Professor Richard Taylor

Roll the Pole Professor Richard Taylor

Setting an outlandish goal and then achieving it, is not all that's it's cracked up to be.

It's done all the time.

Whether it's stuffing seventeen people in a VW Beetle or walking on the Moon, the real story is the process. Flying an airplane upside down over the Magnetic North Pole, just to see what the compass does in that configuration, is no exception.

It took Pat Epps and Richard Taylor, three annual attempts to achieve this goal. But, in the end, they did Roll the Pole.

Engine problems thwarted the first attempt and horrific Arctic weather killed the second. But perseverance prevailed in the third.

This Arctic journey quickly morphed into an eleven-year adventure in search of The Lost Squadron, the six P-38s and two B-17s lost on the Greenland icecap in 1942. And thus did Glacier Girl emerge.