BYRD’S SNOWCRUISER

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20141, 10 January 1940, Page 4

BYRD’S SNOWCRUISER

POLAR TRAVEL PROBLEM SOLUTION FOUND ELLSWORTH'S VIEW One of the objects of Rear-Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s expedition to the Antarctic is to discover if a new base for the United States air services can be established. By occupying the frozen lands of the South Polar regions Admiral Byrd hopes to strengthen previous United States claims on the territory. '“The idea would be to continue settlement on the ice for some years, possibly five or six,” he said, before leaving Boston, when explaining that it was hoped to make the settlement of a semi-permanent nature, depending on the wishes of the United States Congress. “The present group would be relieved by others after 13 months, and though some of the first might remain down there, once is enough for most men.”

Also planned was another exploration, with the use of a giant snowmobile, of some 675,000 square miles of unknown territory. This mammoth snowmobile is a strange monster, for its wheels are 10ft. in diameter and it cost 150,000 dollars to construct. It weighs 27 tons, and averages 10 miles an hour, carrying enough fuel to run from New York to San Francisco and back. It carries an aeroplane on its back, and has living quarters. The wheels have separate motors. Hydraulic jacks raise and lower the wheels; there is equipment for measuring the thickness of the ice, and this is portable. The snowcruiser, named Penguin 1, has two spare tyres. Bridge Difficulties Riding the Penguin over the Berkshire Hills on the way to Boston was something like being a thread on a camel’s back —and heading for the eye of a needle. At least that was what it felt like when Dr. Thomas Poulter, the expedition scientist, manning the controls of the huge machine, headed for the shrinking openings under overhead bridges as the party rolled down toward Boston. The 15ft. high bus seemed to grow as it neared bridges, which appeared perversely to shrink as its huge bulk drew closer. .Scarcely slowing the “break-neck” pace of 10 or 12 miles an hour, Dr. Poulter guided it through the underpasses without the blink of an eyelash. A newspaper man sat in the control tower with Dr. Poulter as the miles fell behind, and looked on with amazement as he steered the four massive wheels, watched his innumerable dials and gadgets and kept track of the road over which they rocked. It was cold outside, and there were snow flurries in the early morning breezes over the hillside highway. The cruiser is designed for the below-zero temperature of Antarctica, and the heat generated by the two throbbing Diesel engines warmed the cabin as the scientist and his party ambled along. As the miles fell behind Penguin I left behind the nickname it had begun to earn with its ducking in an Ohio creek and other slight mishaps which dogged its trail the first week after it left Chicago on October 26. It was no longer a ‘‘blunder-bus.” Cruiser’s Tail Cut There was some difficulty accommodating Penguin I aboard the North Star, and it was necessary for workmen to operate on the snowmobile, slicing approximately 10ft. from its rear end. The operation, necessary to stow the cruiser on deck, cut into a compartment housing two 10ft. high spare tyres, but the section will be welded back on- in the Antarctic.

At the Bay of Whales the North Star will keep a rendezvous with ’ the Bear late in January, and one' base will be established at or near Little America before both back-track to Valparaiso to refuel before ploughing southward again to attack a 1000-mile uncharted coastline.

That Admiral Byrd’s snowcruiser is the answer to the problem of travel in the Arctic and Antarctic regions in the future was the opinion of Lincoln Ellsworth, famous Antarctic explorer, who was staying in Los Angeles when the .North Star sailed from Boston. “Exploration parties have suffered and been hampered in the past because of lack of mobility in exploring and research,” said Ellsworth. “I believe Byrd has solved the problem by putting the automotive powers to good ffse. The aeroplane Is too fast to allow proper investigations of regions, and the - boats are too slow and take too long.” Ellsworth, a veteran of, two ; flights to the Antarctic region, plans another trip to the South Pole in 1941, taking two aeroplanes, which will be used as housing quarters in the snow.

The explorer said that a small party of three or four associates will spend the winter of 1941 at the South Pole or in the Antarctic region in scientific study. “There will be plenty of space dowii there to be discovered,’’ said Ellsworth.