ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 118, 19 April 1932, Page 7

ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION.

FLIGHT IN UNKNOWN REGION

AMERICAN PROJECT,

NEW YORK, April 17. The American Geographical Society in a brief announcement to-day revealed that tentative plans had been completed for an expedition into the Antarctic in the winter of 1933-1934, headed by Messrs Lincoln Ellsworth and Bernt Balchen in an attempt “to bisect by aeroplane the area known as the Antarctic continent.” The expedition will probably leave New \ orJt in September, 1933, and proceed to a base at Framheim, Bay of Whales, via Australia. It will make a flight in an easterly direction across the entire unknown region separating the Ross and Weddell Seas, a distance of approximately 1450 miles, and will return without landing. The proposed coursp follows directly between the Queen Maud Mountains, Kin" Edward the Seventh Land, and MarTe Byrd land. The first 1200 miles will be completely over uncharted regions until the expedition comes within sight of the Filchner shelf on the borders of the Weddell Sea. It will photograph all prominent features of the land covered, record weather conditions and take note of the charactei of the ice surface, and thus will be able to supply data and detailed ground work for future expeditions, it hopes to answer the important question: “Do the great ocean indentations forming the Weddell Sea on one side and the Ross Sea on the other continue as a trough, perhaps below sea level, dividing the Antarctic continent into two rugged land masses, or do the mountains of Graham Land continue across the continent joining the Queen Maud Range?” The Geographical Society explained that the expedition would be for purelv discovery purposes and would probably carry a dozen men. It is hoped to return to America by May. Mr Balchen is negotiating for the construction of a special ’plane.