New Guinea - Amelia Earhart & Fred Noonan, en route to Howland Island, 2 July 1937

[Richard]

Just for fun, I am posting below photos of a plane very similar to Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra.

A model of this Lockheed Electra 10A was featured in the final airport scene of the 1942 Movie "Casablanca" which starred Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt and Paul Henreid.

The reduced size model plane can be seen through thick fog and it plays significantly in the ending of the movie. Note the Air France "Flying Horse" insignia painted on the aircraft.





LINKS:

Casablanca 1942

There are two aircraft miniatures in Casablanca. The first one is a model of a Fokker Super Universal and the second one seen in a hangar a...

modelaircraftinthecinema.blogspot.com

FS2004 Casablanca Air France Lockheed L-10A F-AMPJ

We know Air France never used the Electra, but in the legendary movie Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman the Electra had a fascinating movie part in the outfit of Air France. This is an update (version 2) of the FSDS2/FS2004 Electra L-10 from FS-Design Berlin with improved shiny...

flyawaysimulation.com

 

[PrairieWind]

Just for fun, I am posting below photos of a plane very similar to Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra.

A model of this Lockheed Electra 10A was featured in the final airport scene of the 1942 Movie "Casablanca" which starred Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt and Paul Henreid.

The reduced size model plane can be seen through thick fog and it plays significantly in the ending of the movie. Note the Air France "Flying Horse" insignia painted on the aircraft.





LINKS:

Casablanca 1942

There are two aircraft miniatures in Casablanca. The first one is a model of a Fokker Super Universal and the second one seen in a hangar a...

modelaircraftinthecinema.blogspot.com

FS2004 Casablanca Air France Lockheed L-10A F-AMPJ

We know Air France never used the Electra, but in the legendary movie Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman the Electra had a fascinating movie part in the outfit of Air France. This is an update (version 2) of the FSDS2/FS2004 Electra L-10 from FS-Design Berlin with improved shiny...

flyawaysimulation.com

Interesting. This gives me an excuse to watch Casablanca again.

 

[Richard]

Flight for Freedom

Here is another World War II era movie (1943). This one fictionalized the Amelia Earhart story which was supposedly based on a screenplay submitted by Amelia Earhart's husband George P. Putnam.

Flight for Freedom was produced by RKO whose CEO, Floyd Odium was married to Jacqueline Cochran, one of Earhart's close friends and a renowned aviator in her own right.

The film shows Rosalind Russell's Earhart-like character Tonie Carter establishing a reputation as "the Lady Lindbergh" and setting numerous aviation records. Other characters are loosely drawn from real life, such as Earhart confidant and instructor Paul Mantz and Fred Noonan in the role of pilot Randy Britton, played by actor Fred MacMurray...

Flight for Freedom furthered a belief that Earhart was spying on the Japanese in the Pacific at the request of the Franklin Roosevelt administration... A combination of live action and model aircraft miniatures in Flight for Freedom was used to depict the final flight of "Tonie Carter".

LINK:

Flight for Freedom - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Richard]

... I flew on two different large Navy Lockheed aircraft. There were many changes in technology, electronics, instruments, radios, and equipment from 1937, until my time in the planes, but basic airmanship and procedures have remained consistent over the years. The planes I flew in had transformers that put out 28 Volts DC to various instruments and controls. We didn't power anything by battery to my recollection. ...

Sorry for quoting myself, but I DO recall something on my plane which was battery powered - and that was the Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) popularly called "The Black Box" by the press. It is actually painted bright orange and designed to float in water.

That piece of emergency equipment is located high in the vertical stabilizer (tail) and it is designed to be jettisoned either by impact or by the pilot manually selecting a switch in the cockpit. When installed on the plane, a continuous battery voltage to it keeps it from transmitting on the UHF/VHF emergency frequency. When detached from the aircraft, it begins to transmit a signal under its own battery power. As such this unit required battery power both to transmit and to NOT transmit.

Once at an Air Show in Southern California, our squadron had a plane on the ramp with a lot of other types of Navy aircraft. It was open to the public for anyone who wanted to come aboard, look around and ask questions of the flight crew on duty.

While the Navy's Blue Angels Flight Team was performing for the crowd, some kid visiting our plane was looking at all the controls and instruments in the cockpit and asked, "Why is this switch wired to Off?" - as he proceeded to toggle the switch to On. This before the flight officer present could say anything.

That switch ejected the ELT from the tail and sent it crashing to the tarmac. Luckily, it did not hit anyone! A crew member picked it up and simply placed it inside our plane - not realizing that it was functioning as it should and sending out emergency crash signals - and all this while the Blue Angels were flying!

This was some cause for alarm and it took a while before the base crash crew was able to locate the source of the signal. Once found and realized, another flight crew member got the ELT to stop transmitting only by removing all of the flash light batteries from our survival vests and taping them together to provide sufficient shut off voltage to the unit.

Because this part was damaged, and because it was a piece of required equipment for over ocean flight, we had to first fly up to Moffett Field, California for a replacement before proceeding home to Hawaii.

 

[AC4RD]

Yes, it is good information, especially for amateurs like myself. The TIGHAR information and reports always sound well researched and optimistic, but it’s very helpful to hear some skilled rebuttal.

I can’t fathom making such a long trip over the Pacific Ocean back in those days, especially with such little assistance for navigation. I assume there was also little traffic in the air or on the ocean at that time.

Ms @Betty P, aviators in those days were truly larger than life, IMO. Flying long distances with only dead reckoning and celestial navigation, over water--"Homeric" comes to mind. (The Greek one, not the cartoon one who eats doughnuts.) Accurate celestial fixes airborne? I've always been amazed at the idea of getting star sights accurately with a sextant--Richard might be able to tell us how hard it is with a bubble octant aboard a moving airplane.

And THANKS, Richard! Fascinating! And 28VDC explains why all the aircraft dynamotors I looked were 28v, I thought it might be headroom for a 24v system (easy to double existing 6/12v systems). Too much for my brain but if the dynamotors and batteries had been undamaged, IMO the transmitter could have been workable for several hours. I still don't think it HAPPENED ;-) but it's possible. Portable tube radios used 90-volt "B batteries" (that RA-1B you posted--notice it had A and B voltage inputs on the faceplate?) but something like an aircraft/ship radio couldn't, and would need a dynamotor (in those primitive days) to supply the high-voltage "B" bus for the tubes, anywhere from 300 to 600vdc depending on circumstances. Great story about the automatic emergency beacon!

Two other housekeeping notes: it's always good to have an excuse to watch "Casablanca" again. And Betty, TIGHAR's reports always sound well-done to me, superficially, but I saw a national parks person explain once on TV that TIGHAR brings in a lot of money taking "patrons" or whatever on expeditions. If they admitted that there is *NO* serious evidence that KHAQQ wound up anywhere but Howland, they'd cut their income stream, I suspect. When they cite 'evidence' I know something about (HF radio communications) it often strikes me as bogus.

Or even if it is technically correct, it may still be insanely implausible, IMO. Take one example: I looked up the HF propagation numbers for 1937 (solar 11-year cycle affects shortwave radio propagation) and it was very good then. Meaning a harmonic just possibly *MIGHT* have been audlble in that girl's home in New Jersey, the 'disturbed girl' who reported hearing AE chatting away for hours into a microphone--might have been audible if it had been Morse code. AM-modulated voice would NOT have been clearly audible, no way, IMO, But the Electra could not transmit except on 500, 3105, and 6210kHz, so it could only have been a harmonic that was heard, if it had been heard. Which it couldn't have been IMO.

OK, so if that girl heard AE for real, on a harmonic that was 40dB (or whatever) down from a main signal--why didn't ANYBODY hear the main signal? There were literally hundreds of ships, planes, ground stations, and home listeners all over that area, and THOUSANDS in the general Aus/NZ/Pacific area, and many or most of them spent time LISTENING after AE was reported down. So how is it that one disturbed girl heard that nonsense about suitcases in a closet, and NOBODY ELSE? If the girl had been able to hear it on a harmonic from a nonresonant antenna system, so far away, hundreds of other people WOULD have heard it on the primary frequency--it's just that simple. IMHO.

One actual professional radio installation (professional, as distinct from 'amateur radio' stations like mine) reported hearing such a signal, not THAT one but another supposed AE one. Wailupe, I think? But the guy reported that while it was hard to tell what AE was saying, he was certain it was the same voice he had heard the previous night during the Howland flight. You couldn't tell what she was saying, Mr Wailupe radio operator, but you could hear it well enough to be certain it was the same voice? And nobody else heard it? I do not call that 'credible,' not for all the coconut crabs on Nikumaroro. People WANT to believe these things.

It's like the JFK book that claims that a Secret Service agent shot JFK accidentallly, from the moving limo, and the accident was covered up with a story about an assassination. It might be just barely within the bounds of possibility, like maybe a one-in-ten-million chance, IMO, but it's simply nonsense to believe it happened when 9.999 million other explanations are more likely. IMO.

Poo. Sorry; once again I have let my fingers get carried away. "Too long, didn't read"--sorry. :-/ --ken

 

[PrairieWind]

Thanks for all the info folks. I have wondered about the power for the radios. My understanding was that the engine had to be running to power the transmitter, but I have not heard anything conclusive. This is of course rather critical. Even if the radio could have operated on batter power, it seems to me that voice transmission even if possible would have been incredibly weak. Is it possible to confirm that her transmitter would have required engine power to transmit?

When I have a litte more time, I 'd love to discuss the Howland to Gardner island issue.

 

[AC4RD]

Thanks for all the info folks. I have wondered about the power for the radios. My understanding was that the engine had to be running to power the transmitter, but I have not heard anything conclusive. This is of course rather critical. Even if the radio could have operated on batter power, it seems to me that voice transmission even if possible would have been incredibly weak. Is it possible to confirm that her transmitter would have required engine power to transmit?

There is a lot of apparently conflicting information. The Lockheed people said the plane's transmitter could not be used on water, there's a screenshot of that above. The batteries were beneath the body of the plane and apparently unprotected, so they'd get wet in a water landing, the best I can tell. And "can not be operated on water" was stated. (Sea water would have rendered the batteries unusable in some period of time, but there's NO guessing how long that period was, 5 seconds or 5 hours?)

Those dynamotors, though, appear to have been under a pilot's seat, and wouldn't have been soaked unless the floor of the cockpit was, *I BELIEVE*. If AE and FN came down in water, they'd have been busy trying to ensure survival at first, not messing with the radio, IMO. If they were uninjured and the plane was afloat and apparently stable they might have tried the radio after they'd assessed the situation, but that's getting very unlikely/speculative IMO.

The reason this is so interesting to me is that, with all the electronics and batteries undamaged in a gentle-ish landing, the dynamotors IMO really MIGHT have run the transmitter for some period--not long, but maybe a few hours at a guess. I don't think there's a chance AE could have put the plane down on the tiny amount of clear land in the area and had it undamaged enough to work the transmitter. Again, MHO. But I'm now of the belief that the transmitter COULD have been operated for a while in the event of a dry non-crash landing. Don't think it happened, but I now think it's possible.

AE's strange refusal to work normal two-way radio communication--she never tried to TALK to any station on the Howland flight, just spoke into the mike hoping she'd be heard and then listening later (hour and half-hour I think) and hoping to get a reply--this is VERY odd considering that Noonan, a very experienced air navigator, knew better and was USED to normal radio communications--I saw one Pan Am colleague of Noonan's saying Fred was comfortable with Morse at 15-16 words per minute, which is a comfortable adult level. And theh Bulolo operator (Vagg) said he worked the Electra by Morse on the Howland flight--that was the Dave Horner book, that needs some further investigation. But I said years ago that Noonan WOULD have been a regular Morse user, not clueless as AE suggested. (SHE certainly was, but not Freddie.)

So what was Noonan so busy with that HE couldn't have been on the radio on that last hour prior to Howland? Fred should have known he could still transmit on the short antenna on the upper side of the aircraft (Joe Gurr actually rebuilt the loading coil for that antenna to make it slightly more efficient (ETA: "on 500kcs"), when they decided to omit the trailing wire antenna.) It would have been inefficient but he'd have been audible by Morse witin 25-50 miles, at a guess, and the nearby ships WOULD have heard him, I think.

The more I look, the more questions I ask. :-/

 

[Richard]

Something that Amelia did not do on her Lae to Howland flight was make regular Position Reports. Like so many radio reports, there are standard formats and ways to be short and to the point. A Position Report for instance might be:

"AAAAAAAA (This means Attention) - This is (Call sign) at (Latitude/Longitude), Time (Zulu), Altitude ____, Estimate next position (maybe an island, or geographic location) at time ____, then next position (or an update of ETA to final destination)" Often a weather report or observation or other comments might also be added at the end. (Basically: Position, Time, Altitude, Position, Time, Position.)

Such reports are easy to draft and send and they provide flight following information that might lead to rescue in case of a mishap. Amelia did not make such routine type reports during her Howland flight.

Some flights (like military ones) might be conducted in radio silence due to operational necessity, but an Emergency Message would normally be sent if warranted. Again, a standard format Emergency Message would be brief and similar to a position report:

"AAAAAAAA, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday (or SOS if using Morse Code), This is (call sign), Position (Lat/Long), at time (Zulu), True Heading ____, True Airspeed ____, Altitude ____, Nature of Emergency, Pilot's intentions."

Standard Format with all the necessary information. This gives any Search and Rescue unit a starting place to base their efforts. Unfortunately, Amelia did not send any such message while in flight.

 

[AC4RD]

Something that Amelia did not do on her Lae to Howland flight was make regular Position Reports. Like so many radio reports, there are standard formats and ways to be short and to the point. ... ... ... This gives any Search and Rescue unit a starting place to base their efforts. Unfortunately, Amelia did not send any such message while in flight.

Very good point, and another of the unquestionably odd and damaging choices AE made. I've wondered many times about AE's radio protocols, which had frustrated radiomen all over the world, per the books about the flights. It's a great topic for head-scratching. Some authors say AE and FN were exhausted by the time of the Howland flight, which is certainly true. But for an aviator to be so dismissive of potentially life-saving issues is strange; even moreso for Noonan, now that it seems we know that he COULD work the radios in flight.

But I'm really here to share the information about AE's batteries: she had two 12v 85 amp-hour packs on board for safety; one such pack was standard. I know this because I got a note from www.specialbooks.com where I found the Electra manual, and here's a summary, screenshot plus a photo Doug Westfall sent with his email, attached. THIS is helpful! I'd say 2x85aH packs, if undamaged (along with the wiring and dynamotors/tx) could run a transmitter for maybe a half day (not the receiver as well, of course--two separate devices on the Electra, both with energy-slurping tubes.) I still don't think it happened, she was never anywhere post disappearance from which she could tranmit. But it's possible, I admit. --ken

 

[Richard]

Here is an interesting website discussion regarding a Message received at U.S. Navy Radio at Wailupe, Oahu (Hawaiian Islands) on 5 July 1937. This is reportedly the only Morse Code message sent by Amelia and Fred, and it was thought to have been sent by keying the microphone to get dots and dashes.

Initially, the Navy believed that it was sent from her plane believed to be floating in the water some 281 Miles north of Howland, and search efforts focused in that vicinity until it was decided that her engines couldn't run in the water to give power to her radios. However the linked discussion states that the radio message was weak and unstable with spaces between known dot/dash characters. They attempt to fill in the blanks and suggest that it was in fact a genuine message from Fred and Amelia - possibly indicating that they were down in the Marshall Islands in the Vicinity of Mili Atoll.

LINKS:

Mili Atoll - Did Amelia Earhart Crash Here?

Mili Atoll - Did Amelia Earhart Crash Here? A small speck of land in the Marshall Islands, known as the Mili Atoll, is part of the Amelia Earhart story.

docslib.org

Amelia Earhart Controversy

Poses questions about Earhart’s mysterious disappearance during her last and final flight. Two professional pilots challenge the experts at Tighar and their theories and suggest a government cover-up was involved. Free research reports and weekly insights are available upon request. Three...

ameliaearhartcontroversy.com

http://ameliaearhartcontroversy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/281-MESSAGE-CRACKED.pdf

 

[Betty P]

One actual professional radio installation (professional, as distinct from 'amateur radio' stations like mine) reported hearing such a signal, not THAT one but another supposed AE one. Wailupe, I think? But the guy reported that while it was hard to tell what AE was saying, he was certain it was the same voice he had heard the previous night during the Howland flight. You couldn't tell what she was saying, Mr Wailupe radio operator, but you could hear it well enough to be certain it was the same voice? And nobody else heard it? I do not call that 'credible,' not for all the coconut crabs on Nikumaroro. People WANT to believe these things.

Interesting report about the Wailupe guy hearing something. But, as you say, the odds are against it being her.

It's amazing how those pilots were able to navigate in such a primitive way, especially over the south pacific. I don't know why, but the thought of flying over such a large ocean makes me nervous. Low tech and high skill.

Speaking of which, and off-topic, I was fortunate to talk to astronaut John Glenn at a reception once. My FIL, a former pilot suggested I ask him about flying. He told me a couple of great stories, including flying in planes and early model jets during wartime (assume Korea?) He said the only way they could watch for enemy aircraft and SAMs and to do bomb damage assessment was to use binoculars. That's all they had - good eyesight and binoculars. Very cool guy.

 

[Richard]

The above photo was taken on a new dock at Jaluit Atoll. Some feel that the person sitting in the center of the photo is Amelia Earhart and the tall man wide to the left next to the upright pole is Fred Noonan. The ship in the right background appears (in fuller frame photo) to be loading something large from a barge - possibly their Lockheed plane?

A counter argument to the photo being of the pair is that the photo was taken before 1937. However that counter argument has also come under scrutiny.

LINK:

Newly Discovered Photo Suggests Amelia Earhart Survived Plane Crash (UPDATED)

Researchers believe the famed pilot may have been captured by the Japanese.

www.huffpost.com

Blurry photo may shed light on what happened to Amelia Earhart

A newly unearthed photo showing blurry figures on a dock may shed light on the 80-year-old mystery of what happened to Amelia Earhart.

abc7chicago.com

 

[Richard]

Here is TIGHAR's take on the Jaluit photo:

Whats Wrong With This Picture?

They were very quick to denounce it as being a photo of Amelia and Fred - and probably for reasons other than they state. Remember that TIGHAR has been raising money to continue their expeditions on Gardner Island, and any suggestion that Amelia and Fred landed elsewhere goes against their interests.

In their argument against the photo, they state that the ship in the background could not be the Japanese "Koshu" because it is smaller and as proof, they post a full broadside photo of what they claim is the Koshu. Comparing those two photos, one sees that the ship in the Jaluit photo is at a different angle to the camera, with bow closer than the stern. This is apparent when you see that the bow appears larger than the stern, and the aspect of the two masts indicate it as well.

Then note that so many of the ship's features match between the two pictures.

TIGHAR states that the photo of Noonan is reversed, but does not bother to show another of him for comparison of his hairline with that of the tall man by the post. Most men with receding hair lines have a fairly equal hairline on both sides. And they say that the sitting person's hair is to long to be Amelia. I would submit that anyone who had been through a rough flight, a forced landing, and then a period of time without a mirror or comb might not have the best of hair for a picture.

And the object at the rear of the ship is "just a blob".

I don't know for certain that this is a photo of our two flyers, but the quick Nay-saying of TIGHAR has me wondering.

 

[Richard]

The ship in the photos of my earlier post was originally constructed in Germany in 1904 as a cargo ship for use in the German empire's colonies in China and was known as Michael Jebsen (named after a German trader in China). Its home port was in what is today called Quindao Harbor, usually romanized as Tsingtao in English at the time, or as Kiautschou in German.

During the first year of World War I (1914) Japan attacked German ships and holdings in the Pacific. The Germans lost the the Siege of Tsingtao, and the ship Michael Jebsen was scuttled in Jiaozhou Bay in November 1914 to prevent it from falling into the hands of the enemy. The Japanese refloated the ship and on July 16, 1915, they rechristened the ship Kōshū, which is Japanese for "Jiaozhou". Kōshū served as a simple cargo ship for the duration of the war.

Kōshū was refitted with surveying equipment and was formally classified as a survey ship in 1922. From 1921 to 1926, the Kōshū surveyed the South Seas, where the Japanese Empire had acquired a number of islands taken from the Germans and which were assigned for administration to Japan by League of Nations mandate.

Koshu continued to serve as a cargo ship in the "Mandated Islands" throughout the 1920's and 1930's. It was 230 feet in length, its engines were powered by coal and it could only achieve a speed of about 10 knots.

On April 1, 1940, the ship was supposedly dismantled (scrapped) due to old age and removed from service.

 

[Richard]

The Japanese survey ship Koshu played a part in the search for Amelia and Fred following their disappearance. It was mentioned in a number of places in the official correspondence between Washington DC and Japan:

The Japanese Government’s Offer of Assistance to Help Find Amelia Earhart, July 1937

Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist at the National Archives at College Park. Continuing their flight around the world at the equator, Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fr…

text-message.blogs.archives.gov

No official Japanese sources mention that Koshu had found Amelia, Fred, or their airplane or transported them anywhere.

However, following WW II, an Islander on Jaluit stated that he had been taken aboard Koshu at Jaluit where he gave medical treatment to a tall white man who was with a woman - and that he had seen an aircraft of some sort on board or being loaded onto the Koshu. He described the two persons, but did not know their names.

 

[AC4RD]

Here is an interesting website discussion regarding a Message received at U.S. Navy Radio at Wailupe, Oahu (Hawaiian Islands) on 5 July 1937. This is reportedly the only Morse Code message sent by Amelia and Fred, and it was thought to have been sent by keying the microphone to get dots and dashes.

Initially, the Navy believed that it was sent from her plane believed to be floating in the water some 281 Miles north of Howland, and search efforts focused in that vicinity until it was decided that her engines couldn't run in the water to give power to her radios. ]

I personally discount the Wailupe report, but many other people don't. (And there's much good comment here to reply to, but I've been in rough shape lately and unable to keep up, sorry!) I've done a lot of reading lately and I'm reading more and more "didn't just crash and sink" and even some outright "fly and spy" material that absolutely must be considered. And that's a ... it's " a sea change" if you'll excuse the phrase, a sea change in my opinions, I ddmit it.

Last year I read a book by Paul Rafford, a very big AE radio expert, and I didn't much agree with it, but I thought his facts were extremely valuable to have, and deserved important consideration, regardless of what I thought about his conclusions. Lately I've been reading several things I had not previously; one I mentioned was _The Earhart Enigma_, by Horner, which I got as a kindle e-book for $3 on amazon, and most recently several eye-opening books from Paragon Press. You may remember I put a screenshot of one page from the Electra flight manual, about the location of the generator?

I found that manual and five other books I've bought so far from Paragon, on www.specialbooks.com. (screenshot attached of an order.) This company has published a LOT of AE-related material (and quite a lot of other 'small publisher' sorts of issues) that I've never seen in libraries, though one of them I also just saw on amazon kindle and bought as an e--book. I'm not affiliated with the company in any way, but for AE researchers, a number of these volumes are essential sources IMO; even if you don't agree with all the conclusions reached by the authors. There is documentation of AE material there I have never seen elsewhere, and lots of it. Not to mention movie footage of Amelia charming a little boy at the Honolulu airport! (That one is on youtube, search "Doug Westfall" for other AE material on YT.) Again, no adverising is intended, but if you want to KNOW about the disappearance, some of these volumes are essential IMO. --ken

 

[Richard]

I personally discount the Wailupe report, but many other people don't. (And there's much good comment here to reply to, but I've been in rough shape lately and unable to keep up, sorry!) I've done a lot of reading lately and I'm reading more and more "didn't just crash and sink" and even some outright "fly and spy" material that absolutely must be considered. And that's a ... it's " a sea change" if you'll excuse the phrase, a sea change in my opinions, I ddmit it.

Last year I read a book by Paul Rafford, a very big AE radio expert, and I didn't much agree with it, but I thought his facts were extremely valuable to have, and deserved important consideration, regardless of what I thought about his conclusions. Lately I've been reading several things I had not previously; one I mentioned was _The Earhart Enigma_, by Horner, which I got as a kindle e-book for $3 on amazon, and most recently several eye-opening books from Paragon Press. You may remember I put a screenshot of one page from the Electra flight manual, about the location of the generator?

I found that manual and five other books I've bought so far from Paragon, on www.specialbooks.com. (screenshot attached of an order.) This company has published a LOT of AE-related material (and quite a lot of other 'small publisher' sorts of issues) that I've never seen in libraries, though one of them I also just saw on amazon kindle and bought as an e--book. I'm not affiliated with the company in any way, but for AE researchers, a number of these volumes are essential sources IMO; even if you don't agree with all the conclusions reached by the authors. There is documentation of AE material there I have never seen elsewhere, and lots of it. Not to mention movie footage of Amelia charming a little boy at the Honolulu airport! (That one is on youtube, search "Doug Westfall" for other AE material on YT.) Again, no adverising is intended, but if you want to KNOW about the disappearance, some of these volumes are essential IMO. --ken

Hope you are felling better soon. Great posts here.

I tend to agree in some ways regarding any "post flight" transmissions. Certainly there is the "hoax" aspect and the totally unsubstantiated or unintelligible transmissions to consider. Just because someone picked up a transmission (with no voice or Morse code) does not mean that it was (or was not) from Amelia - unless it might be associated with or confirmed by another station picking up the same transmission with additional information.

But what sometimes (in my opinion) makes an account more authentic or possible is when only partial or odd sounding text is reported. An example being the broken text of the Wailupe message. If someone wanted to perpetrate a hoax, the message would have been more complete or would have made more sense. Secondary reports such as newspaper accounts can be more suspect, due to a reporter trying to "fill in the blanks" or attempt to "interpret" the message in proper English format. But an actual transcription as copied which would include radio abbreviations and missed words or characters makes it sound more real.

Another example is the several testimonies by Island people who claimed to have seen a white man and woman who were "pilots" of a plane and who were taken by the Japanese - but that they did not know their names - or perhaps only knew a first name. If someone came out and said that they met "Amelia Earhart" and/or "Fred Noonan" and then gave technical details about their aircraft, it would be harder to accept what they say. The question would be how did they know all this without coaching, research, later hearsay, etc. It is the fact that they did NOT know certain things that gives their accounts authenticity.

On the other hand, when someone or a group has "a dog in the fight" and is trying to disqualify or flatly deny certain information out of hand, one has to be suspect of their interpretations. For example the TIGHAR group speaking out against anything that casts doubt on their theories or conclusions, one has to be on the watch for warning flags in their arguments.

 

[Richard]

Some theories regarding the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, Fred Noonan, and their aircraft suggest that they were on a secret intelligence gathering mission for the US and that they may have been over flying some of the Mandated Islands to determine what Japan was doing there.

In 1937, at the time of Amelia and Fred's World Flight the Japanese were engaged in fairly aggressive economic development throughout Micronesia, and were beginning serious and surreptitious work on facilities that could be used for military purposes. These projects looked sufficiently innocent and were explained by the Japanese as being in support of civil programs in the Mandated Islands. For instance the large airfield at Aslito on Saipan could be used as a civil airport for bringing in and flying out goods. But the buildings on it were re-inforced concrete, and the facilities were obviously to support military aviation.

The question stands as to whether or not Amelia was actually on a reconnaissance mission or if she simply got off course and came down in a sensitive area. There was nothing about the economic, political, or military situation in the mandated islands in 1937 that could preclude this sort of theoretical mission from happening, but equally, there was nothing that would make it inevitable or likely.

If they did run out of fuel and had to land on or near one of the Mandate islands, it may have been something of an International Incident for the Japanese to exploit. But one has to consider that the Japanese military did not always adhere to or follow directions from their civilian government back in Japan. If the Japanese Kempetai (Military Secret Police) home based on Saipan had arrested Amelia and Fred on charges of espionage (real or imagined) and had treated them badly it would have been a major loss of face for the Tokyo government and their ambassadors to have to explain and apologize for.

In context of the time, it should be recalled that only days after Amelia and Fred went missing, Japan began a large scale invasion of China.

Kempeitai logo found on officer’s armbands

LINKS:

The Islands of the Japanese Mandate in 1937

Kempeitai - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[AC4RD]

I actually have several points to share, one especially regarding Saipan and the insular police, and AE being in the hands of civilian authority via the big Japanese trading companies--Richard, your points there were very much in line with one of the many books I've speed-read recently. Also the idea that AE/FN hit (as we know) much tougher headwinds than expected and turned back for the Marshalls earlier than other sources believe. Much to say, as we say.

But I was looking for local contemporaneous reporting on those ships, and found interesting stuff I've screenshotted and squished into one screen, you can follow the two columns. Interesting to me: "it wasn't AE's flare, it was a meteor," and in the bottom corner (enlarged back to the bottom left) a story about a ham "hearing" amelia talking to the Itasca at midnight LA time. That would be 6pm Howland time, 5pm in the Marshalls? Could not have happened, not possible, or hundreds of other people would have heard it IMO, including people CLOSER to the plane, whereever it might have been. The spurious flare and bogus radio conversation are probably both examples of people who WANTED to help find AE, and probably thought they really were helping, IMO. Worth noting, again IMO. Eyewitness and earwitness testimony is inherently faulty, and there was a LOT of that going on. Including a bunch of psychics "dreaming" of where to look--and one of the authors says Putnam begged for the "281 north" search based on that Wailupe reception (2000 miles from the Electra) and also based on a friend of AE's who claimed to be in touch with AE via the spirit world. How many man-hours of searching went there?

Oh, while I'm here and sitting up here's another screenshot--my point about how popular shortwave listening was as a general pasttime, not just for hobbyists, in the 1930s through the Sixties; here's a screenshot from another Hawaiian paper--listing the shortwave programs people might want to listen to for the upcoming week. Interesting, IMO.

 

[AC4RD]

More of "The Charlie-Foxed World of Pacific SAR" from a Sydney paper; more attached screenshottery starting with the red box on the left:

• The radio op on the Moorby "spent 48 hours at his phones with scarcely a break." Let's not blame the radioman, everyone was desperate to hear the Electra. But 48 hours on watch does NOT make a sharp and efficient radio operator. They don't let pilots or truck drivers or surgeons work for 48 hours straight, for a reason. --and--
• "He broadcast almost unceasingly to Mrs Earhart"--let's not take that literally, obviously, but every time that radio operator transmitted, moaning "Amelia, can't you HEAR me?" he was interfering with every OTHER person trying to listen for the Electra. How many other radio ops were doing this, across the Pacific and across the world? --and now the green box--
• [they were sure it was AE's plane "because it could have come from no other source." This is, sorry to be blunt, stupid. Every first-world-flagged commercial ship and naval ship by this time had onboard transmitters (the Titanic had one, 25 years earlier.) There would have been transmitters on many yachts, fishing vessels, and airplanes, on inhabited islands, at police stations and mining camps and harbors. In the USA 3105 was reserved for aviation but transmitters could still be tuned to it.

So this radio op on the Moorby was exhausted and not thinking straight, he kept listening, and he kept calling for KHAQQ--causing QRM (manmade interference) to every other listener, every time he called. There were hundreds of people just in the Pacific who were listening; how many were doing the same thing, without thinking? Even if AE had actually come down somewhere from which she could call for help (and I still don't believe it), she'd have been trying to be heard through all that, PLUS the deliberate hoaxers (a man in Mobile AL was just arrested for jamming police radios the other day.)