"Que Sera Sera"
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"DUFEK'S
PARTY AT THE POLE
From eleven bottles, a wrench and a stagger.."
This photo by LT John R. Swadener appeared in the December 31,1956 issue
of TIME Magazine,
with the 2-line caption which was the editorial standard for TIME then
"Que Sera Sera"
The first aircraft to land at South Pole.
On display at the National Museum of Naval Aviation, Naval Air Station,
Pensacola, FL 32509, USA.
The "Que
Sera Sera" was the name given to a U.S.
Navy R4D (Douglas DC-3) that was used in Operation Deep
Freeze in 1956. It was named after popular song of the
time. |
The
Song Doris Day recorded the song for the film, and her recording became a #1 hit, both in the U.S. and the U.K.. It became her theme song and was also used as the theme song of Doris Day's television shows. The song received the 1956 Academy Award for Best Song. The funk band Sly & the Family Stone covered the song for their Fresh album in 1973 The song was used in the title sequence of the movie Heathers, starring Winona Ryder, with an arrangement by Van Dyke Parks and performed by Syd Straw. The Sly & the Family Stone version is also present in the film. A version of the song performed by Pink Martini was also used in the pilot episode of Dead Like Me. Japanese jazz musician Charlie Kosei composed a song, also titled "Que Sera Sera" for the video game, Katamari Damacy. The lyrics and melody are unrelated to the Doris Day version. Ex-New York Dolls guitarist Johnny Thunders recorded a version of the song for inclusion in his 1985 album of the same name. Visit the Flight Deck Store at the National
Museum of Naval Aviation |
The Museum's R4D-5L aircraft (BuNo 12418) is the famous "Que Sera Sera" on loan from
The Smithsonian Museum.
TECHNICAL DATA R4D-5L (R4D-8) |
Manufacturer: Douglas Aircraft
Company |
In 1956 when an R4D (named "Que Sera Sera") piloted by LCDR Gus Shinn, under the command of RADM George Dufek, landed at the South Pole. They become the first expedition to stand at that spot since Captain Scott of the Royal Navy reached it in 1912. The "Lucky Seven" crew were also the first Americans to set foot on the South. Pole. |
GUS SHINN RECALLS FIRST
SOUTH POLE LANDING
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They flew 800 miles from McMurdo Station on the Antarctic coast to the South Pole on Oct. 31, 1956 in an aging R4D, affectionately and sometimes derisively called a "Gooney Bird." It was the Navy version of the piston-powered, twin engine DC-3 airliner that had gone into service 20 years earlier. The R4D had none of the sophisticated navigation gear nor the power of the turboprop LC130 Hercules the New York Air National Guard used to pick-up Dr. Jerri Nielsen from a research station at the South Pole last month. Shinn, originally from Eden, NC was one of seven Navy men aboard the R4D, including Rear Adm. George Dufek. The 77-year-old Shinn, now living in Pensacola, recalled his flight in an interview at the Museum of Naval Aviation where the plane is on display. It was named Que Sera Sera - French for whatever will be will be - the title of a then-popular song. The name turned out to be very appropriate, Shinn said. Just as the Air Guard did this year, the Navy waited for winter to wane before attempting a polar landing, although not long enough for Shinn. The Cold War had literal meaning in the Antarctic. Dufek was in a hurry, worried that the Russians might get there first. An earlier flight in another R4D to seek a refueling site between McMurdo Station and the pole nearly ended in disaster. Flying into a valley, the plane got caught in a windshear and began falling. Fortunately it was equipped with small rockets called JATO for jet-assisted take-off. Shinn fired all 11 JATO bottles to stop the fall just as the wing tip hit the ice. There was "lots of noise, lots of fuss" but damage was minor and the plane flew fine. Dufek did not want to go to the pole with a bent wing so they borrowed Que Sera Sera from another crew. The polar landing was a bit rough, but not unusual for the terrain, recalled Strider, 69, from his home in Newport News, Virginia. Strider is the only other surviving member of the landing party. Their JATO assisted takeoff appeared uneventful to those watching from an Air Force C- 124 Globernaster that circled overhead. It was not. The high altitude of the ice cap--about 10,000 feet at the pole--starved engines of oxygen and robbed wings of their lift. That, along with the plane's 28,000-pound weight, made JATO necessary to take off in the best situation. The JATO bottles usually were fired after the plane hit 30 knots, but "Que Sera Sera" remained stuck with the engines at full power. "We just sat on the ice like an old mud hen," Shinn said. To break loose, Shinn fired four JATO bottles. That did the trick, but he was worried about having enough JATO left to get airborne. They barely made it only to be enveloped in ice and snow. We couldn't see anything, but that was no big deal," Shinn said. He relied on instruments to keep flying. Source: Pp3-4, The Antarctican Society Newsletter Vol 99-00, No 3 December 1999. |
International Geophysical Year 1957–58 |
The impetus behind these expeditions was the International Geophysical Year 1957–58. IGY, as it was known, was a collaboration effort between forty nations to carry out earth science studies from the North Pole to the South Pole and at points in between. The United States, along with Great Britain, France, Japan, Norway, Chile, Argentina, and the U.S.S.R. agreed to go the South Pole—the least explored area on Earth. Their goal: to advance world knowledge of Antarctic hydrography and weather systems, glacial movements, and marine life. The U.S. Navy was charged with supporting the U.S. scientists for their portion of the IGY studies. The U.S. Navy already had a record of earlier exploration in Antarctica. As early as 1839, Captain Charles Wilkes led the first U.S. Naval expedition into Antarctic waters. In 1929, Admiral Richard E. Byrd established a naval base at Little America I, led an expedition to explore further inland, and conducted the first flight over the South Pole. From 1934–35, the second Byrd Expedition explored much further inland and also "wintered over". The third Byrd Expedition in 1940 charted the Ross Sea. After World War II, from 1946–47, Byrd was instrumental in the Navy's Operation Highjump that charted most of the Antarctic coastline. In 1948 Commander Finn Ronne led an expedition that photographed over 450,000 square miles (1.1 million km²) by air. Then, in 1954–55, the icebreaker USS Atka (AGB-3) made a scouting expedition for future landing sites and bays. Operation Deep Freeze I would prepare a permanent research station and pave the way for more exhaustive research in later Deep Freeze operations. The expedition transpired over the Antarctic summer of November 1955 to April 1956. The subsequent military support missions to Antarctica, including those conducted today by the 139th Expeditionary Air Wing of the New York Air National Guard, the U.S. Coast Guard icebreakers, the Military Airlift Command and the Military Sealift Command, are also known collectively as Operation Deep Freeze, which is overseen from Christchurch, New Zealand, by an outpost of the U.S. Air Force called Detachment 13.
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Activities in Antarctica
British Commonwealth activities
Scott's 1st expedition (1901-04)
Shackleton's 1st expedition (1907-09)
Scott's 2nd expedition (1910-13)
Shackleton's 2nd expedition (1914-17)
Shackleton's 3rd expedition (1921-22)
Mawson's expedition (1929-31)
The Graham Land Expedition (1934-37)
Operation Tabarin (1943-45)
Fuch's expedition (1955-58)
French activities
Charcot's 1st expedition (1903-05)
Charcot's 2nd expedition (1908-10)
German activities
Drygalski's expedition (1901-03)
Filchner's expedition (1911-12)
The New Swabia Expedition (1938-39)
Norwegian activities
Amundsen's expedition (1910-12)
U.S. activities
Operation Highjump (1946-47)
Operation Windmill (1947-48)
Ronne's expedition (1947-48)
Operation Deep Freeze (1955-98)
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The Story
of QSS |
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