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The modern scientific age in Antarctica really began with the introduction of aircraft in the 1920s. Aircraft transformed the possibilities of exploring the frozen continent around the South Pole, because before that Antarctic travel had been limited to the use of dog-teams pulling sledges. A plane could survey thousands of square kilometres an hour, equivalent to a whole summer’s work using previous techniques. However, the first planes in Antarctica, such as the Lockheed Vega and the Ford Trimotor, were unreliable in freezing conditions. This made polar flying particularly hazardous, since there was little chance of rescue if a plane was forced down in a remote region.
It was in 1928 that Herbert Wilkins hoped to make the first flight in Antarctica, attempting to cross the continent. A further attempt in 1930 was also unsuccessful, but Wilkins’ aerial photographs seemed to show that the Antarctic Peninsula was in fact an island, not part of the continent as had previously been thought. This new theory caused some excitement among geographers and cartographers. However, the British Grahamland Expedition of 1934–37 proved conclusively that the Antarctic Peninsula was attached to the rest of the continent.
In 1929, the famous American pilot Richard Byrd flew over the South Pole, and another American, Lincoln Ellsworth, made a successful Antarctic flight in 1935. Although Ellsworth claimed a sector of the continent for the USA, the American government did not follow it up. In 1938, the German explorer, Alfred Ritscher, led an expedition south across the sea. Once Antarctica was reached, the aircraft that had been stored in pieces on the ship’s deck was reconstructed. The aeroplane was then launched and used to stake a claim to one section of Antarctica by dropping thousands of tiny flags from the air.
