Team Blogs

Welcome to the Byrd Aircraft Recovery Expedition! We are a 501(C)3 non-profit incorporated to recover a Fokker Super Universal airplane that was destroyed in a blizzard back in 1929 on my grandfather’s first expedition to Antarctica; we will also be driving funds towards Parkinson’s research and awareness. The Fokker has a huge historical significance for two reasons. First, it was the first airplane to land on the Antarctic continent. Second, the Fokker represents the dividing line between the age of heroic explorers like Scott, Amundsen, and Shackleton who explored Antarctica on their skis and dogsleds and modern explorers like Byrd who explored the Antarctica using airplanes. Indeed, Byrd discovered more unknown territory in Antarctica than all the explorers before him thanks to his introduction of the Fokker and other aircraft!  Dick Byrd was born in Winchester, VA, in 1888. He graduated from Annapolis in 1912 and was sent by the Navy to learn to fly in Pensacola in 1918. Although aviation was in its infancy Byrd was a true visionary who saw the vast potential of airplanes to change our lives and set out to demonstrate so. In 1926 Dick Byrd was the first to fly to the North Pole. In 1927 he flew across the Atlantic just a month after Lindbergh and carried the first sack of mail across the “big pond.” In 1929 he set his sights on Antarctica and was the first to fly to the South Pole from his Little America base camp after which Congress promoted him from Commander to Rear Admiral. From the North Pole to the Atlantic to his first two expeditions to Antarctica Dick Byrd solicited private donations from the National Geographic Society and tycoons like Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, Rodman Wanamaker, and lots of ordinary people to boot who were riveted to his cutting edge adventurers. The Byrd Aircraft Recovery Expedition also seeks funds as a private non-profit corporation established to recover an important piece of Antarctic history. That’s where YOU come in! Decades ago my grandfather went to the private sector for donations and he got them. Now we are again asking for donations but there is one huge difference…..your donation to the Byrd Aircraft Expedition is tax deductible! Please join us to recover an important part of Antarctic history while driving funds towards Parkinson’s research and awareness. Thank you!