Narsarsuaq (variously spelled, the name is
Greenlandic for Great Plain) was the principal city of
Greenland in the times of
Erik the Red whose farm
Brattahlíð was nearby. That settlement died out by the end of the Middle Ages.In
1941, the
United States built an
air base at Narsarsuaq called
Bluie West One, and an important link in the North Atlantic Ferry Route. Thousands of planes used BW1 as a stepping stone on their way from the aircraft factories in North America to the battlegrounds of Europe. After the end of the war, BW1 continued to be developed, until it was rendered surplus by the advent of
mid-air refueling and by the construction of a larger facility far to the north at
Thule Air Base. In 1951, it was agreed that Denmark and the U.S. would jointly oversee the airbase; in 1958, the U.S. abandoned it, but it was reopened in 1959 by the Danish government after the loss of the vessel Hans Hedtoft with all souls south of
Cape Farewell. It now serves airliners from
Iceland and
Denmark, as well as commuter flights from other Greenlandic communities operated by
Air Greenland. Small planes crossing the Atlantic sometimes replicate the North Atlantic Ferry Route, stopping at
Narsarsuaq Airport and other WWII airfields, including
Goose Bay, Newfoundland in
Canada and
Reykjavík in
Iceland.
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