The 20th century conflicts shaped the circumpolar Arctic in myriad ways. Their heritage includes prominently the material legacy of military aviation and its associated infrastructure. This project develops multidisciplinary aviation archaeological approaches for studying those. The project incorporates a combination of archival research, fieldwork and participatory citizen science, to assess: 1) the role of military aviation in the Arctic, 2) the traces of military aviation in the Arctic, and 3) how these have connected people, things, and places through time and space. We will also include the local, indigenous voices and experiences that have often been neglected in the dominant national narratives. Based on the multidisciplinary work, an open access database and crowdsourcing platform will be produced about 20th century military aviation sites. The final product will be a template methodology for the study of aviation heritage, and an agenda for doing this on a global scale.

2024

2028