu, Hawaii on November 14, 1965. Several scientists were on the flight and 27 meteorological experiments were conducted during the trip. They flew around the world, over both poles, but had to stop and refuel twice. Austin and a team made the flight again the following year without refueling. That second flight in 1966 set 22 world flight records. Austin retired from TWA in 1967 and served as President of Short Brothers, USA, an aircraft manufacturer, until 1984.
The Fred Austin Oral History, dated 1965, 2000-2002, contains audio recordings, administrative information, and transcripts of the interview between Austin and and Brian Shoemaker of the American Polar Society conducted on September 4, 2000. This interview was a part of a series of polar oral histories sponsored by the American Polar Society and Ohio State University's Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program, with funding from the National Science Foundation. Major topics discussed include Austin's career with Trans World Airlines (TWA) as a pilot, what spurred him to create the Rockwell Polar Flight, his experiences preparing for the flight, and memories of the November 14, 1965 flight around the world via the North and South Poles.