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 along the west side of Mountaineer Range, and entering Lady Newnes Bay between Cape Sibbald and Hayes Head where it forms the Aviator Glacier Tongue. This floating ice tongue 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 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.