ANTARCTIC PLANE

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 November 1929, Page 3

ANTARCTIC PLANE

DUG FROM SNOW HOME. (By Russel Owen, Copyrighted, 1929, by the “New York Times” Company, and “St. Louis Despatch.” All rights for publication reserved throughout the world Wiyelass io :J New fork Times.”) (By Came —Press Assn.—Copyright? BAY OF WHALES, Nov. 6. The three-motored Ford ’plane emerged from the hole in the snow yesterday, men pulling the ropes. Its wide thick wing lifted slowly over the snow, until it stood perched on the top like a prehistoric bird of this lost continent. Now, it lies beside the small Fairchild, looming above it, and this floating hunk of ice on the edge of the wilderness begins to look like an aviation camp. Getting out the Ford, which is named Floyd Bennett, after the man who flew with Byrd over the North Pole, and who would have been his pilot on this polar flight, if he had not died in the attempt to rescue German TransAtlantic fliers, was a two days’ job. It was buried in the snow hangar until only its wing showed above the surface, and puppies played up and down it in the sun and slept there, basking in the warmth. When it was first put away last Fall, with the centre section and wing motors in place, a deep hole was dug. A wall'of snow blocks was built around the edge and the top covered with canvas. There it lay safely all the winter up to its neck in snowdrift.

The day before yesterday, everyone in camp who could be spared, began to shovel snow from the front of the ’plane, making a ramp up which it could be taxied to the surface. Fortyono tons of snow were dug out in one day. The snow was sawed into blocks, weighing fifty to one hundred pounds, and then hauled on sleds to the surface and dumped. • It Reminded one of the picture of the Egyptian slaves quarrying stone for the Pyramids., hauling blocks up the ramps with ropes over their shoulders. * It was tiring and monotonous work, but 41 tons were moved, then the front wall of the hangar was torn down, and the blunt aggressive nose of the ’plane was exposed. A blow torch was put under the pendulous sack from tluTmotor covering to heat the centre motor. While it was being warmed, a trench was dug ahead for the deadman and block tackle rigged from this to the bridge on theHtending gear of the plane. By the time this was done, the motor was ready to start, and at the first impulse of the starter, it turned over and purred rythmatically, as if it had been in use every day, instead of lying idle waiting for this day, for more than a year. It will soon be ready for the trial flight.