We all complain about flight delays, but nothing tops the one that’s been waiting close to 100 years to be discovered. An Australian research team just discovered what’s left of the first plane ever to fly to Antarctica. It hit the ground in 1912 … and has been waiting ever since. The discovery wasn’t an accident. The guys from the Mawson’s Huts Foundation have been looking for it for the last three summers. In a sign that 2010 is going to kick ass for these folks, they found some metal pieces of the plane on New Year’s Day.
According to USA Today, Tony Stewart, a member of the team, wrote on his blog, “The biggest news of the day is that we’ve found the air tractor, or at least parts of it!”
Early last century, Australian explorer Douglas Mawson took the helm of two expeditions to Antarctica. On the first of the two, he brought a Vickers plane with him, but the wings were damaged in a crash before the team set out for Antarctica. Thought it would never take flight, Mawson hoped to use it as a motorized sled of sorts. The engine couldn’t handle the temperature extremes, though, so Mawson left it behind.
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