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Author Topic: Research Needed - November 1936  (Read 51257 times)

Ric Gillespie

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Re: Research Needed - November 1936
« Reply #30 on: February 17, 2016, 09:12:10 AM »

At some time between the end of the Bendix race in September and the trip to New York in late November the Radio Compass gets installed.  It seems like that must have happened in Dayton but we don't have any record of the plane being in Dayton during that time.  Dayton is only about an hour's flight from Lafayette, IN (Purdue) in the Electra.   

TIGHAR member Bill Davenport points out that according to Hooven's report:
"The improved sensitivity made it possible to use a much smaller loop than the older device, and in Fig. 2  may be seen the smaller, streamlined housing of the newer loop as it appeared when installed on the Earhart plane in October, 1936. Miss Earhart did not realize that this streamlined loop reduced air resistance to an extent that would have saved several times the five gallons of fuel that she had added by removing the radio compass and replacing it with the older device."

But Hooven also says:
"I met Miss Earhart for lunch at Wright Field in the summer of 1936. She was accompanied by a younger woman flyer, quite unknown at the time, Jacqueline Cochran."

As we've seen, the meeting with Earhart and Cochrane was in December, not the summer, of 1936 so Hooven's recollection was less than perfect (as recollections often are).  Is his October date for the installation accurate?  It makes sense, but I'd rather have independent contemporaneous documentation - a reliably dated photo, a letter, or a newspaper clipping.
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Matt Revington

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Re: Research Needed - November 1936
« Reply #31 on: February 17, 2016, 09:44:55 AM »

I have found that Earhart was around the midwest during October:
1) at a Roosevelt campaign event on Sept 29 in Syracuse NY
http://idnc.library.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/illinois?a=d&d=DIL19360930.2.1&srpos=9&e=------193-en-20--1--txt-txIN-earhart----1936--

2) at another Roosevelt event on October 24 in Chicago
http://idnc.library.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/illinois?a=d&d=DIL19361025.2.44&srpos=4&e=------193-en-20--1--txt-txIN-earhart----1936--

3) Gave a talk at Lake Erie College ( outside of Cleveland) on October 29
http://www.ninety-nines.org/pdf/newsmagazine/193612.pdf

Also gave at talk in Moline Il in October but I can't find the exact date
http://www.help-fast.com/isbn-find-book-title/Quad-City-International-Airport-Images-of-Aviation_9780738583716

None of these mentions whether she flew the Electra or if it was still in Burbank
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Bill Mangus

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Re: Research Needed - November 1936
« Reply #32 on: February 17, 2016, 09:50:47 AM »

I have found that Earhart was around the midwest during October:
1) at a Roosevelt campaign event on Sept 29 in Syracuse NY
http://idnc.library.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/illinois?a=d&d=DIL19360930.2.1&srpos=9&e=------193-en-20--1--txt-txIN-earhart----1936--

2) at another Roosevelt event on October 24 in Chicago
http://idnc.library.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/illinois?a=d&d=DIL19361025.2.44&srpos=4&e=------193-en-20--1--txt-txIN-earhart----1936--

3) Gave a talk at Lake Erie College ( outside of Cleveland) on October 29
http://www.ninety-nines.org/pdf/newsmagazine/193612.pdf

Also gave at talk in Moline Il in October but I can't find the exact date
http://www.help-fast.com/isbn-find-book-title/Quad-City-International-Airport-Images-of-Aviation_9780738583716

None of these mentions whether she flew the Electra or if it was still in Burbank


Since the movie "Love on the Run" discussed in another thread was filmed in the fall of '36, I'm betting it was still in Burbank.  Wonder if AE knew her new airplane was being horsed around the ramp for a movie?
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Ric Gillespie

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Re: Research Needed - November 1936
« Reply #33 on: February 17, 2016, 09:51:47 AM »

I have found that Earhart was around the midwest during October:

That sounds like a lecture tour by car.  Earhart did not use the Electra for transportation on lecture tours.  Way too expensive and subject to weather delays that would mess up her speaking schedule.  Hooven's comment about meeting Earhart and Cochrane seems to suggest that it was the first time he had met her, and we know that was in December.  I wonder if Mantz or someone from Lockheed flew the plane to Dayton in October for the installation of the Radio Compass.
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Ric Gillespie

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Re: Research Needed - November 1936
« Reply #34 on: February 17, 2016, 10:08:20 AM »

That's a Lockheed Sirius.

This looks like the Sirius in question.  It belonged to Paul Mantz (no surprise).
From http://www.aerovintage.com/mantz_photo1.htm
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Martin X. Moleski, SJ

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Re: Research Needed - November 1936
« Reply #35 on: February 17, 2016, 10:48:38 AM »

I wonder if Mantz or someone from Lockheed flew the plane to Dayton in October for the installation of the Radio Compass.


Has anyone ever looked at Mantz's pilot logs?


He probably had a LOT of them over his career, but if anyone kept them, you might be able to half-answer the question.

LTM,

           Marty
           TIGHAR #2359A
 
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Daniel R. Brown

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Re: Research Needed - November 1936
« Reply #36 on: February 17, 2016, 11:14:49 AM »

AE speaking engagements during October, 1936 (in the on-line newspaper archive):

October 2: scheduled for a radio interview, "Magazine of the Air" on WBBM, Chicago, IL
October 8: Petosky, MI (crossed on ferry by car, "cream-colored Cord")
October 9: Manitowoc/Wausau/Menasha, WI
October 12 (approx.): Ottumwa, IA
October 14: LaSalle, IL
October 15/16: Quincy, IL
October 17: Columbia, MO (by car)
October 21: Edwardsville, IL
October 22: Tipton/Ft. Wayne/Bloomington, IN (by car)
October 26: Kenosha, WI
October 28/30: Oak Park, IL


Dan Brown, #2408
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Ric Gillespie

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Re: Research Needed - November 1936
« Reply #37 on: February 17, 2016, 11:35:08 AM »

and no Interstates.
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Matt Revington

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Re: Research Needed - November 1936
« Reply #38 on: February 17, 2016, 01:48:06 PM »

I'm sure that you're right that she travelled between the talks and campaign events  by car but we know the Electra was at Purdue Sept 20-21 and there is an article mentioning her at the Roosevelt event in Syracuse NY on Sept 29 and then all of her talks right through Oct that Dan found.

Do we know for sure that the Electra went back to Burbank after leaving Purdue? If so it seems unlikely that AE went with it unless she caught a commercial flight back to NY within a couple of days.  That leaves the possibility of someone like Mantz flying it back to Burbank and then flying it to Dayton sometime in October or that it was left in in the east  (that fuzzy picture of what might be an Electra at Roosevelt field in early October) and was moved to Dayton by AE (or someone else) sometime in October where the compass was installed while she drove around the Midwest giving lectures.
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Ric Gillespie

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Re: Research Needed - November 1936
« Reply #39 on: February 17, 2016, 01:56:52 PM »

Do we know for sure that the Electra went back to Burbank after leaving Purdue?

No.  The Bendix Race ended in Los Angeles so we know the plane was back in California at that time (Can we get the dates of the Bendix Cross country Race of 1936?)
She obviously then flew the plane back east to Purdue by September 20 and within a week or two apprently set off by car for her lecture tour.  It's entirely possible that the plane remained at Purdue during that time.
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Matt Revington

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Re: Research Needed - November 1936
« Reply #40 on: February 17, 2016, 02:04:01 PM »

The Bendix Race finished on Sept 4 in LA.
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Ric Gillespie

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Re: Research Needed - November 1936
« Reply #41 on: February 17, 2016, 03:24:46 PM »

The Bendix Race finished on Sept 4 in LA.

The start was from Floyd Bennett Field in NY - on Sept 2 or Sept 3?
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Matt Revington

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Re: Research Needed - November 1936
« Reply #42 on: February 17, 2016, 03:34:54 PM »

This page says AE flew to the New York Democratic state convention in Syracuse that was held in the last week of September 1936, no details

http://cnyhistory.org/press/2016-01-10-PS-Earhart.pdf

So likely Purdue to Syracuse.  The convention ended Sept 29 or 30th, according to Dan's list above she had to give a radio interview to a Chicago station on Oct 2, I don't know if that meant she had to be in Chicago or could do it remotely.
« Last Edit: February 17, 2016, 03:50:23 PM by Matt Revington »
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Bill Mangus

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Re: Research Needed - November 1936
« Reply #43 on: February 17, 2016, 03:42:54 PM »

Susan Butler's "East to the Dawn" biography of AE has the race kicking off at 0137L on 4 Sep 36.  AE and her co-pilot Helen Richey were off at 0247L.  AE and Helen came in fifth.  The winning time by Louise Thaden and Blanche Noyes was 14:55, a record that stood for two years. 
The race probably finished sometime on 5 Sep.  (pages 346-48).

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Ric Gillespie

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Re: Research Needed - November 1936
« Reply #44 on: February 17, 2016, 03:58:07 PM »

Susan Butler's "East to the Dawn" biography of AE has the race kicking off at 0137L on 4 Sep 36. 

Butler mentions the times but not the date.  She doesn't cite any of it. The race was apparently a one-day event, no overnight, so Sept 4 for the start and finish (maybe after midnight) seems to be right.
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