Aviator Glacier is major valley glacier, over 60 miles (96 km) long and 5 miles (8 km) wide, descending generally southward from the plateau of Victoria Land

Victoria Land

Victoria Land is a region of Antarctica bounded on the east by the Ross Ice Shelf and the Ross Sea and on the west by Oates Land and Wilkes Land. It was discovered by Captain James Clark Ross in January 1841 and named after the UK's Queen Victoria...

 along the west side of Mountaineer Range

Mountaineer Range

Mountaineer Range is the range of mountains lying between the Mariner and Aviator Glaciers in Victoria Land, Antarctica. The seaward parts of the range were first viewed by Ross in 1841, and subsequently by several British and later American expeditions. The precise mapping of its overall features...

, and entering Lady Newnes Bay

Lady Newnes Bay

Lady Newnes Bay is a bay about 60 mi long in the western Ross Sea, extending along the coast of Victoria Land from Cape Sibbald to Coulman Island. Discovered by the British Antarctic Expedition, 1898–1900, led by Carstens Borchgrevink. He named it for Lady Newnes, whose husband, Sir George...

 between Cape Sibbald

Cape Sibbald

Cape Sibbald is a cliffed cape at the southwest margin of Lady Newnes Bay on the coast of Victoria Land. It marks the southwest extremity of the Mountaineer Range at the terminus of Aviator Glacier. Sighted in February 1841 by Sir James Clark Ross and named by him for Lieutenant John Sibbald of...

 and Hayes Head

Hayes Head

Hayes Head is a prominent headland, 850 m, overlooking the north extremity of Wood Bay, standing 3 nautical miles north of Kay Island on the coast of Victoria Land. Mapped by United States Geological Survey from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos, 1955-63. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic...

 where it forms the Aviator Glacier Tongue. This floating ice tongue

Ice tongue

An ice tongue is a long and narrow sheet of ice projecting out from the coastline. An ice tongue forms when a valley glacier moves very rapidly out into the ocean or a lake....

 extends into the water for about 25 kilometres (16 mi).

The glacier was photographed from the air by Capt. W.M. Hawkes, US Navy, on the historic first flight from New Zealand to McMurdo Sound

McMurdo Sound

The ice-clogged waters of Antarctica's McMurdo Sound extend about 55 km long and wide. The sound opens into the Ross Sea to the north. The Royal Society Range rises from sea level to 13,205 feet on the western shoreline. The nearby McMurdo Ice Shelf scribes McMurdo Sound's southern boundary...

on December 17, 1955. An attempt to reconnoiter it by helicopter and to land a party of the NZGSAE on it had to be abandoned when the USS Glacier was damaged in pressure ice in December 1958. Named by NZGSAE, 1958–59, as a tribute to the hazardous work of pilots and other airmen in Antarctic exploratory and scientific operations.