Talk:Richard E. Byrd

message: The third culminating expedition, Operation Highjump, was the largest Antarctic expedition to date.
Byrd also commanded Operation Deep Freeze,
which established permanent Antarctic bases at McMurdo Sound, the Bay of Whales and the South Pole in 1955
===Re*Cycling RO/CS USCG Lessons Learned===
* historic photo gallery: US Coast Guard icebreakers
** Operation: HIGHJUMP:
"In March 1947 the icebreaker Eastwind was returning from Antarctica where it had
... ADM Cruzen, in charge of the ships of HIGHJUMP, reported ...
RJBurkhart 22:14, 13 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Missing RADM [[Richard Cruzen]] Kudos

message: * historic photo gallery: US Coast Guard icebreakers
** Operation: HIGHJUMP:
"In March 1947 the icebreaker Eastwind was returning from Antarctica where it had
... ADM Cruzen, in charge of the ships of HIGHJUMP, reported ...
RJBurkhart 22:14, 13 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Re*Cycling RO/CS [[USCG]] Lessons Learned

message: A recent addition to the North Pole section of this article lead me to do some searches — on the two inline citation that were in place. 
* The Rawlins reference.  The Wikipedia article on Rawlins is currently POV and points to "his website".  If the DOI journal is his website, this leads one to wonder about it.  Self-published works are not generally considered to be reliable sources.  I've yet to find any credentials for Rawlins.
* The Joseph Portney "Polar Flap" citation is on a website that provides credentials for Portney, which seem quite credible. 
The "fact" of Byrd's missing the pole is certainly not established.  See
*.
I think it important that Wikipedia not portray this dispute as factually established.
— ERcheck (talk) 12:37, 14 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: There is a link to the Portney footnote in the article, which was accessible yesterday and today.  Saying he "knowingly falsified" takes absolute proof — it implies one can read his intentions/thoughts.  Certainly there is controversy about the claim that he reached the North Pole, and that can be captured in a NPOV. — ERcheck (talk) 00:29, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  This article —  — by a reliable source, presents both sides of the controversy.  The article shows that Rawlins' interpretation is not incontrovertible, i.e. not factually established. — ERcheck (talk) 02:14, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: North Pole controversy

message: From the article:
:The discovery of Byrd's diary of the flight in 1996 revealed erased (but still legible) numbers.  Dennis Rawlins interpreted these numbers to be sextant readings, and concluded that that Byrd did travel most of the way to the Pole before turning back.  These erased numbers have also been viewed as being the "serial numbers of Peary's chronometer watches."
The source given (http://www.pearyhenson.org/polarcontroversy/rawlins.htm) doesn't even mention Byrd. It's defending Peary's claim, and the reference is to numbers in Peary's diary, not Byrd's. Is this paragraph getting confused or am I? Matt 02:27, 5 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Byrd's diary

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BetacommandBot 15:11, 5 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Fair use rationale for File:Byrd.png

message: I've added to the References section a book, Beyond the Barrier: The Story of Byrd's First Expedition to Antarctica, that I've read and which seems to me to be a good reference on Byrd's first expedition.  I haven't used information from the book to edit the article, however. Wdfarmer (talk) 10:40, 26 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Book reference: Beyond the Barrier

message: Did Byrd end his days in an insane asylum, as I just read elsewhere on the web?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.68.170.173 (talk) 13:09, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Insane asylum?

message: The beginning of the article says Byrd died on March 11, 1957.  The end of the article says he died on March 12, 1957.  Does anyone know which date is correct?Tishbite37 (talk) 04:19, 3 August 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: FWIW, I know of someone who was found by her relatives and presumed dead at about 11:30 PM, but taken to the hospital and proclaimed dead at 12:20 AM the next day.  This can happen now; I don't know whether it was true in 1957. Mcswell (talk) 04:01, 29 January 2018 (UTC)
thread_title: Date of death???

message: Why is this man categorized in :Category:University of Virginia, :Category:Virginia Military Institute alumni, :Category:United States Naval Academy graduates etc.? If he was related to all these institutions, please add that in the text. Else the categories should be removed. --Ibn Battuta (talk) 19:15, 26 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: UVa? Va Military Institute? Naval Academy?

message: User:Gwillhicker has left me a message about "a photo-image (Byrd_Antarctic_Expedition-II_3c.jpg) of a US 3c postage stamp commemorating Admiral Byrd's Expeditions to the Antarctic".  I found the image at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Byrd_Antarctic_Expedition-II_3c.jpg.  I leave it to other editors to decide whether to use the image on this article page. -- Wavelength (talk) 02:06, 12 February 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Postage stamp images made before 1978 are public domain, those made after are still copyrighted by the USPS (see Commons:Licensing). — Loadmaster (talk) 23:07, 12 February 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: User:Gwillhickers (user name corrected) told me, at User talk:Wavelength#Image of US postage stamp: "It is an engraved stamp, issued in 1934, the year of Byrd's last expedition to the Antarctic ..." -- Wavelength (talk) 00:44, 13 February 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Image of US postage stamp

message: I removed a chunk of text from the section Byrd's later Antarctic expeditions which appears to have been stolen verbatim from . Some guy (talk) 13:00, 20 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Copyright violation

message: The article (about the 1926 north pole expedition) says that the airpseed of the Fokker F.VII was 85 mph, so it couldn't have made it from one point to the other as fast as the records.  But the Fokker F.VII artic says that the crusing airspeed is 170 km/hour, which is about 105MPH (statute miles) or 92 nautical miles per hour. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 23:13, 5 August 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: The cruising air speed of 170km (105mph or 92kn) quoted in the Fokker F.VII article is for the F.VIIb 3m model. This was equipped with 3 × Wright J-5 Whirlwind radial engines, 220 hp (164 kW) each.  The plane that Byrd flew in was an earlier variant, the F.VII 3m equipped with 3 x 200 hp (149 kW) Wright J-4 Whirlwind radial engines.  Effectively Byrd's plane had only 90% of the rated power of the later model, and this suggests (very simplistically) that the F.VIIa's rated cruising speed might be in the order of 95mph.  Note that these are the manufacturer's claims. Byrd's own calculations prior to the flight suggested that he expected this particular aircraft (equipped with skis) to achieve a cruising speed of 85mph.  Explorer Hubert Wilkins flying a nearly identical model plane in Alaska at the same time recorded a best speed from his aircraft of 90mph (Jeff Maynard 'Wings of Ice' 2010 p.124).  Floyd Bennett and Bernt Balchen flew Byrd's plane on a promotional tour of the United States following Byrd's Arctic success.  According to Balchen they were considering using the plane to attempt to cross the Atlantic, and consequently carefully logged it's performance characteristics during that tour.  Balchen in his 'Come North With Me' (1958) claims that he and Bennett agreed that the plane's average cruising speed was 70mph.  Byrd's Polar flight of 1540miles took him 15hours and 30minutes.  He claimed to have circled the Pole for approximately 12 to 13 minutes.  This leaves 15hours and 17minutes travelling time, which equates to an average speed of 100.8mph. Byrd claimed he had tailwinds heading to, and returning from, the Pole which boosted his 'over the ground speed'.  Without these tailwinds - which can't now be proved or disproved - it seem unlikely that the flight could have been reached the Pole.  Setting aside the uncertain evidence of the 'over the ground speed', the evidence for and against the flight's success consequently hinges upon the interpretation of the text and sextant readings in Byrd's diary found in 1996. Melanimmi (talk) 06:11, 26 January 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  airspeed 

message: More has been made out of this than is warranted. The given speed of the Fokker trimotor Josephine Ford was supposed 85 mph. Means nothing, they could've picked up a good tail wind going and coming back, which Byrd may not have calculated into the journey. The reason for the turnaround back to Spitzbergen was because one of the engines on the trimotor Josephine Ford was acting up and she could not fly, or they could not risk continuing on, on the one engine out theory. A more proper ascertation rather than the smearing of Byrd's memory was that as maps were drawn at the time the aircraft reached what 'was' considered North Pole vicinity as opposed to pinpoint North Pole latitude/longitude. thus the trip was still legitimate. Amundsen himself was one of the first to congratulate Byrd and Bennett on the return to Spitzbergen. As much as I respect Balchen for his achievements, he wasn't on that flight and himself should have brought up the aspect that tailwinds could be expected. Don't know the reason of Balchen's trashing of Byrd after Byrd's death. It wasn't in Byrd's character to purposely lie, he risked his life numerous times in expeditions throughout the years. Koplimek (talk) 00:58, 3 February 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: Byrd's Integrity North Pole flight

message: I have removed the following from the article: His South Pole claim is generally supported by a consensus of those who have examined the evidence.
Whether he reached the Pole or not, it is manifestly false to claim that there is a consensus. Its rather the opposite, a controversy. 84.23.155.84 (talk) 21:26, 5 June 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Removing false statement 

message: A bit of trivia about Byrd's son, Richard Evelyn Byrd III or Richard E. Byrd, Jr.; he was known (unbeknownst to him, but probably affectionately) among Navy personnel as "Dickey Byrd". I heard this from my father, who met both Byrds (senior and junior) while serving as a junior officer about the U.S.S. Wyandot during the first Operation Deep Freeze. — Loadmaster (talk) 16:08, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Son 

message: The section about Byrd, Jr's son, Richard Byrd III, is long enough to be a separate article. I don't think an article should contain that much in-depth detail about someone else's life.  Aimzzz (talk) 21:32, 29 September 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: I completely agree. The section about Byrd III is too long for an article that is a biography of his father. Libertybison (talk) 03:32, 30 September 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Richard Byrd III 

message: I found this a confusing article.  It's possible that the confusion is mine, and the facts are correct, but they seem to require some explanation.
* Was his ankle injury (said to be due to a gymnastics accident in the Academy) and his foot injury (said to have happened on the USS Dolphin) the same thing, and if so which location is correct?  Both are claimed to have been the reason for his 1916 retirement.
* He was medically retired for one/both of the above injuries, then promoted.  Afaik, you're not promoted after you're retired.  Or did he join the Naval Militia (never heard of such a thing, but that's probably my ignorance), and get promoted in the Militia?
* A year later, he's a Naval Aviator.  Was he then back in the US Navy, or still in this Naval Militia?  If he was in they USN, what happened to his retirement?
* "a considerable amount of mail using it [the stamp, I think] was sent from Byrd's base at Little America, which was powered by a Jacobs Wind 2.5 kW."  I'm not sure I see the connection between the stamps, the base, and this Jacobs Wind.  The link describes a company, not a machine, but I'm guessing this means the base was powered by a wind-driven generator.  If so, the generator part would be less confusing if it wasn't a relative clause on a locative NP; probably belongs in a separate para.
:*I, too, found this utterly confusing and irrelevant.  I am going to remove it for that reason.  A loose noose (talk) 10:54, 5 June 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Confusing 

message: A suposed diary of Byrd states that he found big caves with diferent worlds there. Given the narrow view of political correct edits here its not easy to put something here, but maybe is worth a mention. --79.157.189.237 (talk) 05:06, 21 February 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: As with everything else on WP, any mention requires reliable sources. This topic seems to crop up on a regular basis here, but so far there has been nothing credible offered to support such claims. — Loadmaster (talk) 22:36, 5 June 2018 (UTC)
replies: text:  These bizarre conspiracy theories of Byrd meeting the hallow earth, Nazis, aliens, etc. at the South Pole and their origins are briefly explored by a researcher named Jason Colavito in within this article and within an earlier article from 2014. Apparently, the first version of the conspiracy theories appeared in a 1957 book and the author of this book presented a part of the script of the 1937 movie Lost Horizon as a transcription of a supposed encounter between space aliens and Admiral Byrd. Also the earliest forms of this story said this occurred at the North Pole, not the South Pole. Libertybison (talk) 23:54, 18 June 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Antarticus