Greenland
Ice Cap in 1959
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Photo by William M. Nichols, 61st TCS Pilot |
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Sondrestrom AB, Greenland. Not all landings are “happy”
ones. This plane had the nose
gear and nose ski torn off during a landing on the ice cap. Although the cap looks perfectly
smooth, hard "sastrugi" ridges criss-cross the surface. This accident occurred when the nose
ski struck a large hard sastrugi ridge.
After this event, the contractors at the DYE sites were obliged to
bulldoze and drag landing areas to insure smoother, sastrugi free, areas for
landing. The aircraft was
eventually repaired and flown back to the Lockheed factory in Georgia for
complete repairs.. Caption by Bill
Nichols. (Circa 1959) Editor’s
Note: Sastrugi are sharp irregular ridges formed on a
snow surface by wind. |
