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Did Admiral Byrd Fly Over the North Pole or Not?

Posted April 16, 2013 3:15 PM

From Discovery News:

On May 9, 1926, famed American explorer Richard Byrd took off from the Norwegian Arctic island of Spitsbergen along with his pilot, Floyd Bennett, in an attempt to be the first to fly to the North Pole. About 16 hours later, the pair returned to the island in their Fokker tri-motor airplane, the Josephine Ford, saying they had indeed accomplished the feat. New analysis suggests he was about 80 miles shy.

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lyn
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#1

Re: Did Admiral Byrd Fly Over the North Pole or Not?

04/16/2013 5:30 PM

I say even if he didn't fly directly over the pole, he got close enough for me.
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Re: Did Admiral Byrd Fly Over the North Pole or Not?

04/16/2013 8:06 PM

From the article: Newsom used climate data from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration dataset that used supercomputers to calculate atmospheric conditions around the globe for every six hours between the years of 1870 and 2010.

The winds the model calculated for Byrd's trip didn't match Byrd's descriptions though, suggesting instead that he likely encountered a headwind during the entire northward leg of the trip.

Well, if the computer calculates the winds 87 years ago were different from what Byrd said, then Byrd must be wrong -- because as we all know computers are amazingly precise at calculating weather conditions.

Yeah, right.

By the way, the article also says it's possible that he might have gone 21 miles beyond the pole. That, of course, isn't worthy of a headline; only the negative info is.

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#3
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Re: Did Admiral Byrd Fly Over the North Pole or Not?

04/16/2013 9:54 PM

Weather Guessers: "...when CLOSE enough is WAY off..."

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Re: Did Admiral Byrd Fly Over the North Pole or Not?

04/16/2013 11:05 PM

Supercomputer = garbage in, super garbage out.

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Re: Did Admiral Byrd Fly Over the North Pole or Not?

04/17/2013 9:03 AM

It's close enough for government work.

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Re: Did Admiral Byrd Fly Over the North Pole or Not?

04/17/2013 4:06 PM

Well I think I have indisputable proof here, a picture of Byrd at the North Pole, and a post card clearly addressed to Admiral Byrd@ The North Pole....

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Re: Did Admiral Byrd Fly Over the North Pole or Not?

04/17/2013 5:08 PM

I want to know when a cruise ship will sail to the North Pole for summer solstice?

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Re: Did Admiral Byrd Fly Over the North Pole or Not?

04/17/2013 9:10 PM

...already happened, if you consider a nuclear submarine to be a 'cruise ship' (wink,wink)! Admiral Rickover and the USS Nautilus.

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Re: Did Admiral Byrd Fly Over the North Pole or Not?

04/17/2013 9:18 PM

I thought a submarine was a boat, not a ship?

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