A family walks down the pathway toward the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier at Patriots Point, surrounded by American flags and calm waters.
A family walks down the pathway toward the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier at Patriots Point, surrounded by American flags and calm waters.
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Puckered Penguins Make History, 20 December 1955

Date

Two P2V Neptune and two R5D Skymaster aircraft of VX-6 , aka the Puckered Penguins, completed the first air transportation link with Antarctica by establishing a route between Christchurch, New Zealand and McMurdo Naval Air Facility, Antarctica on 20 December 1955.

LP-2J Ski Birds of VX-6 (Converted Neptunes with skis!)

R5D Skymaster of the Puckered Penguins, VX-6.

This link by naval aviation was vital in Operation Deep Freeze I,  which  would prepare a permanent research station and pave the way for more exhaustive research in later Deep Freeze operations. The expedition transpired over the Antarctic summer of November 1955 to April 1956.

Here is another VX-6 unofficial site here...

Here is simulated flyover of McMurdo in Antarctica...