Tryggve Gran
Torsdag 30.juli i 1914 blei Tryggve Gran (1889-1980) den første til å fly over Nordsjøen. Han brukte 4 timar og 10 minutt på ferda frå Cruden Bay i Skottland til Maleneset ved Orrevatnet. Nordsjøflyginga var ei bragd på line med Louis Blériot si flyging over den engelske kanalen fire år tidlegare. Med det utstyret Gran hadde til disposisjon, var ferda eit vågestykke.
Nordsjø-flyginga til Tryggve Gran drukna i utbrotet av første verdskrigen, men i Klepp skapte den stor merksemd. Tre gutar som bada i Orrevatnet då flyet kom inn frå havet, blei skrekkslagne – dei trudde dette var «vondemannen sjølv» som kom farande over hustaka.
Minnesteinen som står omtrent der kor flyet landa i 1914, var det Norges turnveteraner som la ned i 1934. Tryggve Gran var elles kjend som polarforskar og deltok i Robert Scott sin sydpolekspedisjon.
Tryggve Gran
On Thursday 30 July 1914, Tryggve Gran (1889-1980) became the first to fly across the North Sea. He spent 4 hours and 10 minutes on the flight from Cruden Bay in Scotland to Maleneset by Lake Orrevatnet. The North Sea flight was an achievement on a level with Louis Blériot’s flight across the English Channel four years earlier. With the equipment Gran had at hand, this flight was a daring venture.
The news of Tryggve Gran’s North Sea flight drowned in the breakout of the First World War, but at Klepp it was quite a sensation. Three boys were swimming in Lake Orrevatnet when the plane came in from the sea, and were terrified – thinking it was the devil himself who came rushing in above the rooftops.
The memorial stone at the approximate site where the plane landed in 1914 was placed there by Norwegian Gymnastics Veterans in 1934. Tryggve Gran was otherwise known as a polar explorer, and took part in Robert Scott’s South Pole expedition.