Landing on the remote Sky-Blu ice runway in Antarctica | British Antarctic Survey

Описание: What's it like landing on Antarctica's ice? Sky-Blu is an area of blue ice situated close to Sky-Hi Nunataks suitable for use as an ice runway for wheeled aircraft.

Sky-Blu is a field station operated by British Antarctic Survey. The maintained blue ice runway is up to 1.2km in length and 50m wide, permanently marked by flags. The year-round main camp supports the runway, located 500m south-west of the runway apron. It comprises a ‘melon’ hut together with a number of tents, garage, food depot, radio aerial and toilet.

This field station has become vitally important to supporting deep-field science expeditions, acting as a staging post for travel deep into the Antarctic continent. Sky-Blu can be used by larger aircraft without skis, like the Dash-7 aircraft used by the UK to transport teams into Antarctica at Rothera Research Station. While our smaller Twin Otter aircraft are more flexible for field travel with their over-wheel ski attachments, the capacity of the Dash-7 is an efficient option for transporting equipment needed by our science teams in the field.

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