WORK IN ANTARCTIC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20324, 3 August 1929, Page 13

WORK IN ANTARCTIC.

FLIGHT TO THE POLE.

PREPARATIONS BY BYRD.

United Service NEW YORK. Aug. I. T, y Mr. Russell Owen. Copyrighted 1923 by the New York Times Company and the St. Louis Post Pispntch. All for pi'h'iViti'n recr"-r>rl the world. Wireless to the New York Times.!

BAY OF WHALES. July 31

Commander Byrd is engaged in making plans for the forthcoming work of the expedition, which demands much prepara tion.

To travel 1500 miles on foot, as thf> southern party plans to do to accomplish its geolog : cal work in the distant mountains, involves being away from the base for three months, and every possible contingency must bo provided for before the teams start.

The flight to tho Pole is not a simple flight of 800 miles inland and back again. It is a flight of hundreds of miles over a rolling, barren surface, then over a rampart of mountains 14,000 ft. high, and, next over a plateau 10,000 ft. above sea level. The factors of low speed, horse-power, rate of climb, and the many engineering problems which enter into such a flight make it very complicated. Last evening a group of pilots stood around the commander for two hours, while they talked over various aspects of the trip. Question after question came up and there are many of these conferences, formal and informal, at which the pilots, all of them experienced in many kinds of flying, give their opinions, but Commander Byrd must decide.