Front:
Larens
ZK-BXV
Back:
SKI PLANE ON TASMAN GLACIER, MOUNT COOK, N.Z. To
enter an aeroplane with wheels on the Hermitage airstrip
and arrive upon skis on the unbroken snows at the top of
the Tasman Glacier is the privilege of every visitor to the
Mount Cook National Park area. But it took years of
dreaming, scheming and planning on the part of Harry
Wigley and his staff to make this possible. His love of the
high country and his desire for more adequate rescue
facilities in the Alps led this pioneer airman to explore the
technique of snowfield landings. With his staff he
eventually designed and perfected the world's first ski-
plane/landplane undercarriage. On its trial run in 1955
Harry Wigley and a companion landed an Auster with
retractable skis on the Tasman Glacier so successfully that,
as Harry put it, it settled down as tactfully as a maiden
in a feather bed”. One of the first to congratulate him
was Sir Edmund Hillary then at the Hermitage making
plans to train the New Zealand Antarctic party there the
following winter.
Colourchrome Series
W.T. 863
PHOTOGRAPHY: GLADYS. M. GOODALL.
PRINTED BY WHITCOMBE AND TOMBS LTD.
FOR THE FELICITY CARD CO. LTD.
