Pegasus Field was an airstrip in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

, the southernmost of three airfields serving

McMurdo Station McMurdo Station is a United States Antarctic research station on the south tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand-claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the United States through the Unit ...

. It closed due to excessive melting in the summer season caused by warmer temperatures combined with dust and dirt blown in from nearby Black Island. The last flight was on December 8, 2016 and it was replaced by Phoenix Airfield US Antarctic Program Inter-agency Air Operations Manual – United States Antarctic Program
/ref> with flights expected to start in February 2017. Pegasus was originally conceived as a blue ice runway capable of handling wheeled aircraft year-round, but as it was developed, it was enhanced with a 4-inch layer of compacted snow on top—thus more properly characterizing it as a white ice runway. Other local runways are the snow runways at

Williams Field Williams Field or Willy Field is a United States Antarctic Program airfield in Antarctica. Williams Field consists of two snow runways located on approximately 8 meters (25 ft) of compacted snow, lying on top of 8–10 ft of ice, flo ...

that are limited to ski-equipped aircraft, and the

Ice Runway The Ice Runway is the principal runway for the U.S. Antarctic Program during the summer Antarctic field season due to its proximity to McMurdo Station. The other two runways in the area are the snow runway at Williams Field (NZWD) and the ...

on the sea-ice available during the summer Antarctic field season. The field is named after ''Pegasus'', a C-121

Lockheed Constellation The Lockheed Constellation ("Connie") is a propeller-driven, four-engined airliner built by Lockheed Corporation starting in 1943. The Constellation series was the first pressurized-cabin civil airliner series to go into widespread use. Its press ...

that made a forced landing on unprepared terrain in bad weather on October 8, 1970. None of the 80 on board were seriously injured. The aircraft remains in-situ near the airfield as of 2019, and has remained well preserved. It is generally covered with snow, but is occasionally excavated by visitors wishing to photograph it. On September 11, 2008, a United States Air Force

C-17 Globemaster III The McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft that was developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) from the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas. The C-17 carries forward the name of two ...

successfully completed the first landing in Antarctica using

night-vision goggles A night-vision device (NVD), also known as a night optical/observation device (NOD), night-vision goggle (NVG), is an optoelectronic device that allows visualization of images in low levels of light, improving the user's night vision. The dev ...

at Pegasus Field. Previously air transport in the permanent darkness of the winter was only used in emergencies, with burning barrels of fuel to outline the runway.

Gallery

file:Galaxy Antarctica.jpg, United States Air Force C-5 Galaxy being off-loaded at Pegasus Field. file:Air Force Boeing 757 in Pegasus Field Antarctica.jpg, RNZAF Boeing 757 lands at Pegasus Airfield on the Ross Ice Shelf during its maiden flight to Antarctica.

References

External links

''Airfields on Antarctic Glacier Ice''
Malcolm Mellor and Charles Swithinbank, CRREL 1989.

* ttps://www.nsf.gov/pubs/stis1990/opp93009/opp93009.txt Installation of runway-Pegasus
''Runway Project Clears the Way for Improved Antarctic Airlift''
National Science Foundation. February 20, 2002.
''Construction, Maintenance, and Operation of a Glacial Runway, McMurdo Station, Antarctica''
George L. Blaisdell et al., CRREL Monograph 98–1, March 1998. * {{authority control Defunct airports Airports in the Ross Dependency McMurdo Station Airports in Antarctica Airports disestablished in 2016 2016 disestablishments in Antarctica

Gallery

See also

References

External links