Cape Waite is a cape at the northwest extremity of
King Peninsula, marking the southwest side of the entrance to
Peacock Sound. Delineated from air photos taken by
U.S. Navy Operation Highjump in December 1946. Named by
Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) for Amory H. Waite, member of the
Byrd Antarctic Expedition, 1933–35, and communications specialist on the Atka vovage of 1955 and the U.S. Navy Bellingshausen Sea Expedition of 1959-60. Waite was investigating the high number of aircraft crashes in Antarctica when he discovered that certain
radar frequencies were not reflected from the surface of the ice, they
penetrated through to the land surface below giving false
altimeter readings. This discovery both made flight much safer and started the use of
Radioglaciology to survey the
topography of the land surface beneath the ice.