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Nineteen hours. That's how long Byrd's Ford Trimotor, the *Floyd Bennett*, battl
1929 Event

November 29

Byrd Flies Over South Pole: Antarctic Aviation First

Nineteen hours. That's how long Byrd's Ford Trimotor, the *Floyd Bennett*, battled brutal Antarctic winds to reach 90° South. But they almost didn't make it — the plane couldn't climb high enough over the Transantarctic Mountains, so the crew frantically dumped 150 pounds of food just to clear the peak. Byrd dropped an American flag over the Pole weighted with a stone from Floyd Bennett's grave. His dead friend flew with him anyway. And the ice below — utterly unchanged by any of it — didn't care at all.

November 29, 1929

97 years ago

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