Summary

Lantern slide of an aircraft frame from the Australasian Antarctic Expedition [AAE] of 1911-1914. It was used as an air tractor on the snow around Mawson's Huts. It was considered to be a cumbersome machine and it was stripped of its engine.

One of 328 images in various formats including artworks, photographs, glass negatives and lantern slides.

Description of Content

Remains of the Air Tractor taken to the Antarctic with the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) of 1911-1914. It was taken there on the ship Aurora as a Air Tractor and flight was not intended. Before the AAE left it was stripped of it's engine and other mechanical parts and was virtually just an airframe sitting at the edge of the Boat Harbour. As an Air Tractor it proved to be cumbersome and heavy. Many years after the BANZARE visit in 1931 to Cape Denison it disappeared. Small remnants of the airframe have been found in the Boat Harbour in recent years. Photograph taken during the British Australian New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE), Voyage 2.

Physical Description

Standard format lantern slide, consisting of two glass sheets each 3.25 x 3.25 ins (83 x 83mm), one pane bearing a positive transparent image and the other pane protecting the image. Sealed with paper binding strips around the four edges of the lantern slide and internally framed with a black cut-out window mask.

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