Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
Posted on 01/02/2010 4:32:29 PM PST by nickcarraway
Remains of the first airplane ever taken to Antarctica, in 1912, have been found by Australian researchers, the team announced Saturday.
The Mawson's Huts Foundation had been searching for the plane for three summers before stumbling upon metal pieces of it on New Year's Day.
"The biggest news of the day is that we've found the air tractor, or at least parts of it!" team member Tony Stewart wrote on the team's blog from Cape Denison in Antarctica's Commonwealth Bay.
Australian polar explorer and geologist Douglas Mawson led two expeditions to Antarctica in the early 1900s, on the first one bringing along a single-propeller Vickers plane. The wings of the plane, built in 1911, had been damaged in a crash before the expedition, but Mawson hoped to use it as a kind of motorized sled.
WATCH VIDEO: All are lost on Robert F. Scott's expedition to the South Pole. Related Links:
Lost Scotch Whiskey Cache Buried in Antarctica Canadian Trekkers Claim South Pole Record HowStuffWorks.com: Antarctic Explorations Top 10 Doomed Expeditions
Stewart said the 1911-14 Australian Antarctic Expedition used the plane to tow gear onto the ice in preparation for their sledging journeys.
But the plane's engine could not withstand the extreme temperatures and it was eventually abandoned.
The plane, the first from France's Vickers factory, had not been seen since the mid-1970s, when researchers photographed the steel fuselage nearly encompassed in ice.
The foundation -- which works at Cape Denison to conserve the huts used by Mawson in his expeditions -- believed the plane would still be where it was left by Mawson, near the huts and the harbor, which is covered in ice for most of the year.
Ping
Interesting find, here.
Good thing for global warming or this thing may have never been found!
Those guys were real men. The tourist/environmentalist “explorers” of today are less than nothing compared to these guys. I actually weep when I read Scott’s last journal entries (a singular act which, of course, nullifies my Man-Card). When those boys set out for the poles, they put everything - and I do mean everything - on the line.
|
|
|||
Gods |
Thanks nickcarraway! I know I shouldn't say it, but this is a cool story. :')a single-propeller Vickers planeCincinna, it was a French-built plane. |
||
|
· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
|||
“The plane, the first from France’s Vickers factory, had not been seen since the mid-1970s, when researchers photographed the steel fuselage nearly encompassed in ice.”
Only the bloody frogs would build an aircraft fuselage out of steel, if the report is accurate.
I think the french pioneered the monocoque construction. It wasn’t steel though and it didn’t happen until about 1920, I think.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.