Antarctic and polar exploration.On 9 May 1926 Lieutenant Commander Richard E. Byrd, left, and Naval Aviation Naval aviation is the application of manned military air power by navies. Maritime aviation is the operation of aircraft in a maritime role under the command of land based forces such as RAF Coastal Command or United States Coast Guard. Pilot Floyd Bennett made the first flight over the North Pole North Pole, northern end of the earth's axis, lat. 90°N. It is distinguished from the north magnetic pole. U.S. explorer Robert E. Peary is traditionally credited as being the first to reach (1909) the North Pole. In 1926, Richard E. . Byrd was also the navigator on the first flight over the South Pole South Pole, southern end of the earth's axis, lat. 90° S. It is distinguished from the south magnetic pole. The South Pole was reached by Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian explorer, in 1911. See Antarctica. on 29 November 1929. Above, a Curtiss-Wright Condor fitted with skis and floats was used in early polar exploration. The Navy's role in Antarctic exploration included Operation Highjump from 29 January to 4 March 1947, in which aircraft operating both from shore and from ships anchored offshore conducted photographic mapping of 1.5 million square miles of the interior and 5,500 miles of coastline. Below, Antarctic Development Squadron 6 flew the C-130 Hercules as part of Operation Deep Freeze Operation Deep Freeze (OpDFrz or ODF) is the codename for a series of US missions to Antarctica, beginning with "Operation Deep Freeze I" in 1955–56, followed by "Operation Deep Freeze II", "Operation Deep Freeze III", and so on. , the Navy's support of scientific missions in Antarctica. VXE-6 disestablished in February 1999, culminating 44 years of Operation Deep Freeze. |
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