Relic of Antarctica's first plane found on ice-edge

[bdk]

Relic of Antarctica's first plane found on ice-edge

Pauline Askin – Fri Jan 1, 10:49 pm ET

CAPE DENISON, Antarctica (Reuters) – An Antarctic expedition has found what it believes to be remains of the first aeroplane brought to the frozen continent, on an icy shore near where it was abandoned almost a century ago.

Australia has searched for many years for the old single-propeller Vickers plane at Cape Denison, where the nation's most famous polar explorer, Douglas Mawson, abandoned it after it proved to be a failure during his 1911-14 expedition.

"Luck has been on our side and it's been a great episode in the history of Antarctic aviation," said Dr Tony Stewart, leader of the current expedition, after the chance discovery on New Year's day.

Another member of the expedition, which is dedicated to restoring Mawson's original wooden huts at Cape Denison, stumbled on pieces of rusted metal tubing among ice-encrusted rocks on the shore of Commonwealth Bay at an especially low tide. They match structural iron tubing from the single-winged plane's fuselage.

Mawson's dream of staging the first human flight over the Antarctic ice cap, less than a decade after the Wright brothers made the first powered flight, was shattered even before his expedition sailed for the Antarctic from Australia in late 1911.

The plane crashed in a demonstration flight in October that year, weeks before Mawson was due to set sail. No one was hurt, but the wings were damaged. With no time for repairs, Mawson removed the wings and took the rest of the plane, aiming to use it as a flightless "air tractor" to haul equipment across the ice.

Even as a tractor, with its wheels replaced by sled-runners, the Vickers was a failure. Its engine seized up in the cold.

The Mawson's Huts Foundation, an officially backed charity that funds the conservation work on site, believes the plane became entombed in ice after it was abandoned and then inched its way toward the sea with the glacial ice over the last 100 years.

"It's been an exciting search. Friday was possibly the only day in several years when the rocks were sufficiently exposed and the tide was low enough and we were here to see it," Stewart said.

(Writing by Mark Bendeich; Editing by Jerry Norton)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100102/sc_ ... tica_plane

[The Inspector]

JDK or anyone else in Oz, anything with more details? This should be huge news in the Southern latitudes and I'm surprised that the news here was so slow today that this made our papers-

[Mark_Pilkington]

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This is an important historical aviation "find" for both Australia and the UK, it is the first Vickers aircraft ever built - based on an R.E.P. french monoplane, as well as being the first "aircraft" taken to Antartica.

it never flew in Antartica following a crash in South Australia and was instead used as a sledge tractor on the ice.

I have just posted more historical information and photos on the KP forum so better to link to it than duplicate it here.

Unfortunately it would seem from the media report that the steel fuselage has been torn apart by the ice flow.

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=96752
Regards

Mark Pilkington

[Oscar Duck]

Mark, will they try and recover it? Be a shame to let her go for ever..

[Ztex]

Interesting story

I little piece of it is shown on this video report from the BBC....is this all there is of it??

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8438211.stm

[Mark_Pilkington]

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I expect they will recover and preserve the parts that have been found, but there doesnt seem to be much remaining.

After nearly 100 years in Antartica subjected to blizzards, constant exposure to water, the pressures of shifting ice, and more recently apparant contact or immersion in salt water, you cant expect it to be in prinstine condition.



The BBC news and online affiliates have film footage, here are 3 images of the steel frame remains found on the rocky shore, little more than debris.

A bit like moon landings and space junk, the Antartic division have a reasonably good record of what has been taken onto site, so I assume they are confident these sections are from the fuselage frame, I guess its possible other pieces are already pushed into the sea, or still to emerge from the ice flow.











Regards

Mark Pilkington