Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
208
seaplanes mounted with trimetrogon cameras to photograph the coastline of the conti-
nent. The cameras recorded three simultaneous images on nine-inch-square negatives,
with views to the right, to the left, and vertically from the plane. By the time the two
task groups completed their missions, they had recorded a vast area of the East Antarctic
coastline, from 15° E to 170° E, much of it seen for the first time on these flights.
At the edge of the pack in the Ross Sea, the aircraft carrier Philippine Sea staged six
ski-fitted R4D aircraft (military equivalent of the DC-3) that flew the seven hundred
miles to Little America. Packed with radar and navigational instruments, in addition to
trimetrogon cameras, they were also fitted for JATO (jet-assisted takeoV), a set of solid
propellant rockets that fired at liftoV to boost the planes into the air from the short run-
way of the carrier and the sticky ice runway at Little America. The R4Ds flew numerous
missions into unexplored areas of West Antarctica and the Transantarctic Mountains. A
variety of tracked land vehicles also operated successfully out of Little America. Overall,
Operation Highjump sighted an astonishing 1.5 million square miles of the continent and
took more than seventy thousand aerial photographs.
The good-weather windows for flying from Little America were few and of short
duration, so the crews and pilots were poised to jump when opportunity called. Such a
break came on February 14, 1947. Shortly after midnight, with Admiral Byrd on board,
the first R4D launched to the Transantarctic Mountains and flew straight for the Watson
Escarpment, with the goal of delineating the Horlick Mountains. The plane flew up an
outlet glacier to the east of the Scott (probably Leverett Glacier) and turned left (east)
along the backside of the mountains. Falling oil pressure in one of the engines forced the
plane to drop to lower elevations on the north side of the mountains, where it continued
for more than seventy miles before turning back.
An hour later, a second R4D followed with a south-southeast heading, straight to the
area of the Horlick Mountains viewed indistinctly during the flight from Little America
in 1934. Turning east at the edge of the mountains, the plane followed the diminishing
escarpment to a sort of termination, but out ahead another range rose with a steep shoul-
der emerging from between the ascending ice sheets, so they continued past it until they
were forced to turn back due to hypoxia (lack of oxygen) of the crew.
With the first two planes safely returned to Little America, a second pair launched to
the southeast, but stratus clouds limited the views to only a few dark summits protrud-
ing above the cloud banks. With the second pair of planes safely back, the freshly serviced
first pair took oV again, heading toward Mount Wade. Flying in tandem up the east and
west sides of Shackleton Glacier (see Fig. 7.1), the planes turned right (southwest) at the
head of the glacier, followed along the plateau side of the mountains, aiming for Mount
Kirkpatrick, and then flew down Beardmore Glacier (see Fig. 4.11).
Clear weather held and another two planes launched for the South Pole, taking a
route up Shackleton Glacier and then flying in along the 180° meridian. Byrd was on
board, and at the pole dropped a cardboard box containing the flags of all of the members
of the United Nations, then continued on for another ninety miles along the 0° meridian
before turning back and crossing the Transantarctic Mountains between Beardmore and
Shackleton Glaciers.
Aerial reconnaissance of Victoria Land began on February 17. The first three planes
