Ingrid Pedersen (17 April 1933 – 11 September 2012) was a Swedish-American

aviator An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

. She was the first female pilot to fly over the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Mag ...

. Ingrid Elisabeth Liljegren was born in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, Sweden. She was the daughter of Sivert Roland Liljegren (1908–75) and Maud Berg (1915–82). In 1957, Ingrid received her private pilot license in Sweden. In 1958 she was married to

Einar Sverre Pedersen Einar Sverre Pedersen (29 January 1919 – 26 January 2008) was a Norwegian aviator. He was born in Trondheim to architect Sverre Pedersen and Edith Gretchen Børseth, and was a nephew of industrialist Harald Pedersen and pedagogue Marie P ...

(1919–2008). In 1962, the family moved to

Anchorage, Alaska Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Ma ...

where Einar Pedersen was stationed as a

Scandinavian Airlines Scandinavian Airlines, more commonly known and styled as SAS, is the flag carrier of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. ''SAS'' is an abbreviation of the company's full name, Scandinavian Airlines System or legally Scandinavian Airlines System Denmark ...

navigator on intercontinental flights. In 1963 with her husband as navigator, Ingrid Pedersen set out flying a single-engine

Cessna 205 The Cessna 205, 206, and 207, known primarily as the Stationair (and marketed variously as the Super Skywagon, Skywagon and Super Skylane) are a family of single-engined, general aviation aircraft with fixed landing gear, used in commercial air ...

aircraft from

Fairbanks, Alaska Fairbanks is a home rule city and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska and the second largest in the state. The 2020 Census put the po ...

, over the geographic

and continuing to Bodo, Norway. Ingrid and Einar emigrated to the United States in 1979. Einar Pedersen died in 2008. Ingrid Pedersen died during 2012 in

References

Sources

* * * 1933 births 2012 deaths Aviators from Alaska Women aviators Swedish aviators People from Stockholm People from Anchorage, Alaska Swedish emigrants to the United States Women in Alaska {{Aviation-bio-stub