First Commercial Flight To Antarctica

[Dave Homewood]

From The Press, 19th of September 1957. Any photos of it on the ice?

First Commercial Flight To Antarctic Next Month

A Pan American Airways Strato Clipper equipped with the latest polar navigational instruments, and flown by a veteran Arctic pilot, will land at the Christchurch airport on October 14 on its way to McMurdo Sound, in the first commercial flight to Antarctica.

Under contract to the United States Navy, the huge double-decked aircraft will carry 37 passengers from San Francisco to McMurdo Sound, where it will land on a runway on bay ice 15ft thick.

The Strato Clipper will be commanded by Captain Ralph Savory, chief pilot of the company’s Alaska region, who has had more than 25 years’ experience of flying in Arctic conditions.

A new type of gyro compass, replacing the ordinary magnetic compass, which becomes erratic near the magnetic poles, will be carried in the aircraft. Another recently-developed instrument on board will be a sky compass—an instrument similar to a sextant—which polarises the light rays from the sun and makes it possible for the navigator to check the heading of the aircraft even when the sun is well below the horizon.

The passengers on the Antarctic flight will be mostly officers and men of the Navy’s mobile construction battalion (Seabees) and some civilian technicians. It is more than five years since an aircraft of this type was seen here. On April 1, 1952. a Pau American Strato Cruiser stopped briefly at Harewood on a check flight. It will not be the biggest aircraft to land here, being slightly smaller and lighter than the Globemaster.

[Dave Homewood]

GIRLS TO FLY TO McMURDO

Brief Stay By Stewardesses

Two airline stewardesses — one a blonde, the other a brunette — will spend two hours at McMurdo Sound next week.

It is likely that the 80-odd bearded men who have spent the winter at the lonely Antarctic base will see little of the girls. The United States Navy will keep a close watch on them and it is not, at this stage, intended that they should leave the aircraft.

“The boys will think Christmas has come early this year,” commented one Navy officer who spent last summer in the Antarctic. Then he added, more soberly: “There’ll be a lot of looking and not much said.”

Patricia Hepinstall and Ruth Kelly, the two hostesses, will be aboard a Pan American Airways Stratocruiser which will carry a party of Mobile Construction Battalion officers and men from San Francisco.

First Commercial Flight
The aircraft, which will be under charter to the United States Navy, will be the first commercial plane to land in the Antarctic. It is to leave San Francisco on October 12 and reach Christchurch on October 14. It will depart for McMurdo Sound at the earliest opportunity after that.

Captain Ralph Savory, a veteran P.A.A. Arctic pilot, will lead a flight crew of six. A Stratocruiser is not as heavy as a Globemaster, but lands much faster and is more difficult to handle on an ice airstrip such as that at McMurdo Sound.

There is already one “woman” at an American base in the Antarctic. A shop window model was flown in last year by Commander E. J. Frankiewicz and was delivered to the 18 men who have spent the winter at the South Pole base.

“A lovely thing she was, all dressed up,” recalled an officer who saw her on arrival at McMurdo Sound.

Admiral's Comment
“Beautiful and courageous women have always been among the pioneers of a new frontier,” said Rear-Admiral George F. Dufek, explaining last evening why the two Pan American Airways stewardesses would be flying to McMurdo Sound next Tuesday.

“This was true in New Zealand, as in America, and it will be true in Antarctica. My only reservation has been concerned with the necessary facilities for them. In this case, a civilian airline proposes to take care of them as part of its regular crew in its own aircraft. It will be a pleasure to welcome these pioneers at McMurdo,” said Admiral Dufek.

The Press, 9 October 1957.