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Byrd's flight over South Pole...
Byrd's flight over South Pole...
Item # 566667
November 29, 1929
THE NEW YORK TIMES, November 29, 1929
* Aviator Richard Evelyn Byrd
* South Pole flight begins
* Ernie Nevers makes NFL record in scoring
This 44 page newspaper has a great three line banner headline on the front page: "COMMANDER BYRD OFF ON FLIGHT TO THE SOUTH POLE; RADIO REPORTS 'ALL IS WELL' AT 6:30 A.M., 8 HOURS OUT; PASSES SLEDGE PARTY ON THE TRAIL AND DROPS MESSAGES" with subheads and nice photo of Byrd (see photos). Much more on pages 2 & 3. Loads of text, way too much to photograph here. Tells of the beginning of Richard Byrd's famous flight over the South Pole. Nice to have in this famous NYC title.
Other news of the day throughout including one column headlines on page 31: "40 Points, Pro Mark, Scored By Nevers" and more. Tells of Ernie Nevers scoring 40 point in one game which is still a NFL football record to this day.
Light browning with little margin wear but otherwise good.
wikipedia notes: In 1928, Byrd began his first expedition to the Antarctic involving two ships, and three airplanes: a Ford Trimotor called the Floyd Bennett (named after the recently deceased pilot of Byrd's previous expeditions); a Fairchild FC-2W2, NX8006, built 1928, named "Stars And Stripes" (now displayed at the Virginia Aviation Museum, on loan from the National Air and Space Museum); and a Fokker Universal monoplane called the Virginia (Byrd's birth state). A base camp named "Little America" was constructed on the Ross Ice Shelf and scientific expeditions by dog-sled, snowmobile, and airplane began. Photographic expeditions and geological surveys were undertaken for the duration of that summer, and constant radio communications were maintained with the outside world. After their first winter, their expeditions were resumed, and on November 29, 1929, the famous flight to the South Pole and back was launched. Byrd, along with pilot Bernt Balchen, co-pilot/radioman Harold June, and photographer Ashley McKinley, flew the Ford Trimotor to the South Pole and back in 18 hours, 41 minutes. They had difficulty gaining enough altitude, and they had to dump empty gas tanks, as well as their emergency supplies, in order to achieve the altitude of the Polar Plateau. However, the flight was successful, and it entered Byrd into the history books. After a further summer of exploration, the expedition returned to North America on June 18, 1930. A 19 year-old American Boy Scout, Paul Allman Siple, was chosen to accompany the expedition. Unlike the 1926 flight, this expedition was honored with the gold medal of the American Geographical Society.
Byrd, by then an internationally recognized, pioneering American polar explorer and aviator, served for a time as Honorary National President (1931-1935) of Pi Gamma Mu, the international honor society in the social sciences. In 1928, he carried the Society's flag during a historic expedition to the Antarctic to dramatize the spirit of adventure into the unknown, characterizing both the natural and social sciences.
Category: The 20th Century
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