Final registration - BuN 131644.
Delivered to US Navy December 1953 as R7V-1 BuN 131644.
Redesignated C-121J November 1962.
To VX-6 Quonset Point September 1964 as "Pegasus".
Used annually in support of "Operation Deep Freeze".
Damaged at Williams Field, McMurdo Station, Antarctica on October 8, 1970 while attempting to land in zero visibility with winds gusting to over 40 mph.
Wreckage not salvaged and partially covered with snow.
http://www.conniesurvivors.com/131644.htmPegasus Field (ICAO: NZPG) was an airstrip in Antarctica, the southernmost of three airfields serving McMurdo Station. (Wiki info here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMurdo_Station)
It closed due to excessive melting in the summer season caused by warmer temperatures combined with dust and dirt blown in from nearby Black Island. The last flight was on December 8, 2016[4] and it was replaced by Phoenix Airfield (ICAO: NZFX).
Pegasus Field was originally conceived as a blue ice runway capable of handling wheeled aircraft year-round, but as it was developed, it was enhanced with a 4-inch layer of compacted snow on top—thus more properly characterizing it as a white ice runway. [8] Other local runways are the snow runways at Williams Field (ICAO: NZWD) that are limited to ski-equipped aircraft, and the Ice Runway (ICAO: NZIR) on the sea-ice available during the summer Antarctic field season.
The field is named after Pegasus, a C-121 Lockheed Constellation that made a forced landing on unprepared terrain in bad weather on October 8, 1970. No one on board was injured. The aircraft remains in-situ at the airfield to this day, and has remained well preserved due to the low temperatures of the surrounding area.
On September 11, 2008, a United States Air Force C-17 Globemaster III successfully completed the first landing in Antarctica using night-vision goggles at Pegasus Field.[9] Previously air transport in the permanent darkness of the winter was only used in emergencies, with burning barrels of fuel to outline the runway.
Then:
Lockheed Constellation ‘Pegasus’ crashed in a storm on the 8th of October 1970 with no loss of life.
Now: