RUSSIANS PLAN SOUTH POLAR FLIGHT

Northern Advocate, 4 January 1938, Page 5

RUSSIANS PLAN SOUTH POLAR FLIGHT

(Received 10 a.m.)

MOSCOW, January 2,

One more step in the concerted Soviet attack on outstanding aviation goals is to be made this year.

This will be a non-stop flight from a base in Luitpoldland, Antarctica, to the South Pole, and establishment of a. research station there.

Plans were divulged by Mikhail Vodopianoff, chief pilot in Professor Schmidt’s North Polar Russian expedition of last May, in an article in “Pravda” (“Truth”).. .Vodopianoff disclosed that the expedition will sail in the new ice-breaker Josef Stalin with five two-engined planes and three years’ provisions. It will follow RearAdmiral Byrd’s route.

Seventy Survey Flights. Five meteorologists and other members and equipment will be carried, enabling establishment of a weather station similar -to that on the North Polar ice-floe. They will remain a month to establish radio communication with Moscow, broadcasting their experiences four times a day. Plans include 70 survey flights for the purpose of mapping . the South Polar region. Vodopianoff will be leader of the expedition. Other aerial aims of Soviet Russia include further expeditions to the Arctic and a round-the-world flight from Moscow eastwards in 82 hours.