The air-tractor sledge was a converted fixed-wing aircraft taken on the
1911–14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition, the first plane to be taken
to the Antarctic. Expedition leader Douglas Mawson had planned to use
the Vickers R.E.P. Type Monoplane as a reconnaissance and search and
rescue tool, and to assist in publicity, but the aircraft crashed
heavily during a test flight only two months before Mawson's scheduled
departure date. The plane, stripped of its wings, was nevertheless sent
south with the expedition, and converted to a sledge; brakes were
fashioned from a pair of geological drills and a steering system from
the plane's landing gear. The air-tractor was first tested in November
1912 and subsequently assisted in laying depots for the summer sledging
parties, but its use during the expedition was minimal; the freezing
conditions resulted in the jamming of the engine's pistons, and its
frame was left on the ice when the expedition returned home in December
1913. In 2008 a team from the Mawson's Huts Foundation began searching
for the remains of the air-tractor sledge; a seat was found in 2009,
and parts of the tail a year later. The foundation believes that the
air-tractor is still at the expedition's base, buried beneath the ice.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air-tractor_sledge>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
986:
Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars: The Bulgarians defeated the Byzantine forces
at the Gate of Trajan near present-day Ihtiman, with Byzantine Emperor
Basil II barely escaping.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Gates_of_Trajan>
1915:
American Jew Leo Frank was lynched by a mob of prominent citizens in
Marietta, Georgia, for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old girl.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Frank>
1945:
Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaimed the independence of Indonesia ,
igniting the Indonesian National Revolution against the Dutch Empire.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_National_Revolution>
1947:
A commission led by Cyril Radcliffe established the Radcliffe Line, the
border between India and Pakistan after the Partition of India.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radcliffe_Line>
2008:
With the victory in the 4×100 m medley relay at the Beijing Summer
Olympics, Michael Phelps set the records for the most gold medals won
by an individual in a single Olympics (8) as well as total career gold
medals (14) in modern Olympic history.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Phelps>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
halation (n):
The blurring of light around a very bright area of an image (originally
and especially in photography); localised blur or fogging caused by the
spreading of light
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/halation>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Most of authors seek fame, but I seek for justice — a holier impulse
than ever entered into the ambitious struggles of the votaries of that
fickle, flirting goddess.
--Davy Crockett
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett>