TIGHAR
Amelia Earhart Search Forum => Aircraft & Powerplant, Performance and Operations => Topic started by: Bruce Thomas on February 04, 2014, 08:05:07 PM
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I’m intrigued by an apparent modification to the hatch over the cockpit in AE’s L10-E. The Harney drawings (http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/harneydrawings/harneypage05portside.jpg) show that hatch to be hinged at the centerline on the top of the aircraft. And just about every other picture or video I’ve seen agrees with that. An accident photo taken at Luke Field shows the opened hatch is hinged at the centerline, and a picture of the Electra in Venezuela shows the same thing.
But at some point in time the hatch seems to have been awkwardly hinged at its outer edge over the pilot’s side window. This is seen in a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2OnsHVlTPg) (I do not know where or when it was shot — but the sequence involving the hatch begins at 00:52), showing AE swinging her legs over the roof behind the hatch and then sliding down into the pilot’s seat. The assumption is that this is AE’s aircraft and not some other L10 — could AE have been involved in a photoshoot using someone else’s L10 Electra?
I wonder if there exists, in the vast expanse of documents maintained by TIGHAR, any mention of this minor change in the structure of the aircraft? Or might this be just another modification without a record?
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Bruce - both of your attached pictures show the hatch hinged at the center-line. I'm on excruciatingly slow dial-up, so I don't get to view movies. Can you post a still photo that shows the alternative opening?
A hatch seems like a likely place for a lightly reinforced thin aluminum sheet to have been used.
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It's in the video, John. Click on the link in my post to bring up the video, and at the 52nd second you'll see the hatch hinged over the pilot's window. Here's a single frame.
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Bruce - thanks, that's a very interesting photo. I don't see any loop antenna, which makes me think it's a photo of the aircraft early in it's life, or of some other aircraft as you mentioned.
Sorry, but I can't download a video on dialup, but the photo is welcome.
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Bruce,
The early version of Earhart's Electra did have the cockpit hatch hinged as shown in the video you referenced. There a couple photos in the Purdue archives showing the aircraft with that hatch arrangement. Also, I think the set of Harney drawings includes a page/sheet which describes the history of the major known modifications made to Earhart's Electra over the course of its life and I'm pretty sure the hatch modifications are included on that sheet.
The photo you posted of the Electra in Caripito, Venuzuela, is interesting. Do you have the source (website url) where you found it?
Thanks,
Jeff P.
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The photo you posted of the Electra in Caripito, Venuzuela, is interesting. Do you have the source (website url) where you found it?
The webpage where I found the photo (http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=ForumsPro&file=viewtopic&p=133426) is a long string of aviation photos. Scroll down about 3/4 of the way to get to AE's aircraft in Caripito, Venezuela. But the photo is also in the Purdue collection (http://earchives.lib.purdue.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/earhart&CISOPTR=796&CISOBOX=1&REC=1), of course.