First flight over South PoleIn 1929, Commander Richard E. Byrd made the first flight over the South Pole. He and three companions set off at 3:29pm in the Floyd Bennett the previous day from “Little America” base on the Ross Ice Shelf. Magnetic compasses fail near a Pole, so Byrd navigated by the sun. The Pole was reached about 1am. He dropped a British flag in honour of Scott, and an American flag weighted with a stone from the grave of Floyd Bennett, with whom he had flown over the North Pole (9 May 1926). To allow for navigation error, the plane criss-crossed the area, then returned to base. The round trip took 18 hr 14 min. Byrd returned on 16 Feb 1947 and dropped a carton with 54 flags of United Nations states. His fifth and last Antarctic expedition was in 1955, two years before he died.« |
