Aircraft Landing Areas

A C-17 cargo jet sits at the Pegasus Ice Runway near McMurdo Station, Antarctica, in August 2004. The U.S. Air Force provides air support between Christchurch, New Zealand, and McMurdo Station, Antarctica, for the U.S. Antarctic Program. (NSF/USAP photo by David Bresnahan, NSF.)

Williams Field, McMurdo's skiway on the Ross Ice Shelf.

Williams Field, a skiway 16 kilometers from McMurdo on the Ross Ice Shelf, is the aerodrome for ski-equipped airplanes. Wheeled airplanes use a harder, smoother runway on sea ice in October and November and into December, when the sea ice usually begins to break up and become unusable.

A permanent, hard-ice runway for wheeled planes - the Pegasus site on the Ross Ice Shelf was completed in 1992 and can be used in all but the warmest months.

Annual sea-ice runway.