Total Solar Eclipse of 2021 December 4
 in Antarctica or from a special eclipse flight

To maximize the chances to see this eclipse, using an aircraft able to fly above any potential clouds can prove useful. This is why an eclipse flight from either Punta Arenas, Chile, or Ushuaia, Argentina, to Union Glacier in Antarctica was under consideration for the past few years. Several aircrafts had been selected thanks to their operational capabilities, one of those being again the Dassault Falcon 7X business jet which was previously used during the 2015 March 20 total solar eclipse flying at 49,000 feet. Indeed this aircraft has the sufficient range, and required ETOPS certification when necessary, to execute the return leg back to the tip of South America should the weather be bad enough to prohibit any landing and eclipse observation at Union Glacier.
Preliminary announcement (February 2020): a second private wide-body aircraft, having both the range and no ETOPS limitation, is now being chartered. Details and services will be revealed later, in the meantime please contact me if you wish to manifest your deep interest and secure a pre-reservation for one or multiple seats/windows. Take note that windows availability is strictly limited, and will be on a first-come/first-serve basis, so don’t wait too long to bite the bullet… We will follow the tracks of the legendary Aéropostale.

Here is the meteorological situation, on December 4^th in 2017 and 2018, for the intercept area where all the Antarctic Peninsula cruises will rendez-vous. The target area (in orange), north of the sixtieth parallel south, is near the South Orkney Islands in the Scotia Sea, where the cloud cover is often the lowest and also where the limit of the sea ice lies in early December.
Our private flight will just brush away all those constraints and will allow to offer the maximum possible duration, 2 minutes and 25 seconds, which is at least 30 seconds more than any other ground or sea location, plus a couple other unique and exclusive services. Most cruises, if not all, will be limited to about 1 minute and 40 seconds at best and likely only about one minute, while observers on the icecap will have about 45 seconds.

On December 4^th, 2019, cruise ships passengers would have likely been clouded out no matter what they tried, while the eclipse would have been fabulous airborne with lots of sightseeing as well.

An airborne intercept almost guarantees a cloud-free observation while at the same time providing a far greater totality duration with nearly 2 minutes and 30 seconds as shown in the chart below, that is a good thirty seconds more than the maximum possible on the surface of the Earth and in reality far more than any other option available. Durations are computed for the centerline at the indicated elevation: for example FL390 means "Flight Level 390" or 39,000 feet (11,887 meters). Make no mistake, our exclusive flight will reach the maximum. Moreover our flight plan and the range of our aircraft will give us some flexibility to perform other activities in and around Antarctica. In the end the cost per second ratio is the best you can get…

Weather permitting a lot of sightseeing can be achieved during this flight once the solar eclipse is behind us. Among the many possibilities we can list an Emperor penguin colony, the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station, Union Glacier and its blue-ice runway, Mount Vinson (highest summit of Antarctica) and the Ellsworth Mountain Range, the thick iceshelf, the Antarctic Peninsula, etc.

Here is a sample flight intercept which foreshadows our eclipse flight.

One of the key visits could be at Union Glacier and its blue-ice runway. Union Glacier will be the unique inhabited place from where the total eclipse can be observed. During the austral summer season it’s the main hub for various expeditions in Antarctica and notably the ones to climb Mount Vinson which we will fly over.

Should the weather be good enough we could well visit.

Others will likely go for a less demanding eclipse flight at sunrise, nowhere near Antarctica.