---
title: "Air-tractor sledge"
chunk: 1/4
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air-tractor_sledge"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T12:37:17.942524+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

The air-tractor sledge was a converted fixed-wing aircraft taken on the 1911–1914 Australasian Antarctic Expedition, the first plane to be taken to the Antarctic.
Expedition leader Douglas Mawson had planned to use the Vickers R.E.P. Type Monoplane as a reconnaissance and search and rescue tool, and to assist in publicity, but the aircraft crashed heavily during a test flight in Adelaide, only two months before Mawson's scheduled departure date. The plane was nevertheless sent south with the expedition, after having been stripped of its wings and metal sheathing from the fuselage.
Engineer Frank Bickerton spent most of the 1912 winter working to convert it to a sledge, fashioning brakes from a pair of geological drills and a steering system from the plane's landing gear. It was first tested on 15 November 1912, and subsequently assisted in laying depots for the summer sledging parties, but its use during the expedition was minimal.
Towing a train of four sledges, the air-tractor accompanied a party led by Bickerton to explore the area to the west of the expedition's base at Cape Denison. The freezing conditions resulted in the jamming of the engine's pistons after just 10 miles (16 km), and the air-tractor was left behind. Some time later it was dragged back to Cape Denison, and its frame was left on the ice when the expedition returned home in 1913.
In 2008, a team from the Mawson's Huts Foundation began searching for the remains of the air-tractor sledge; a seat was found in 2009, and fragments of the tail assembly a year later. The Mawson's Huts Foundation has undertaken extensive investigation using sophisticated equipment in 2009 and 2010. Results indicate that the air tractor, or parts of it, is still buried under three metres (10 ft) of ice where it was abandoned at Cape Denison.

== Background ==
Douglas Mawson had accompanied Ernest Shackleton's 1907–09 British Antarctic Expedition. Along with Edgeworth David and Alistair Mackay, he had been part of a man-hauled sledging expedition, the first to reach the area of the South Magnetic Pole. Upon his return from Antarctica, he recommenced to his post as geology lecturer at the University of Adelaide. Despite an offer from Robert Falcon Scott to join his Terra Nova Expedition to reach the Geographic South Pole, Mawson began planning his own Antarctic expedition. Mawson's plan, which led to the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, envisaged three bases on the Antarctic continent, collectively surveying much of the coast directly south of Australia. He approached Shackleton, who not only approved of his plan but was prepared to lead the expedition himself. Although Shackleton withdrew from the expedition in December 1910, he continued to assist Mawson with publicity and fund-raising.

=== Purchase ===
Mawson travelled to Britain in early 1911 to raise funds, hire crew, and purchase equipment. He considered taking a plane to the Antarctic, which could work as a reconnaissance tool, transport cargo, and assist with search and rescue. Crucially, as no plane had yet been taken to the continent, it could also be used to generate publicity. Unsure of the type of plane he should take, but considering a Blériot, Mawson mentioned his plans to Scott's wife Kathleen Scott, an aircraft enthusiast. She recommended he take a monoplane, and conveyed his interest to Lieutenant Hugh Evelyn Watkins of the Essex Regiment. Watkins had connections with the ship and aircraft manufacturer Vickers Limited, which had recently entered into a licence agreement to build and sell aircraft in Britain designed by the Frenchman Robert Esnault-Pelterie. In a letter to Mawson on 18 May, Kathleen wrote:

I believe I can help you about aeroplanes. I think you can do far better than a Bleriot ... There is a machine that the Vickers people have bought which is infinitely more stable, heavier and more solid and will carry more weight. Its cost is £1000, but I think it could be worked to get it for £700 or even less ... A man I know who had only before driven biplanes, drove it and it stayed up half an hour, which speaks very well for its stability ... If you think it's worth considering, I can let you meet the man concerned early next week and he can show you the machine and take you up in it.
On Kathleen Scott's advice, Mawson purchased a Vickers R.E.P. Type Monoplane, one of only eight built. It was fitted with a five-cylinder R.E.P. engine developing 60 horsepower (45 kW), and had a maximum range of 300 miles (480 km) at a cruising speed of 48 knots (89 km/h; 55 mph). Its wingspan was 47 feet (14 m), and its length 36 feet (11 m). The pilot used a joystick for pitch and roll, with lateral control by wing warping. Mawson opted for a two-seater version, in a tandem arrangement, with a spare ski undercarriage. The total bill, dated 17 August 1911, came to £955 4s 8d. Mawson hired Watkins to fly the plane, and Frank Bickerton to accompany as engineer. After Vickers tested the aircraft at Dartford and Brooklands, P&O shipped the plane to Adelaide aboard the steamship Macedonia, at half the usual rate of freight.