While the success of Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett’s polar flight has been disputed, the former went on to accomplish expeditions in Antarctica Explorer Richard Byrd (left) and pilot Floyd Bennett (right) wearing fur parkas, circa 1926 Bettmann via Getty Images On May 9, 1926, two naval aviators, explorer Richard Byrd and pilot Floyd Bennett, would claim to accomplish a new feat of flight. That day, the pair reported flying over the North Pole , which would have made them the first people ever to do so. By the 1920s, achievements in flight were headline-grabbing events that illustrated the future importance of air travel. “It wasn’t until the mid-1920s that airplanes became reliable enough and big enough that you felt comfortable to undertake some of these trips, be it flying across any of the oceans or to the North or South Pole,” says Bob van der Linden , a curator at the National Air and Space Museum .…