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Where was the photo taken? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Although at first the photo would appear to provide no clue as to where it was taken, reducing the brightness and increasing the contrast in Photoshop™ reveals a curious and distinctive background visible through the windshield (right). A complex geometric pattern is overlaid on a horizontally corrugated surface. The angle of view through the windshield when the aircraft is parked on the ground is 12° above horizontal, so we’re looking at something high or even above the aircraft, depending upon how far away it is. In the photo above the Electra features the faired blister on the tip of the fuselage that housed the loop antenna for the Bendix/Hooven Radio Compass installed in October 1936 and the dorsal V antenna installed by Bell Laboratories in November of that year. The Radio Compass was removed in early March 1937. In other words, this photo was taken sometime between November 1936 and early March 1937. NR16020 was never in Miami during that period. This photo was not taken in Miami. So where was this hangar? The type of construction appears to be consistent with the hangars at Burbank where the Electra was based (left, detail, and below). |
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Was there a similar hangar in Miami?
No. While in Miami from May 23 to June 1, 1937 the Electra was based at Miami
Municipal Airport (renamed Amelia Earhart Field in 1947). There was one hangar
on the airport and it did not feature the kind of construction seen in the
cockpit photo (right).
(Photo courtesy http://www.pbase.com/airlinerphotos/airports_oldmiami.) |
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The available photographic evidence, therefore, does not support the hypothesis and strongly suggests that the photo was taken in Burbank, not Miami. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
When was the photo taken? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The best way to date the photo is to try to track the box in datable photos. For example, the box is clearly not present in this photo taken at Purdue University in September 1936 (right). At this time the aircraft had only the Western Electric transmitter and receiver it was delivered with in July. The earliest datable photo that appears to show the box was taken after Harry Manning arrived in Burbank in late February 1937, below. Another photo taken at the same time (right)shows that the fairing for the Bendix/Hooven Radio Compass loop antenna is still present. The Radio Compass was replaced with a conventional loop antenna on or about March 6. |
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In this photo, Earhart is wearing the same sweater as in the photos with Manning but with darker slacks, so it’s probably a different day. The box is clearly present. Another picture taken during the same photo op (below, left) shows that the conventional loop antenna has now been installed. The box, again, is clearly there but it’s not possible to tell whether the Bendix/Hooven Radio Compass has yet been removed. So the box was present when the Bendix/Hooven Radio Compass was aboard the aircraft. Was it still there after the Radio Compass was removed? Two very similar photos of AE in the cockpit suggest that the box went away at the same time the Radio Compass went away. |
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In the undated photo below the box can be seen just below the tubular instrument light. |
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In the photo at left the box is no longer present. The Purdue University website captions this photo “Overhead view of Amelia Earhart in the cockpit of her Lockheed Electra plane, ca. March 15, 1937” (Purdue photo b10f7i25). Purdue captions are not always correct but, comparing the two photos, it’s apparent from the length of AE’s hair that the photo that shows the box predates the one in which the box has been removed. The photo below was taken in Carapito, Venezuela on June 2nd or 3rd, 1937. No box is apparent. |
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The box, in fact, is not apparent in any photo we’ve been able to find datable to any time after the first week of March 1937 when the Bendix/Hooven Radio compass was removed from NR16020. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Conclusion | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The hypothesis that the photo showing the unidentified control box was taken in Miami between the time Earhart arrived there on May 23 and her departure for San Juan, Puerto Rico on June 1, 1937 is not supported by the available evidence. The photo, therefore, does not support the further hypothesis that there was a Bendix High Frequency Direction Finder (HFDF) radio receiver aboard the aircraft during Earhart’s second world flight attempt. |
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