North Pole 1949 two other Soviet scientists (Vitali Volovich and Andrei Medvedev) became the first people to parachute onto the North Pole. They jumped from a Douglas C-47 Skytrain, registered CCCP H-369. On 3 May 1952 U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Joseph O. Fletcher and Lieutenant William Pershing Benedict, along with scientist Albert P. Crary, landed a modified Douglas C-47 Skytrain at the North Pole. Some Western sources considered this to be the first landing at the Pole until the Soviet landings became widely known. The United States Navy submarine "USS Nautilus" (SSN-571) crossed the North Pole on 3 August 1958. On
North Pole-2 North Pole-2 North Pole-2 () was the Soviet manned drifting station. It was established on April 2, 1950 and drifted for about a year between the Bering Strait and the North Pole. It was closed on April 11, 1951, after the piece of ice it was based on broke into two. The commander of the station was Mikhail Somov, who was made the Hero of the Soviet Union for his role in the expedition. North Pole-2 became the first Soviet manned drifting station after North Pole-1 launched in 1937, and established a series of polar expeditions. The station was manned