• In 1926, Admiral Richard E. Byrd became the first person to fly over the North Pole. In 1929, he successfully flew over the South Pole. Although officially, of course, Byrd discovered no entrances into the Earth's interior at either pole (he certainly wasn't looking for any), staunch hollow Earthers contend that he really did find a hole at the North Pole. They say he may have even flown as far as 4,000 miles into the interior, although there's no evidence to support this.
• In 1939, the Americans and Germans were in a race to explore and claim lands in Antarctica. President Roosevelt sent Admiral Byrd to the frozen continent to thwart any German claims to Antarctic lands in the Western Hemisphere. Hollow Earthers have proclaimed that this was actually a secret mission to beat the Nazis in the exploration of "the land beyond the poles."
• In 1947, Admiral Byrd is said to have made a secret flight to the North Pole to find this land beyond the pole. The "evidence" for this flight comes from a highly controversial "lost diary" kept by Byrd and miraculously found in the 1970s by "The Society for a Complete Earth." In it he writes that as he looked down from his plane, he saw not snow, but green vegetation, grassy valleys and mountains not shown on any map. Very few take this diary - or the flight itself - seriously.
New Expedition
The search for an entrance into the hollow Earth is not over. New expeditions are planned and, in fact, you can join if you want.
Advanced Planetary Explorations, LLC, under the auspices of the Phoenix Science Foundation is planning an expedition is scheduled to leave Murmansk, Russia aboard the Russian nuclear icebreaker, The Yamal, in the summer of 2008.
"We are of the opinion that this expedition will be the greatest expedition in the history of the world," states the group's press release. "Whereas Columbus discovered a new continent, we will discover a whole new world – that world within our world – Inner Earth. And you will be part of this discovery with your support and interest in what we discover."
Hey, if nothing else, it would be a great adventure.
