ANTARCTIC FLIGHT

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 36, 11 August 1933, Page 9

ANTARCTIC FLIGHT

ELLSWORTH ARRIVES

PARTY AND PROGRAMME

SHIP EN ROUTE TO DUNEDIN

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, This Day. By.the Mariposa today.tiicrc arrived in Now Zealand tho famous American explorer Mr. Lincoln Ellsworth, friend and companion of Amundsen and associate of Sir Hubert Wilkins. He is en route to the Antarctic with an expedition which will attempt to solve the problem of whether East and West Antarctica are two continents. He' intends to cross ' tho Antarctic from tire Ross Sea to tho Weddcll Sea by a flight which will start from a base on the Ross Sea and end.where it started. This involves a. total flight of 2900 miles. Mr. Ellsworth has had tho advice of Sir Hubert Wjlkins, who. flew across tho North Polo-from Spitsbergen to Alaska, in" the choice of his aeroplane. This is a low-winged single-engined monoplane capable of a speed of 230 miles an hour. It will be fitted with both wheels and skis. The pilot will be Bernt Balcben, already famous as the pilot of Admiral Byrd's flight to the South Polo and associated with the Norge expedition that crossed the North Pole. •' ■ ' • The aeroplane, after, extensive tests around New' York and then in tho Canadian north-west, was shipped to Norway in charge of Balcheu and stowed in the hold of a 500-ton motorship purchased by Mr. Ellsworth and renamed tho Wyatt Earp. : A 20,000-MILE TRIP. ' The ship started on her 20,000-iniles trip to tho Bay of Whales on July 29. She.is coming via Cape Town, and will make the 7500-mile' run'from Capo Town to Dunedin without a stop. The partyis to leave Dunedin late in November. It will include Mr. Ellsworth, Sir. Hubert Wilkins, Balchen, a radio operator, mechanic, and probably a meteorologist. It is hoped that the flight will be made between December 15 and December 31. Besides piloting tho aeroplane, Balchen will be the operator of tho machine's,wireless, and Mr. Ellsworth will ba tho navigator, photographer, and recorder. At the time of the flight, on the other side of the continent near the Weddell Sea the Norwegian explorer Riiser Larsen will have established his Base for his land exploration. • Mr. Ellsworth's aeroplane will carry equipment and food in case of a forced landing. . ~,,,.