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

_______________________________ 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

_____________________________ 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

___________________________ 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