Hercules flights

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32993, 12 August 1972, Page 18

Hercules flights

The Royal New Zealand Air Force will make 10 Hercules flights between New Zealand and the Antarctic this summer—its largest number and which is double the number of flights last season. According to an Air Force spokesman in Wellington the flights are expected to be made in November. It is understood that a request from the National Science: Foundation to have the R.N.Z.A.F. provide extra Hercules flights on the con-] tinent had to be turned down because of other commit-j’ ments and because from! August 18 the service willl have only four Hercules. All five of the Air Force Hercules will be flown back; to the Lockheed factory ini Marietta, "Georgia, one at a time for a modification to their wings. The modification involves the fitting of a redesigned centre wing and the! reinforcement of the outer wing. Each aircraft will be away about nine weeks and the last is due in the United States next June. The 10 flights the Air! Force will make are equiva-{ lent to about 160 hours fly-| ing time, and the Americans,, who will only have three ski-j equipped Hercules this sum-| mer. had sought to have the] R.N.Z.A.F. carry out the 160 hours flying on the continent —which would have been equivalent of 20 flights be-{ tween McMurdo Station and the South Pole. The Americans use ski-1 equipped Hercules, on the continent. It was planned; that, if it were possible, the: R.N.Z.A.F. Hercules would be used to make supply drops; of fuel to the South Pole station. The Americans were; prepared to provide the necessary equipment and train an

Air Force team in the United States. When he was in Christchurch late last month the deputy head of the founda tion’s office of polar programmes (Mr P. M. Smith) said that without these extra flights to augment the U.S. Navy’s support effort, the National Science Foundation might have to make cut backs to its summer programme particularly its construction programme. Unless the Navy manages to obtain extra aircraft from elsewhere it might have to curtail planned construction at the South Pole this summer as Siple Station has the first priority. The first of the Navy's new Hercules is not due to be delivered until the 1973-74 summer season.