Quote:
Originally Posted by Pedestrian
Besides budgets, another thing the French may not have is a staging area. The US can do what it does in the Antarctic largely because it has the friendly cooperation of New Zealand. Personnel and supplies are flown into Christchurch and stored/"staged" there, then flown to McMurdo when needed. When I was there the US had a substantial facility near the Christchurch airport and I assume still does--without this I doubt we could do what we do (in return for this, as I mentioned, we provide substantial support to New Zealand's Scott Base). Only certain types of aircraft can land in the Antarctic (the US mainly uses C-130s everywhere but McMurdo where jets can land, the various Europeans mostly use "Twin Otters" still I believe which are much smaller). But niether type of plane can haul that much long distances--they need a nearby staging base to go back and forth to bring in large amounts of supplies. Unless France has a colony in the far southern hemisphere that doesn't come to mind (as Britain still does in the Falklands), they too would have to make some kind of arrangement with a nearby country.
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i don't know about France, but the Italian Antarctic Program also has some facilities at CHC. Mario Zuchelli is fairly close to McM to the extent that flights are often shared. When I was at McM 3 years ago, I flew back on an italian plane (an L-100 operated by Safair... a South African charter operator with an Afrikaans-speaking crew). We brought back a bunch of italians (and Kiwi's of course) on our way to CHC this year too.
My ice flights between CHC and McM have been
1) USAF C-17 (to Pegasus)
2) Safair L-100 (Italian Antarctic Program) (from Pegasus... probably one of the last flights out of Pegasus since it was ~6 days before Pegasus permanently closed)
3) Kiwi Air Force C-130 (to Phoenix)
4) 109th ANG LC-130 (from Willy)