Dramatic rocket assisted polar take off image released
By MICHAEL FIELD - Fairfax Media | Monday, 10 December 2007
CHARLES KAMINSKI/Raytheon Polar Services Company/US Air Force
WE HAVE LIFTOFF: A US Airforce Hercules launches from Antarctica with the aid of rockets.
The US Air Force has released a picture of one of their C130 Hercules aircraft using a dramatic rocket assisted take off in Antarctica last week.
The US Air Force Air National Guard plan flew in a science team to the Shackleton Glacier in the Transantarctic Mountains, south of New Zealand's Scott Base.
The ski equipped Hercules landed on what the fliers called an "open field" – an unprepared snow plain in the mountains.
To take off again the plane used JATO or jet assisted take off bottles which blast the aircraft into the air.
December 9th, 2007
