From wartime transport and passenger services to almost 9,000 land-restoration flights, Þristurinn embodies more than eight decades of Icelandic aviation and environmental history.
A national treasure secured for the future
The Icelandic government has signed a declaration of intent to transfer the historic Douglas DC-3 Páll Sveinsson, registered TF-NPK and popularly known as Þristurinn, to the Icelandic Aviation Museum in Akureyri. The agreement is intended to place the aircraft, its spare parts, equipment and historical records under the museum’s ownership by the end of 2026, preserving the collection as a single unit and ensuring that it remains accessible to the public under professional care.
From wartime service to civilian aviation
Built in 1943, the aircraft arrived in Iceland to perform transport duties for the United States military. Flugfélag Íslands acquired it in 1946, renamed it Gljáfaxi and employed it on domestic and international passenger routes. At a time when Iceland’s road network remained limited and many settlements were difficult to reach, aircraft such as this DC-3 played an essential role in connecting communities across the country and maintaining links with destinations including Greenland and the other Nordic countries.
An aircraft that helped restore Iceland’s land
The most unusual chapter in Þristurinn’s career began in 1972, when Flugfélag Íslands donated the aircraft to the State Soil Conservation Service. Renamed Páll Sveinsson in honour of a former director of the organisation, it was converted to spread seed and fertiliser over landscapes damaged by erosion and desertification. During more than three decades of land-reclamation work, the aircraft completed almost 9,000 flights and dispersed approximately 35,000 tonnes of material across vulnerable areas.
A registration with environmental meaning
Even the aircraft’s TF-NPK registration reflected its new mission. N, P and K are the chemical symbols commonly associated with nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, the principal nutrients used in fertilisers. The designation transformed an ordinary aircraft registration into a reminder of Þristurinn’s contribution to the recovery of Icelandic soil, linking aviation technology with one of the country’s most sustained environmental programmes.
Aviation in the service of restoration
Centuries of deforestation, grazing, volcanic activity and severe weather left extensive parts of Iceland exposed to soil erosion, while powerful winds could remove unprotected material from already fragile landscapes. Þristurinn enabled conservation teams to distribute seed and fertiliser across large and sometimes inaccessible areas much more rapidly than would have been possible from the ground. An aircraft originally built for wartime transport was thus repurposed as an instrument of ecological recovery.
Volunteers preserved a unique aircraft
Regular land-reclamation operations ended in the mid-2000s, after which the Þristavinafélagið friends’ association assumed responsibility for caring for the aircraft. Volunteers and aviation enthusiasts helped preserve it, maintain its engines and keep its story visible to the public. Þristurinn has been displayed at the Icelandic Aviation Museum since 2008 and last flew in 2019. Its transfer to the museum recognises both its increasing age and the work of those who prevented this exceptional part of Icelandic heritage from being lost.
A fitting home at Akureyri Airport
Located in a hangar at Akureyri Airport, the Icelandic Aviation Museum traces the development of flight in Iceland from the earliest commercial experiments of 1919 to the present. Its collection covers passenger services, medical transport, the Icelandic Coast Guard and the aircraft that connected isolated communities with the wider world. Þristurinn contributes an exceptionally broad story encompassing military service, civilian transport, environmental restoration and volunteer preservation.
One aircraft, many Icelandic stories
Few museum objects represent so many dimensions of Iceland’s modern development. Þristurinn arrived during wartime, helped expand civilian aviation and then spent decades supporting the recovery of the country’s fragile landscapes. Preserving the aircraft together with its equipment and archives will allow future visitors to understand not only how Icelanders flew, but also how aviation became part of the country’s transport network, social history and response to environmental degradation.
Suggested Online Sources
Iceland Review — Historic Icelandic DC-3 to join Aviation Museum collection
Government of Iceland — Declaration signed for the preservation of Þristurinn
