Pegasus Field
77°57′48″S 166°31′28″E / 77.96333°S 166.52444°E
Pegasus Field | |||||||||||
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 White ice runway at Pegasus Field | |||||||||||
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| Location | McMurdo Station, Ross Island, Antarctica | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 18 ft / 5 m | ||||||||||
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| Runways | |||||||||||
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Pegasus Field (ICAO: NZPG) is an airstrip in Antarctica, the southernmost of three airfields serving McMurdo Station. Pegasus is a white ice runway capable of handling wheeled aircraft year-round. The other two are the snow runways at Williams Field that is limited to ski-equipped aircraft, and the principal Ice Runway on the sea-ice available during the summer Antarctic field season.
The field is named after Pegasus, a C-121 Lockheed Constellation, still visible there in the snow after crashing in bad weather on October 8, 1970. No one on board was injured.
On September 11, 2008, a United States Air Force C-17 Globemaster III successfully completed the first landing in Antarctica using night-vision goggles at Pegasus Field.[3] Previously air transport in the permanent darkness of the winter was only used in emergencies, with burning barrels of fuel to outline the runway.
References
- ^ Template:WAD
- ^ Airport information for NZPG at Great Circle Mapper. Source: DAFIF (effective October 2006).
- ^ Rejcek, Peter (September 26, 2008). "Air Force successfully tests new capability to fly any time of year to McMurdo". Antarctic Sun.
External links
- The McMurdo "Pegasus Site" from "Airfields on Antarctic Glacier Ice" by Malcolm Mellor and Charles Swithinbank, CRREL 1989.
- Lockheed Aircraft R7V-1 / R7V-1P / C-121J "Constellation" "Connie"
- Installation of runway-Pegasus
- Runway Project Clears the Way for Improved Antarctic Airlift, National Science Foundation. February 20, 2002.
- Current weather for NZPG at NOAA/NWS