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A Single Plane Landed At The South Pole Six Decades Ago
On October 31, 1956, a plane descended out of the clear, blue sky at the bottom of the planet. The twin-engine R4D-5 Skytrain, named Que Sera Sera, touched down on the frigid Antarctic plateau just yards away from the unmarked geographic South Pole. This was the first airplane ever to land there. (antarcticsun.usap.gov) और अधिक...
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And not a man lost! A worthy successor to Shackleton.
"Thinking fast, Shinn started to fire the small jet assisted take-off rocket engines on the side of the plane for the extra thrust to dislodge the skis"
It took a set of huevos to fire all the RATOs at once. Greater stress on the airframe than one would wish, plus no do-overs and a hell of an ice-chopping job if that had failed to do the trick.
It took a set of huevos to fire all the RATOs at once. Greater stress on the airframe than one would wish, plus no do-overs and a hell of an ice-chopping job if that had failed to do the trick.
I remember this day well as I was stationed at mc murdo sound and helped load those jet assist bottles on that aircraft that morning
How do we know that's the South Pole? For that matter, how did HE know - in 1956....?
A couple of weeks later (Nov 20 1956) the first construction crew arrived and made measurements (probably sun sightings) to get a more accurate determination of the location of the South Pole and found they were about 8 miles away, see http://www.southpolestation.com/trivia/igy1/igy1.html for details. Still 8 miles away is pretty impressive for a flight in 1956, kudos to the navigator, LT Dick Swadener.
Impressive! That photo looks very similar to that of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon with Apollo 11. From 1956 to 1969 a short 13 years and the R4D-5 taking the role of the lunar lander in equally harsh conditions.
