Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
equipped with pontoons to the Antarctic, and created an improvised landing strip at
Deception Island. On 20 December 1928, Wilkins flew for 11 hours across the Antarctic
Peninsula, covering some 1,600 miles and travelling below 71°S. Recalling his land-based
struggles as a young polar explorer, he revelled in what the plane offered: 'I had a
tremendous feeling of power and freedom - I felt liberated. For the first time in history, new
land was being discovered from the air.'
Within five years, planes and pilots were being deployed in other expeditions involving
Douglas Mawson and the Norwegian Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen, who each laid the groundwork
for their respective national territorial claims. The American explorer Lincoln Ellsworth
made multiple expeditions between 1933 and 1939, including the first flight across the
Antarctic. A contemporary of his, Admiral Richard Byrd, played his part in utilizing the
aircraft to considerable effect with regard to exploration. Byrd, after establishing a base
(Little America) at the Bay of Whales in January 1929, used his Ford tri-motor aircraft, the
Floyd Bennett
, to undertake the first ever flight to the South Pole. In November 1929, the
pilot and passengers reached the spot where Amundsen and Scott had visited nearly 20
years earlier. As Byrd noted, 'There was nothing now to mark that scene; only a white
desolation and solitude disturbed by the sound of our engines.' With favourable flying
weather, the plane could conduct extensive reconnaissance flights, and explore vast swathes
of previously unsighted territory. It could and did eclipse the achievements of land-based
expeditions, and a new generation of polar explorers were being fêted for their aeronautical
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their handling of snow and dogs. The Antarctic map was transformed again, as new
geographical features were identified from the air, and subsequently named after explorers
and sponsors alike.
The British Graham Land Expedition (1934-7), under the leadership of John Rymill, used
aircraft to help demonstrate that the Antarctic Peninsula was physically connected to the rest
of the polar continent. Using a De Havilland Fox Moth reconnaissance plane, equipped with
floats and skis, the team explored the southern Antarctic Peninsula region, which was poorly
mapped and barely visited in comparison to the northern tip. Twenty years later, the British
government invested in the aerial mapping of the Peninsula region via the Falkland Islands
Dependencies Aerial Survey Expedition (FIDASE, 1955-7), which was carried out by the
Hunting Aerosurveys. Canso planes, imported from Arctic Canada, were used to continue
the mapping and surveying of British Antarctic territories, and helicopters played a critical
role in ferrying surveyors around the targeted areas.
The impact of the aeroplane in terms of Antarctic exploration was mixed. On the one hand,
the plane and the pilot became a powerful expression of the modern age of exploration.
