How airmen overcame -77 degree weather, frostnip to fix a C-130 in Antarctica
Not exactly the sunny duty assignment of your dreams.
BY DAVID ROZA | PUBLISHED DEC 29, 2022 9:19 AM
Over Thanksgiving, while most Americans enjoyed a hearty meal in the warmth of their homes, three Air National Guardsmen braved extreme temperatures on the endless ice of the South Pole to fix a plane that helps feed and supply an entire continent.
The plane in question was an LC-130 ‘Skibird,’ the largest ski-equipped aircraft in the world, according to a recent press release written by the public affairs office for the New York Air National Guard’s 109th Airlift Wing, which operates the Skibird and its four sister ships.
Though larger aircraft like the Air Force C-17 transport jet can land at McMurdo Station on the Antarctic coast, the LC-130, one of many variants of the Air Force’s C-130 transport plane, can fly deeper into the continent to drop off scientists and supplies at remote research stations like the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, about 850 miles south of McMurdo. These resupply missions are part of Operation Deep Freeze, the U.S. military’s ongoing effort to support the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic research.
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/air-force-lc-130-skibird-antarctica/
