A Norse Airways 787 Dreamliner has become the largest aircraft ever to land in Antarctica, carrying a load of supplies for a research station operated by the Norwegian Polar Institute.
The flight landed on a 2-mile long “blue ice runway” because ice is all there is at the Troll station. The flight originated in Oslo, but made a 40-hour layover at Cape Town, South Africa. The Cape Town stop enabled the plane to take on enough fuel to fly from Cape Town to Antarctica and back without refueling.
The plan to use the large plane enabled supplies to be delivered in one flight that would otherwise have taken several. The Institute’s director told press that “The most crucial aspect is the environmental gain we can achieve by using large and modern aircraft of this type for Troll.” Using a bigger plane to deliver a larger load “can help reduce overall emissions and the environmental footprint in Antarctica,”
