Treacherous flying in WW2 Greenland.
BW-1 or "Bluie West One" was a remote airfield located near Narsarsuraq, Greenland. During World War II, the airfield served as a stopover point for aircraft making the treacherous Atlantic Crossing from Goose Bay, Newfoundland, to England or Scotland.
Successfully navigating to Bluie West One required skill, prospective customers had to first select the correct fjord to gain access. Only one of three nearly identical fjord mouths would lead to the airfield. The other two would terminate at the end of a dead end canyon, with walls too high to climb over, and without enough room to turn around!
Thus it was that the act of "Feelin' Blue" became a mating dance more intricate and ultimately satisfying than any other local variety of aviator's dalliance. Hundreds of thousands of aircraft passed through Bluie West One (some safely, some not) until it's closure as a military base in 1958.
Today, the airport at Narsarsuraq still serves civilian air traffic, but has never quite lost it's mystique as a terrifically challenging place to try and put an airplane.
Each year we are thrilled to provide the fine folks at Aerometal International, Inc the artwork for their annual Christmas card. You will not find finer operators of painstakingly maintained vintage aeroplanes in the Pacific Northwest! This year they flew three separate DC-3/C-47s to D-Day celebrations in Normandy, of course spending time over-nighting along the way at the former Bluie West One.