The 1920s saw in the Antarctic the stormy development of a new transport technique, flying.
George Hubert Wilkins (1888-1958), air Australian adventurer, was the first to put it to the test in Antarctica. Like Shackleton, Wilkins had spent the First World War on the ice, having taken part as photographer during 1913-17 in an Arctic expedition. Shackleton hired him in 1921 for his last Antarctic enterprise, on which the 'Boss' was to die of a heart attack. In 1926 Wilkins flew from Alaska out into the Arctic. In 1928 he succeeded in winning the American newspaper tycoon, Randolph Hearst, as sponsor for his Antarctic plans and realizing his dream. With two Lockheed monoplanes he undertook, from Deception Island, the first flights over the Antarctic peninsula.
Simultaneously, Richard Byrd (1888-1957), who was the same age as Wilkins, started his Antarctic flights. This flying officer who had been highly decorated in the First World War came from one of the best families in the southern states of the USA. Already in 1926 he had achieved the
first flight to the North Pole.
When Amundsen, his companion, asked him what he proposed now, he answered promptly: your Pole. He wanted to fly to the South Pole.
On 24 December 1928 Byrd's ship reached the edge of the Ross Shelf Ice. In Bay of Whales he constructed his base camp 'Little America'. His expedition was the best equipped that had ever set foot in Antarctica. Byrd had at his disposal three aircraft specially adapted for extreme cold. Also ninety-five dogs and fifty men. From 15 January 1929 test flights with the machines were carried out. Quickly four problems loomed, for which the pilot had to be ready: starting the engines which constantly threatened to freeze up, icing of the wings, navigation, which on account of the proximity of the magnetic Pole proved exceedingly difficult; lastly, the bad weather with frequent interruptions of visibility. During the setting in of the Antarctic winter, one of the machines. was destroyed on the ground during a snowstorm.
It was soon obvious that a direct flight to the Pole was too risky without intermediate stations. The Trans-Antarctica Mountains, which towered up to a height of 4,500 metres, had to be crossed, a flying ceiling which the three-engine Ford machines could not achieve heavily laden. Therefore a petrol dump for refueling had to be constructed. Byrd planned to fly over the Axel Heiberg Glacier, then along the Amundsen route. At the foot of the mountains he must previously set up a fuel dump. On 19 November 1929 the depot's petrol drums stood in rank and file. On the way back to 'Little America' the fuel gave out and the machine had to make an emergency landing 160 kilometres from base. Because of the bad weather it was three days before the second machine could hurry to the aid of the stranded crew. On 28 November 1929 the ground station on the glacier announced over the radio that they had good weather. At once Byrd flew off with three companions. They crossed the Ross Shelf Ice, headed 700 kilometres in the direction of the Axel Heiberg Glacier, then decided spontaneously, and on sight, for the Liv Glacier, which seemed to be flatter. The mountain range bordering it, they flew over by the skin of their teeth by jettisoning ballast, two sacks of food which were to secure survival in case of an emergency landing. Wind and weather were on their side luckily. Without further difficulties they reached the Pole. They flew back without stopping and finally landed to refuel at the depot. After sixteen hours they were back again, tired out but happy, in 'Little America'. Their arrival in New York turned into a public festival, and Byrd was promoted to Rear Admiral. After this successful Pole flight, a flight across Antarctica could be contemplated.
