Show army pilots find three not one magnetic poles research in frigid regions explains mystery of apparent shift washington after more than 12 months of intensive research in the frigid alaskan polar regions army air forces have solved the mystery raised by the 9 mile nonstop flight of the gacusan dream boat from honolulu to cairo egypt last year the dreamboat s flight proved feasibility of regular air commini over the top of the world but it also caused a stir in scientific circles by reporting an apparent shift in the magnetic north pole the navigator of the B 29 reported the magne magnetic tib pole more than miles off its previously charted uon tion some scientists explained at the time that this was caused by the fact that the magnetic pole was a large oval shaped area the air force forc ehas has revealed that as the result of more than 1000 1 varia varla alon readings it has discovered that there are three and not just one magnetic north poles major pole located major pole in the elliptical mag betic field was determined to be on prince of wales island with two minor poles on bathurst island and boothia peninsula it was the minor magnetic pole on the lower tip of the ellipse on boothia peninsula which had always been given previously as a the loca tion of the pole exploratory work done by the reconnaissance squadron showed that the center of the magnetic field was 1750 1 miles northeast of ladd field fairbanks alaska the squadron flew more than flights over the geographic north pole and its immediate vicinity and for the first time obtained a celes bial fix over the geographic pole this was on a night flight in october 1946 an air force navigator by plotting his exact location according to the stars determined he was dl di erectly over the geographic north pole test combat conditions in all the squadron sent to alas ka in june 1948 1946 as the pioneer combat type unit to attempt opera eions under polar conditions flew more than 5 hours and one mil lion miles to test material and per bonnel when the arrived in alaska navigators found their maps marked with large white areas indicating unexplored fields they were told that conventional means of gaviga tion alon could not be used in the polar regions in their first missions navigation was difficult they found many of the landmarks indicated on the map were out of position and that small islands island closely grouped in some instances were shown as large bod les of land in the past year pilots have worked out a system of reference heading navigation enabling the planes to fly anywhere and to know their location to within one mile to keep the track flown by the air craft using this grid system radar operators have learned to estimate wind drift and ground speed to a fine margin even through an over cast ground speed can be computed to within five knots |