A Royal New Zealand Air Force 757 will tomorrow make a second
trial flight to Antarctica's McMurdo Sound, testing whether
passenger planes can be unloaded on the Sound's frozen
southern airstrip.
The flight of the passenger planes, taking about eight and a
half hours return, would augment Hercules cargo plane flights
currently used to move equipment and personnel from New
Zealand, US and Italian Antarctic projects on the ice.
The airliner would land on the white ice landing strip at the
shared Pegasus ice runway, where the facility's ability to
deal with passengers, aircraft maintenance and other ground
support would be assessed, a New Zealand Defence Force
spokesman told NZPA.
If the tests proved successful, the 757s could start flying
to Antarctica next year, he said.
