3600-Mile Flight Over Antarctica

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30066, 26 February 1963, Page 14

3600-Mile Flight Over Antarctica

The longest non-stop flight in Antarctic history was made on February 22, covering territory which had never before been seen or charted by man. A United States Navy Hercules of VX6 squadron, which had recently been fitted with a bulk fuel delivery tank, made the 3600 mile flight from McMurdo station south beyond the South Pole to the vicinity of Shackleton Mountains and then south-eastward to the Pole of Inaccessibility. It returned to McMurdo station after a flight ot 10 hours 40 minutes. Rear Admiral J. R. Reedy, commander of the naval support force, who ordered the flight, was an additional member of the crew. The Hercules was piloted by the commanding officer of the

squadron, Commander W. H. Everett, with Lieutenant Commander R. G. Dickerson as co-pilot. The Hercules flew up the Beardmore glacier to the South Pole. From there it continued north on the meridian of Greenwich to 81 de grees 20 minutes south latitude, longitude 13 degrees west, into the southern reaches of ‘Queen Maud Land. Then it headed south-east-ward to the Pole of Inaccessibility, the farthest point inland from all sides of the continent.

After passing this point, the Hercules flew many miles over unbroken ice and snow until the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Alexandra Mountains near the edge of the Roas Ice Shelf were sighted Then it flew, down the Byrd glacier, and, taking a bearing on Mount Erebus, continued home to its base ut McMurdo station. Also aboard the aircraft at the invitation of Rear Admiral Reedy were the United States Antarctic Research Programme science leader, Mr R. S. Briggs, Dr. G. G. Tarakanov, a Soviet meteorologist who is also wintering at McMurdo staion as an exchange scientist, and Commander J. M. Bleakie, U.S.N.R., a special correspondent for the Boston “Globe.” The aircraft and its crew have flown over the North Pole, the South Pole and the South Pole of Inaccessibility in the last seven months.