A Restored Radio From 1937 Might Have Finally Located Amelia Earhart’s Lost Plane

Popular Mechanics ^ | 06/26/2026 | Michael Natale

[DFG]

Amelia Earhart’s disappearance in the summer of 1937 has remained one of aviation’s greatest mysteries for nearly 90 years. Since then, explorers and researchers have searched land, reef, lagoon, and deep ocean for any trace of the plane she flew with navigator Fred Noonan.

One team has spent years looking west of Howland Island. Its newest lead comes from a strange place for a deep-ocean search: the airwaves.

In 2020, the deep-sea exploration and historical research organization Nauticos procured and restored a radio system identical to the one that Earhart and Noonan used on their final flight: a Western Electric 13C aircraft transmitter and Bendix Model RA-1A aircraft receiver.

In 2025, Nauticos announced that after a series of tests using that restored radio system, its researchers had estimated the approximate position of Earhart’s Lockheed Electra L-10E around 8 a.m. on the day she and Noonan disappeared.

Armed with the new data, Nauticos says its next expedition will focus on a smaller search area than its earlier attempts. In a 2025 press release, Nauticos President Dave Jourdan said the team had “narrowed the search area dramatically” and called the planned mission its “best chance yet” to locate Earhart’s plane.

That expedition, however, remains the next step—not the answer. In a February 27, 2026, WBUR interview, Jourdan said Nauticos had worked out roughly where Earhart was around 8 a.m., but the location hadn’t been publicly shared. He also said the group was raising $6 million to $10 million and hoped to mount the expedition as early as 2026.

On July 2, 1937, Earhart and Noonan took off from Lae, New Guinea en route to Howland Island. They were receiving communications from a vessel off the shore of Howland, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca. But radio reception was poor; the radio log from that fateful day indicates that at 7:42 a.m., Earhart told Itasca, “We must be on you, but we cannot see you. Fuel is running low. Been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000 feet.”

The Itasca tried to reach the Electra L-10E, but every attempt failed; if Earhart or Noonan heard those messages, the records show no sign of it. Around 8 a.m., Earhart reported that she needed bearings. The Itasca was sending navigation signals, but she wasn’t receiving them clearly enough to fix her position. At 8:43 a.m., she radioed the Itasca again, saying the Electra was “on line 157-337 and running north and south,” a reference to degrees on a compass. That line runs between 157 degrees (southeast-to-south) and 337 degrees (northwest-to-north). It was her final transmission. Neither she nor Noonan were ever heard from again.

Earhart gave the Itasca a compass position—likely thanks to Noonan aligning their course with the rising sun—but she couldn’t provide exact coordinates. That’s why Nauticos’ radio experiment could prove crucial. As of June 2026, Nauticos has not publicly released the exact coordinates or search box it says the analysis produced. Nauticos’ tests used two vessels: one in the air and one on the water. Aboard the aircraft—a stand-in for the lost Electra fittingly named Miss Amelia—they carried a Bendix receiver and a Western Electric transmitter. On the water, their boat Nellie Crocket had its mast extended to match the antenna height of the Itasca, and carried an RCA Model CGR-32-1 receiver, the same model used on the Itasca.

The researchers used this equipment to run Radio Direction Finding (RDF) and Range vs. Signal Strength tests on the 3105 kHz frequency, replicating the conditions of Earhart’s final flight as closely as possible. They compiled and analyzed the results into an 88-page report titled Statistical Analysis for Highest Probability Areas.

The researchers’ radio-informed expedition would not be their first. Nauticos first gained attention in the 1990s for helping discover the I-52 Japanese World War II submarine and has since mounted three Earhart expeditions, in 2002, 2006, and 2017.

On the 2006 expedition, the team came up empty, with nothing more than scrap cables. But every search added to Nauticos’ stockpile of data. Now, with radio-based location estimates in hand, the researchers believe they could finally crack the Earhart mystery once and for all.

[Jane Long]

LOVE that movie!

[GingisK]

Is that a redundant read with checksum going on there?

[Dr. Sivana]

Wasn’t that an episode of Twilight Zone?

Also on "Nanny and the Professor".

[ApplegateRanch]

I fail to understand the Earhart obsession: She’s dead, Jim.

OTOH, I wish them success in their endeavors: It provides employment; keeps them out of trouble; and makes a contribution, however small, to GDP.

Now that that’s off my chest, I can get back to the important matter, my search for Bigfoot.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

I once worked for Univac, and they are now part of Honeywell!

(I used to work Next To a Bendix plant. We would sit outside at lunch and watch the Marines run around the perimeter fence!)

[misterdarcey]

Dear Online Audience,
Please give me 6 to 10 million dollars so I can launch my own tropical search for Amelia Earhart. I’ll pay for my own sunscreen, and promise to write.

[Salvavida]

“........has remained one of aviation’s greatest mysteries for nearly 90 years.”

---

No it hasn’t, if evidence means anything. Amazing how Popular Mechanics leaves out the ONE evidence that seals the deal, because facts don’t care about feelings: the documented TRIANGULATION of the radio signals that Ric Gillespie proposed.

She died on Nikumaroro Island. The coconut crabs feasted on her. Noonan likely died on the aircraft and was swept out to sea by the currents.

[lefty-lie-spy]

And Lifeboat and The Life Of Riley.

[lefty-lie-spy]

Bugger; you beat me to my punchline. Well done.

[lefty-lie-spy]

Weird. I just spent the last two weeks watching all three seasons of Gilligan’s Island on a BitChute channel that also has all episodes of Nanny And The Professor.

I’ve never heard of the show before and haven’t watched any, but if a FReeper recommends it, I just might have to give it a look.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Interesting...

[xp38]

I watched it at the time. Didn’t leave much of an impression on me as I never saw it in reruns again. I think it had overtones of Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music in the nanny genre sort of way. Another show similar might be Family Affair but instead of a nanny it had Mr. French as the butler.

[oldskoolwargamer2]

Then why have exactly zero pieces of physical evidence emerged on Niko during multiple expeditions over the last three decades? An aerial search just a week after Earhart went missing revealed no evidence of any aircraft on the reef. The island was visited and surveyed multiple times in 1937, 1938, and 1939 as well as during the Second World War and no trace of Earhart or Noonan’s presence was discovered. Gillespie has made a nice living out of that myth for many years.

[Paal Gulli]

"I fail to understand the Earhart obsession: She’s dead, Jim...."

She was never a particularly good pilot but she married rich, which had two profound impacts on her life. No. 1, her rich husband gave her enough money to buy what is referred to in aviation circles as "too much airplane." And No. 2, her rich publisher husband crafted her public image when she was alive, and when her obsession with flying was the death of her, he spent every penny required to craft her legacy.

Earhart's Electra the after she ground-looped it attempting a take-off from Luke Field, Pearl Harbor before dawn on 20 March 1937.

So ended her first around-the-world flight attempt. Rich husband paid for the repairs and she began her second attempt on the 1st of June.

Not that flying mishaps weren't commonplace in that era.

Some days, even Lindy wasn't very lucky.

Airplanes still were new and people were learning how to fly while minimizing the risks. But even for that era her mishaps were a litle more numerous than others, and under sketchier circumstances, all of which are the earmarks of an aviatrix whose ego and ambitions are growing faster than her skill sets.

In the end, she died because she didn't understand the employment and limitations of her radio equipment, and didn't turn back soon enough to save her life.

[Salvavida]

Because the triangulation doesn’t lie. There is no way to manipulate it. It is what it is.

If the bones of Amelia were not lost, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

If Ric G. is right (and he is), then why disparage the man?

[Bobalu]

It’s set to my fav range, includes the 80 and 40 meter ham bands....

I’m an NVIS aficionado...

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

Thought they found evidence that she grounded on some tiny island - some goober was soliciting donations to prove it.

This is like Noah's Ark - so many people are making money on it that the evidence (or the lack thereof) will never be published.

[21twelve]

I forget the name of the book, but it had lots of references and information about her earlier flights and this one. In the FR article it talks about her communicating with the ship. The plan was to communicate with the much stronger radio on shore, but the on-shore generator was out, so they used the ship as back up. The book talked a lot about the various time zones the plane, ship and island were using. I think the island was still sending out morse code every 15 minutes, and Earhart was to listen for the morse code at the alloted time, and then radio at the alloted time. But there may have been confusion caused by the various time zones.

Also something to do with the switch on the radio that changed it from morse to radio was somehow easily put in the wrong position? I need to find and read that book again.

They estimate that she would have been pretty close to the longitude of where she was to land as that could be calculated using the time and speed of the airplane. But then she would have ranged north and south to get close, either using the radio signal strength, morse code strength, or of course a visual sighting.

Yes she is dead and gone, but it is still a “mystery” and is sort of a treasure hunt. Who doesn’t love a treasure hunt!?