"City of New York" Historic Polar
Flight
(formerly "Polar Byrd II")
New World Speed Record Flight over both Poles
by Mr. Ed Pascuzzi
The Physics Teacher
Glen Cove High School, Glen Cove, NY 11542
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Page last updated:
22 September, 2005 19:44
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The Polar Byrd II flight
has been postponed indefinitely.
Presented here are brief descriptions of
the 2001, 2003 and 2004 planned flights.
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One of the most
unique flight experiences of a lifetime awaits the avid explorer in this historic
double Polar crossing. Currently, only 3 such Polar flight records exist, with the
most recent being
held by Pan Am in which a Boeing 747-SP (N533PA) flew from and to San Francisco, over both
Poles,
via London, Cape Town and Auckland on October 28-30, 1977. Termed "Flight
50" (in honor of Pan
Am's 50th anniversary), this flight took 54 hours, 7 minutes and 12 seconds, nearly 20
hours faster
than the first of such flights, which was Flying Tiger's Boeing 707-049C (N322F), termed
"Pole Cat."
Interestingly, "Polar Byrd I" was a Modern Air Convair 990A (N5615) that, while not attempting a
world circumnavigation record, actually landed on the 10,000 foot ice runway on Antarctica
on it's
exotic world tour in 1968. For obvious reasons, this has since never been permitted.
The Spirit of Ft. Lauderdale (the renamed version of Polar Byrd II) had planned to fly
from Ft.
Lauderdale, Florida to Rio Gallegos (Argentina), overfly the South Pole, fly to Perth
(Australia),
Beijing (China) and then overfly the North Pole, landing in Ft. Lauderdale after an
estimated total
time of 51 hours and 11 minutes, thus breaking the Flight 50 speed record by approximately
3 hours. This was to have occured in December, 2003. The original flight of
Polar Byrd II in
November 2001 was to have been an attempted speed record for the fastest subsonic
commercial airliner, Boeing 747-444 ZS-SBK "The Great North" operated by South
African
Airways (SAA), to have been occupied by 237 enthusiastic passengers on the thrill of a
lifetime.
The aircraft's intended flight path is shown below.
November, 2001 Planned Schedule:
Polar Byrd II
planned to depart from New York's JFK International Airport on Saturday, 17 November,
2001 at 12 noon and return to JFK on Monday, 19 November at approximately 4 pm, EST.
While there were 237 seats available for purchase, only 11 seats were in First Class, 60
seats in
Business Class and 166 seats in Economy, immediate reservations were therefore necessary
in order to secure a seat on this historic flight. The flight was cancelled due to
the events
of 11 September, 2001.
December, 2003 Planned Schedule:
Polar Byrd II,
renamed "Spirit of Ft. Lauderdale," had planned to depart instead on Monday,
December 15, from Florida (Ft. Lauderdale) and return to Forida on Wednesday, December 17,
following the same flight path as outlined above. While there were 237 seats
available for purchase,
only 11 seats were in First Class, 60 seats in Business Class and 166 seats in Economy,
immediate
reservations were therefore necessary in order to secure a seat on this historic
flight. The flight
was postponed (lack of advertising and lack of interest on the part of the flying public)
and renamed
as described below.
November 2004 Planned Schedule:
The current flight schedule is now
similar to that of the original Polar Byrd II fligh, as quoted
above, with the airline still Northwest Airlines. The flight, again, will depart New
York at 12 Noon
on Sunday, November 28, 2004, following the same flight path as outlined above, and will
return
to JFK, New York, at approximately 3:28 PM on Tuesday,
November 30, 2004.
For further
information on the flight and reservations, please go to the Over Both Poles website
devoted to this historic event.
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