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Aviation History
1984
1984 - 0096.PDF
BUSINESS AVIATION Dorniers in the Antarctic ANTARCTICA A snow-equipped Dornier 128-6 and 228-100 are at work for Germany's Antarctic research programme. Hand over of the two research aircraft to the Alfred- Wegener-Institute (AWI) in Bremerhaven marked the start of their 18,175km ferry flight to the Antarctic to join the third German expedition to the "sixth continent". Purchaser of the aircraft is the City of Bremen. The contracting authority for the preparation and execution of flying operations in the Antarctic is the Bremen- based AWI, which is responsible for logistics in the South Polar region. The Federal Republic of Germany's Antarctic research programme is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research and Technology. Polar 1 and Polar 2, as the Dornier 128-6 and Dornier 228-100 have been named, have been fitted with exten sive special equipment, including a newly developed snow landing gear, additional navigation and commu nications aids, and ferrying and emergency equipment. The scientific payload, which is installed in the 228-100, consists of radar to explore ice Dornier's 228-100 in Antarctic guise, magnetometers with wheel-and-ski landing gear. Internal equipment includes radar and thickness and cover as well as ice crevices, two magnetome ters, and an aerial camera for wide-area cartography. The use of Dornier aircraft follows a German tradition in Antarctic research. About 45 years ago the two Dornier Wal flying boats, Boreas and Passat, operated without inci dent over the ice-covered continent for a total of 90 flying hours during the 1938/39 South Polar Expedi tion organised by Deutsche Luft Hansa. Some 16,000km were covered by the two 10-tonne Wal flying boats, A ntarctic routes for the two aircraft. Filchner Station is start point for this season's research work KM which operated from the Schwabenland expedition ship. They took off with the aid of a catapult and mapped an area the size of Germany. From Oberpfaffenhofen Polar ] and 2 were flown to Malaga, then Las Palmas, Robertsfield, across the South Atlantic via Ascension Island to Recife, then down the South American coast to Punta Arenas in Chile. There wheel-and-ski landing gear was fitted before continuing on to von Neumeyer Station in the Antarctic. The task allotted to the two new Dornier aircraft is to link the German Georg-von- Neumeyer Station with the summer station on the Filch ner shelf ice. They also increase the radius of action of the scientific field teams, and explore the ground beneath the ice. The smaller aircraft, a version of the well tried Do28D-2 Skyservant fitted with two Pratt & Whitney PT6A-110 turboprops, will specialise in cargo and ferry services. Polar 1 will carry personnel and equipment between the two stations and take the field teams from the Filchner Station to unprepared terrain, supply them there, and collect them again. Polar 2 will also share in transport missions. Its primary tasks, however, are long-distance flights for geophysical, cartographical, glaciological and, later, meteorological/air chemistry observations, using complex 144 sensor systems. In addition to AWI, other German institutes will use the aircraft under the Antarctic research programme. Dornier is responsible not only for supplying the two aircraft and the development work on equipment installa tion, but also for crewing. Three company pilots and three aircraft or electronics technicians have been seconded by Dornier for the duration of the expedition. They have received special training during various tests on the two aircraft and special equipment. An important part of the aircraft tests and crew train ing took place in July 1982, when between 30 and 40 take- offs and landings were made on snow and ice strips in unprepared terrain in Green land. The opening of the Filchner Station, whose nearest neigh bour is the Soviet Drushnaya Station 270km away, will be followed by the actual measuring phase, concluding with evacuation of the Filch ner Station about the middle of next month. The German Antarctic Expedition will receive support from the Polarstern polar research supply ship. The two polar aircraft are to start on their return flight at the end of February, arriving back at Dornier's Oberpfaffenhofen airfield in mid-March. The next mission will begin in October 1984 and last until March 1985. FLIGHT International, 21 January 1984
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