Wreckage of first plane taken to Antarctica in 1912 is a once in a blue moon find

A 'lost' British-made aircraft that was taken to Antarctica by explorer Douglas Mawson has been found lying under the ice - a once in a million find thanks to global warming, a low tide and a blue moon.

Sir Douglas, who was born in Yorkshire in 1882 but later became an Australian citizen, took the fuselage of the aircraft to the frozen continent in 1911 to use as a 'tractor on skis' to pull his sledges.

But the plan to use what he described as his 'air tractor' failed because the engine could not withstand the sub-zero cold and the Vickers monoplane was abandoned on the ice when Mawson left Antarctica.



The rusty cast iron joints of a aircraft buried in the Antarctic ice in 1921 were found on New Year's Day

Now a team of Australian scientists have found the aircraft lying under a sheet of thin ice, its whereabouts exposed by the work of nature.

'Historically low tides prompted by a blue moon - the second full moon in a calendar month - and the unprecedented melting of the ice led to its chance discovery,' said Australian conservationist David Jenson.

'It was probably one chance in a million that these conditions just allowed us to spot it.

'One of our heritage carpenters was actually just wandering along the edge of the harbour...and he spotted the piece of the metal amongst the rocks.

'You talk about once in a blue moon - well, this was true.'



hiding history: Rocks in Commonwealth Bay where the iron joints were discovered

The Vickers plane was the first aircraft to come off the company's factory production line in Britain - eight years after the Wright brothers' first flight.

Mawson, described as 'a visionary' by Mr Jenson, planned to fly the aircraft over Antarctica once it had been taken by ship to Australia.

But his dreams ended during a demonstration flight in Adelaide in October 1911 when the plane crashed and the wings were so badly damaged they could not be repaired.

'Mawson sacked the pilot and sent him back to England,' said Mr Jenson, adding that the damaged wings were removed and Mawson took the fuselage to the Antarctic with him to use as a tractor.

Sledge runners were fitted to the undercarriage and Mawson planned to use the front propeller as the power to drag the aircraft along, with loads, also on sledges, being towed along behind on the ice.

How it was: An unidentified man stands by a Vickers airplane used during an Antarctic Expedition in 1912

But the whole idea failed. Powerful winds meant that even if the entire aircraft, with wings, could have been taken to the continent it would not have been able to fly and while the 'air tractor' did manage to tow a load up an ice plateau, the engine seized.

'It developed an internal disorder' was the way Mawson described it.

The aircraft was abandoned and later hauled to Cape Denison where the expedition's photographer managed to take a picture of it before he sailed home.

Mawson almost died when he missed a rescue ship, but eventually made it back home.

The name "Blue Moon" actually refers to the rare occurrence of a second full moon appearing in a single month

Mawson did return to Cape Denison in 1931 and was surprised to see his 'air tractor's' steel fuselage deep in snow.

Modern explorers wondered whether they would ever be able to find it again - the last sighting in 1975 revealed it was almost totally buried in ice - but nature has now revealed its presence.