Once in a blue moon: Tides turn up historic find

AUSTRALIAN explorers have credited record low tides on the blue moon for the “one-in-a-million” discovery in Antarctica of one of the world’s first airplanes, found buried in ice.

The monoplane, which was the first aircraft off the Vickers factory production line in Britain just eight years after the Wright brothers’ first flight, was taken to Antarctica by Australian explorer Douglas Mawson in 1911.

He hoped to stage the first flight over the ice cap, but his dreams were dashed when the pilot who accompanied the craft from London crashed it during a demonstration flight.