For the hotel group, see 'Little America Hotels. Little America is an Antarctic exploration base, located on the Ross Ice Shelf, south of the Bay of Whales. It was established in 1929 by Richard Byrd, and used frequently afterwards by Byrd and other explorers. In the late 1950s, it served as the American base in the South Polar program in the IGY. Admiral Richard Byrd led the first Antarctic expedition that used airplanes in Antarctica, and Byrd was the first to travel by air over the South Pole, completing a journey in hours that had taken months by Amundsen and Scott. Byrd was the first man to see the pole since Scott, and, unable to land, could only drop a bag with a flag. While southbound, Byrd's flight had been unable to climb over the mountains until two bags of supplies, other than fuel, were dropped. Byrd also tried an early helicopter, but it crashed fairly soon. Little America, the base of