Byrds Little America Expedition

Scott in 1902 (Section 1.4.1) and discovered the Rockefeller Mountains (TS OO S, 155°00 W) of West Antarctica from the air. 

Three weeks later, on November 28, 1929, Byrd and three of his companions including Brent Balchen took off in the tri-motor aircraft and reached the South Pole in less than 10 h. After circling the Pole, they returned to Little America 1 in about 6 h. Byrd had made the trip in less than 1 day that had taken Amundsen 90 days. For many years, Richard E. Byrd remained the only man who had flown across both geographic poles of the Earth (Byrd 1931). 

During the 1934/35 field season Byrd s teammates explored large areas of West Antarctica and measured the thickness of the Ross Ice Shelf (90 m) as well as the depth of the water in which it floated (600 m). All of the various field parties returned to Little America 11 in January of 1935 and were picked up by the ships in Eebruary. Although Byrd and his men had explored large areas in the Ross-Sea sector of Antarctica, the US government did not formally claim these territories as other nations had done (e.g., Britain, New Zealand, Norway, and France). 

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