Science: Arctic Outpost

Monday, Mar. 31, 1952

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Hillbilly Beacon. T-3 has been officially named "Fletcher's Ice Island." Its three inhabitants are busy setting up their instruments and clearing a runway. Soon they will be sending back information from the heart of the polar factory that manufactures much of the world's weather. And they will set up radio navigation aids for the steady flow of Ptarmigan and other Arctic flights.

Whatever else Fletcher's expedition accomplishes, airmen will be glad to home on its radio beacon. Navigating in the Arctic has never been like flying along well-marked southerly airways. Compasses go crazy in converging magnetic lines of force. The ice affords few check points. Celestial fixes are often impossible. But T-3 will be easily recognizable; its beacon will broadcast the cheery lyrics of an Alaskan hillbilly tune: "When the ice worms nest again . . ."

^{* Which he developed in Manhattan, 23 hours later, after
hitching a flight from Greenland on a M.A.T.S. transport.}