In the second half of the XXth century, number of countries tried to enter the club of nations possessing the nuclear weapon… During the first half, it was a question of proving that we were able to fly all over the world. Denmark turned to the South-East, where routes have already been opened ; in 1924, the Dutch KLM had established an airline with Dutch Indies (today Indonesia, see KLM 1924 Amsterdam-Batavia flight plan).

It was thus necessary, in 1926, to make better ; French Indochina (today Vietnam), China, Korea and Japan deserved the journey, with return accross Soviet Union. The Russian route allowed to avoid the rainy season of the monsoons in South-East Asia, so dangerous in flight. The Danes took doubtless, and in the other sense, the flight plan used previous year by the Russian pilot Mikhail Mikhailovitch Gromov (1899-1985), for the long-distance flight Moscow-Peking (Siberian Revolutionnary Committee). Young Soviet Union wanted to demonstrate too, that it was not in rest with the air expansion.

The Fokker C.V. was a military airplane which was modified for this project ; cleared of its armament, for the benefit of a bigger capacity in oil and fuel, two of them, R1 et R2, took off on the 16th of March 1926 from Copenhagen. R2 did not go farther than Birma-Myanmar further to an emergency landing. R1 went on with A.P. Botved as pilot, and C.J.C. Olsen as flight engineer ; they reached Tokyo on the 1th of June where official welcome, receptions, gala dinners and press conferences retained them until the 14th, date in which they left. Ten days later, they were back in the Danish capital, where they were triumphantly welcomed.

Do not mistake Botved & Olsen for Bang & Olufsen. 

The two flying Danish had gone through 27 805 km in 193 hours and 10 minutes, effective flight time. 

Jens B. Kristensen « the virtual flying Danish », has modelized the Fokker C.V. R1 ; freely available at FS DOME, file : cvm26 v1.zip (FS 9 & X) ; or enter Fokker in the Search&Database.

GPS recommended

DENMARK 1

Copenhague (Kastrup EGKH formerly named Klovermarken) 197mn

GERMANY

Berlin (Shonefeld EDDB) 421mn

UKRAINE

Lviv (L’viv UKLL) 568mn

TURKEY

Istanbul (Atatürk LTBA) 488mn

SYRIA

Aleppo (Aleppo Intl) 389mn

IRAK

Bagdad (Bagdad Intl ORBS) 426mn

IRAN

Bushehr (OIBB) /312mn / Bender Abbas (OIKB) 598mn

PAKISTAN

Karachi (Jinnah Intl OPKC) 599mn

INDIA

Agra (Agra AB VIAG) /631mn/ Kolkata (Netaji Subbash Chandra Bose Intl VECC) 554mn

BIRMA - MYANMAR

Yangon (Yangon Itnl VYYY) 315mn

THAILAND

Bangkok (Bangkok Intl VTBD) 531mn

VIETNAM

Hanoi (Noibai Intl VVNB) 457mn

CHINA 1

Hong Kong (Hong Kong Intl VHHH) /678mn/ Shangai (Pudong Intl ZSPD) /592mn/ Peking - Beijing (Beijing Capital ZBAA) /327mn/ Shenyang (Taoxian ZYTX) 289mn

SOUTH KOREA 1

Seoul (Gimpo RKSS) 451mn

JAPAN

Osaka (Osaka Intl RJOO) /250mn/ Tokyo (Narita RJAA) /250mn/ Osaka (Osaka Intl RJOO) 451mn

SOUTH KOREA 2

Seoul (Gimpo RKSS) 289mn

CHINA 2

Shenyang (Taoxian ZYTX) /267mn/ Harbin (Taiping ZYHB) 638mn

RUSSIA

Chita (Kadala UIAA) /328mn/ Irkoutsk (UIII) /477mn/ Krasnoïarsk (UNKL) /340mn/ Novossibirsk (Tolmachevo UNNT) /321mn/ Omsk (Tsentralny UNOO) /270mn/ Kurgan (Kurgan USUU) /547mn/ Kasan (UWKD) /387mn/ Moscow (Domodedovo UUDD) /594mn/ Kaliningrad formerly named Königsberg (Khrabrovo UMKK) 279mn

DENMARK 2

Copenhague (Kastrup EGKH formerly named Klovermarken)

Copyright Michel Lagneau 2010