Posted on 09/10/2016 4:34:24 PM PDT by Kaslin
DID Amelia Earhart survive her plane crash? This is the most likely theory, with evidence emerging that she was making contact for days after her plane disappeared.
The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) believes Earhart safely landed her plane when it disappeared in 1937 and died as a castaway.
During a presentation in the US last month, TIGHAR’s Ric Gillespie backed up all of the group’s theories.
Earhart’s plane was last seen on the radar on July 2, 1937.
After becoming the first woman pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, she embarked on a mission to fly 47,000km around the world.
But on July 2 1937, four months after beginning her trip, she found herself in trouble.
She was flying at 375m looking for Howland Island, southwest of Honolulu, but was low on fuel.
It is believed she was not as close to the island as expected so she safety landed on another island, believed to be Nikumaroro, also known as Gardner Island, which is surrounded by a reef and about 640km southeast of Howland Island.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
:)
Kinda jumps out at you, doesn’t it?
I believe you're right about that.
But why on earth would there have been a radar in that immediate area? Radar range was extremely limited at that time -- and a plane flying at 375m would have been invisible to any radar that was over the horizon.
No way is there a radar installation around Howland Island. Nor was there any radar that could've seen her from Hawaii.
This author doesn't know what he's talking about.
For those who think Noonan wasn’t very good. He was one of the best in the nation. Arguably the very best. His reputation took a beating because the alternative would make you have to blame Amelia. So the “drunk” Noonan mush have been at fault.
Here ya go.
“Following a distinguished 22-year career at sea which included sailing around Cape Horn seven times (three times under sail), Noonan contemplated a new career direction. After learning to fly in the late 1920s, he received a “limited commercial pilot’s license” in 1930, on which he listed his occupation as “aviator.” In the following year, he was awarded marine license #121190, “Class Master, any ocean,” the qualifications of a merchant ship’s captain. During the early 1930s, he worked for Pan American World Airways as a navigation instructor in Miami and an airport manager in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, eventually assuming the duties of inspector for all of the company’s airports.
In March 1935, Noonan was the navigator on the first Pan Am Sikorsky S-42 clipper at San Francisco Bay. In April he navigated the historic round-trip China Clipper flight between San Francisco and Honolulu piloted by Ed Musick (who was featured on the cover of Time magazine that year). Noonan was subsequently responsible for mapping Pan Am’s clipper routes across the Pacific Ocean, participating in many flights to Midway Island, Wake Island, Guam, the Philippines, and Hong Kong. In addition to more modern navigational tools, Noonan as a licensed sea captain was known for carrying a ship’s sextant on these flights.
1937 was a year of transition for Fred Noonan, whose reputation as an expert navigator, along with his role in the development of commercial airline navigation, had already earned him a place in aviation history. The tall, very thin, dark auburn-haired and blue-eyed 43-year-old navigator was living in Los Angeles. He resigned from Pan Am because he felt he had risen through the ranks as far as he could as a navigator, and he had an interest in starting a navigation school. In March, he divorced his wife, Josie, in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Two weeks later, he married Mary Beatrice Martinelli (born Passadori) of Oakland, California. Noonan was rumored to be a heavy drinker of alcoholic beverages. That was fairly common during this era and there is no contemporary evidence Noonan was an alcoholic, although decades later, a few writers and others made some hearsay claims that he was.”
Not the guy pop culture makes him out to be.
Fishy ...
The history of the wee hours of Pearl Harbor and Dec. 7th talks about the new gadget the military had ... a radar unit.
So 1941 would seem to be the earliest that radar existed.
I did enjoy the Norwich City bit, though.
And that first Pear Radar could see a target at 1000 AGL only from about 20 miles. Up on the peak, it could find a plane at 25,000 from 150 miles.
So nothing at all in a class that could have been anything. And it was brand new in 41.
Thank you.
An older friend was one of the early 747 pilots. He used to smoke, and said he would open the sextant hole in the top of the back of the cockpit and have a cigarette, blowing the smoke out of the hole.
The point being, a plane as relatively modern as the 747 was set up for navigation by sextant.
Everybody has a theory. I prefer the Nikumaroro one, because so many “experts” claim it’s wrong. I detest internet “experts”.
“I’m sorry, the beer got a little excited.”
- Joe Don Baker as Mitchell
Actually, he was very good at open water navigation, one of the very best, and was a pioneer in the field. The slanders against him loomed large because people were really not wanting to blame Amelia.
...
Oh, I agree. Earhart was more of a daredevil than a pilot. She was very poorly prepared for that leg of the trip, which included not testing the equipment that would be used to locate the island once Noonan got them in the general vicinity. The two of them were pretty much doomed as soon as they took off. Considering Earhart’s nature, which he should have known, he can be faulted for not double checking everything.
I didn't think they had radar in 1937. I thought it was invented during the war, and was a huge aid to the British during the Battle of Britain, and then rapidly advanced to aid AA firing by the allies. In Churchill's massive and detailed seven volume memoirs about WWII, there is a portion titled "War of the Wizards" which deals with the rapid advance in technology during the war and its effects.
I’d call his bluff. Whose radar does he claim tracked her?
In 1937, the best range for British radar was 60 miles. The Germans were still in the 3 mile range. A year later, the US could detect planes at 100 miles, but didn’t have operational ship mounted radar until 1939. The Japanese, although technically advanced, were far behind the west in deployment of radar.
Chain Home predates 1941.
I caught that, too.
I think the Itasca used radio triangulation
There were also a couple of sets in the Philippines.
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