Saturday, August 25, 2012

the "Pep Boys Snowman" autogyro (Thank you Colby!)

 boxes of Tydol either getting loaded or unloaded... in the snow beside the landing strip... which made me realize that an autogyro has a shorter landing and takeoff distance than a similar size airplane, making it better for landing in showy areas

found on http://yuripasholok.livejournal.com

Update Feb 2023:
Colby just commented and filled me in on what this photo is about!

This was a prototype autogyro that was brought by Admiral Byrd during the second Antarctic Expedition. 
The tower in the background was a wind turbine used to generate electricity for the base, Little America II. 
The front of the plane had a decal on the door that read Byrd Antarctic Expedition II, but the shadow makes it unreadable in this picture. It broke down and had to be left in Antarctica. 
 Source: Great Granddad went on the expedition and has a collection of slides that includes this autogyro

Thank you Colby! 


https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/84027/can-anyone-identify-this-autogyro

2 comments:

  1. just thought you might like to know some historical context of that picture. This was a prototype autogyro that was brought by Admiral Byrd during the second Antarctic Expedition. The tower in the background was a wind turbine used to generate electricity for the base, Little America II. The front of the plane had a decal on the door that read Byrd Antarctic Expedition II, but the shadow makes it unreadable in this picture. It broke down and had to be left in Antarctica.

    Source: Great Granddad went on the expedition and has a collection of slides that includes this autogyro

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    Replies
    1. whoa... you just blew my mind... I'm going to need a moment to clean off the keyboard!
      I didn't know ANY of that!
      Well, I knew of Byrd, and the expedition, but not that this autogyro was connected, or that this photo was taken in the Antarctica, and how can I beg or borrow copies of those slides to share here?
      WOW! Thank you very much just for this info! If you prefer to email instead of use this comment section of the blog, I'm at jbohjkl@yahoo.com

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