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Aviation History
1925
1925 - 0598.PDF
SEPTEMBER 17, 1925 PROPOSED ANTARCTIC FLIGHT Amundsen's WHEN Capt. Roald Amundsen struggled back to his ship'sparty intone of the two Dornier " Wals " with which he and his party had set out, voices were heard to exclaim that theaeroplane had been proved unsuitable for polar exploration. One is really rather tired of hearing these sort of commentson aircraft of all sorts—landplanes, seaplanes, and airships— as they have fought their chequeied way up through disasterafter disaster to various stages of recognition and of promise. At any rate, this Wai, with its two I^olls-Rovce " Eagle "engines, which brought the Amundsen jparty 'Safely"* back. Wai" to be Used. Plans of Capt. G. H. Wilkins, M.C. By MAJOR F. A. de V. ROBERTSON, V.D. as second in command. He was in the Arctic when, in 1915.he heard that there was a war on in the world. He returned in 1917, and immediately received a commission in theAustralian Flying Corps, but later was appointed official photographer to the A.I.F. It would have been strangeif a man so familiar with danger and hardship had not won the Military Cross ; but Capt. Wilkins won it twice, and wasalso twice mentioned in despatches. After the War, the Commonwealth Government offered,£10,000 for a flight from England to Australia, which, as 150 PROPOSED ANTARCTIC FLIGHT : This sketch-map shows the regions which Capt. Wilkins hopes tosurvey from the air, and gives a good idea of the relative location of the various continents in relation to the South Pole. The particular stretch which Capt. Wilkins hopes to fly over is from the Bay of Whalesto Grahamland, a distance of about 1,500 miles. is to be used again for polar exploration. Its next sphere,however, will not be the Arctic, but the Antarctic. ~KR^»%t> follow the history of exploration, and most of thosewho have taken an interest in flying, will be familiar with the name, and at least some of the doings, of Capt. G. H.Wilkins, M.C. (and bar). He is a countryman of Sir Ross Smith and Bert Hinkler, his native State being SouthAustralia. There are few places where he has not been and few things which he has not done. In 1910, he learnt to fly.la the Balkan war of 1912-13, he was a photographic corres- pondent with the Turkish forces. Scarcely was it over, thanhe joined Stephanson's Canadian expedition to the Arctic everyone knows, was won by the Smith brothers. It wasreally inevitable that Capt. Wilkins should enter for that, and he organised a party in a Blackburn " Kangaroo," withMr. Valdemar Rendle, as first pilot and himself as navigator. The " Kangaroo," however, did not get further than Crete.In this connection, we should recall another competitor, the Sopwith " Wallaby," of which Capt. G. C. Matthews waspilot. In 1920, Capt. Wilkins went south, as second in commandof the British Imperial Antarctic Expedition, and in the next two years he was naturalist on Sir Ernest Shackleton's lastvoyage to the same regions. As a change from the sea and 598
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