On New Year’s Day, low tides caused by the blue moon unraveled one of the earliest British aircraft and the first Vickers production aircraft on an Antarctic icescape.
The Vickers monoplane was built in 1911 and was ditched in 1914 after a short career in the air and a slightly longer career as a tractor.
The airplane was transported from Britain to Australia, where it crashed during a demo flight which was to also be its last flight. The crash damaged the airplane so badly that the wings had to be removed.
Sir Mawson then converted the airplane to a “tractor”, kept the propeller, attached skis controlled by the rudder and a specially designed tail and hoped to break world longest taxi record.
Unfortunately, the engine could not operate in the subzero temperatures and the airplane was ditched in Cape Denison in 1914.
Apparently, three teams of conservationists and scientists have used magnetic imaging equipment, without success, since 1996 to try to find the fuselage.
Mr Jensen, the chairman of the Mawson’s Huts Foundation, said: “It was probably one chance in a million that these conditions just allowed us to spot it.”
I guess it’s one of those things that happen once in a blue moon.
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