Operational Problems of Antarctic Aviation

Abstract

Polar aviation is a branch of flying to which the domestic British (that is excluding the Canadians) have contributed modestly. Indeed, we do not have the Arctic on our doorstep like the Americans, Canadians, Russians, Finns, Swedes and Norwegians but, in exploration, we have a tradition second to none in Antarctica, a tradition fostered and developed in bygone years so dauntlessly by men of the Royal Navy. In fact it was Captain Robert Falcon Scott who was the first man ever to become airborne in Antarctica, early in January 1902, when he went aloft near Cape Adare in an observation balloon. Admittedly he let go all the ballast at once and shot up to 800 feet so rapidly that only the mooring rope prevented him from making a free-balloon voyage over the ice-bound wastes, and he did not enjoy the experience very much. But it was a pioneering flight. A few months later, the German Drygalski made a similar flight for the purpose of ice observation; but balloons never caught on in the Antarctic and there was no more flying there until Sir Hubert Wilkins’ expedition made the first aeroplane flight, from Deception Island, off Graham Land, with a Lockheed Vega wheeled aeroplane on 16th November 1928.