The Ford Snow Bird may be a long lost part of Antarctic history. Ever since the Heroic Age of Antarctic Expeditions adventurers have been taking mechanised transport to Antarctica. Shackleton took the first car (it didn’t work so well), Mawson took the Air Tractor (originally an aeroplane it was converted to a snow tractor after a crash and also didn’t work too well) and Scott tried mechanised sleds (that also didn’t work so well).
The Ford Motor company produced ForThe d Model T’s and Model A’s in abundance. They were, reliable, strong and inexpensive. They often underwent modifications to suit them for specialized applications, but the “Snow Bird” is certainly one of the more unusual.
The B.P. Arps Company of Wisconsin created a modification to allow the Ford to be used in snow. It was a reasonably popular modification as the Snow Bird could travel 56 km/hr ( 35 mph) over snow and with the body removed, the lightened vehicle easily traversed deep snow and overcame one and a half metre drifts.
The Ford Snow Bird was originally used by the New York Guard and later by a rural mail carrier for winter duty through heavy snow. It was a favourite of utility workers, doctors and mailmen. It uses caterpillar style tracks that are driven by 2 sets of rear wheels encompassing the rear tire and two leaf sprung auxiliary wheels on each side. The front wheels have long skies mounted to them.
A Model A “Snow Bird” was supposedly utilized as part of Admiral Byrds’ 1931 Antarctic expedition though I can find no mention of it by Byrd. Although its inclusion in the expedition would not have been surprising, given that Edsel Ford was one of Byrd’s backers and supposedly contributed US$32,500 in cash.
So it was possibly a part of Antarctic history but more research is needed. If you know anything let me know.
The vehicle is highly prized by collectors and one of them sold for US$66,000 (AUD$90,600) in 2012.