Italians plan Ice runway
An Italian Air Force Hercules will be based at Christchurch Airport next summer, joining the American and New Zealand fleet running the Antarctic supply route. Details of the Italian participation were expected to be finalised next month, the National Science Foundation’s director of polar programmes, Dr Peter Wilkniss, said in Christ- ., church. 1
The proposal was for a single Italian Hercules to be based at Christchurch this summer and make several flights to the American ice runway at McMurdo, he said. The Italians’ Antarctic base, at Terra Nova Bay, has until now been supplied by sea out of Lyttelton, and has been a summer base only. They hope to make it permanently manned, and to build their own ice
runway at Terra Nova, which is about 290 km north of McMurdo on the shores of the Ross Sea. Dr Wilkniss said American pilots and navigators would fly with the Italians for the first few flights — standard practice in familiarising crew new to the Antarctic and the McMurdo ice runway with its limited facilities.
Italian engineers would be based at McMurdo to observe the operations.
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Press, 22 June 1989, Page 35
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188Italians plan Ice runway Press, 22 June 1989, Page 35
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