Potential Airfield Sites in Antarctica for Wheeled Aircraft

• Main Author: Swithinbank, Charles
• Other Authors: COLD REGIONS RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING LAB HANOVER NH
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1991
• Subjects: Terminal Flight Facilities; Geology; Geochemistry and Mineralogy; Snow; Ice and Permafrost; *LANDING FIELDS; *AIRPORTS; *ANTARCTIC REGIONS; *TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT; *ICE; TERRAIN; REGIONS; COSTS; CONSTRUCTION; IMAGES; WHEELS; TRANSPORT; OPERATION; GEOLOGICAL SURVEYS; AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS; NUMBERS; RUNWAYS; POLAR CAP; PHOTOGRAPHS; GLACIERS; LAND ICE; COLD REGIONS; SITES; AIRCRAFT; MAJORITIES; MAINTENANCE; POLAR REGIONS; Antarctic; Patriot Hills; Ice Runway; Mill Glacier; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice; permafrost
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA249503; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA249503

This is a report on a search for possible or potential airfield sites in Antarctica, using aerial photographs and satellite images supplemented by other data. A few sites are on ice-free ground but the majority are on inland blue ice fields. Earlier studies of potential airfields on Antarctic glacier ice are referenced. The attraction of a well-chosen blue-ice runway is that construction and maintenance costs are almost nil. A number of sites have been found suitable for the operation of unmodified transport aircraft on wheels. An inland icefield site on Mill Glacier (85 deg 09'S, 167 deg 12'E) is in use for wheel landings by LC-130 aircraft; another at Patriot Hills (80 deg 19'S, 8 1 deg 1 6'W) is in use for wheel landings by DC-6 aircraft. Airfields, Cold regions, Land ice, Runways antarctica, Ice, Polar cap, Blue ice, Ice runways, Polar regions.