A new 64-page issue of our journal TIGHAR Tracks is being mailed to TIGHAR members. The articles will eventually go up on the TIGHAR website but it's only fair that dues-paying TIGHAR members be the first to see them. If you're not already a TIGHAR member there's still time to
join and receive your copy right away. Here's an overview of the articles and a couple of pages from the journal.
Niku VIIExcerpts from Expedition Leader Ric Gillespie’s personal journal, sonar maps of a never-before-seen underwater realm, and photographer Laurie Rubin’s stunning pictures provide a blow-by-blow account of an historic - and frustrating - expedition.
Lessons From A BuffaloWhen you’re looking for something, it’s good to know what to look for. What does airplane wreckage look like after seventy-plus years in a high-energy coral reef environment? The recent discovery of a Brewster F2A “Buffalo” at Midway Atoll provides some answers.
The Object Formerly Known As NessieThe Bevington Object is an incredibly small speck in an impossibly obscure photograph that appears to show wreckage from the Earhart aircraft on the reef at Gardner Island in 1937. Is there other evidence that supports the idea that an object in that place at that time might be wreckage from the Electra? What can experts see in such a tiny picture that allows them to identify it so specifically? Do we have to take their opinion on faith or can we see it for ourselves?
Part Number 41065One of the elements that appears to be identifiable in the Bevington Object is part of the retraction mechanism listed in the Lockheed Model 10 Parts Catalog as “Part Number 41065 – Gear, worm.” If our identification of the part is correct, its presence in the photo guarantees that the wreckage on the reef in the 1937 photo is specifically from the Earhart aircraft.
The Dogs That Didn't BarkJust as important as the numerous pieces of archival, photographic and artifact evidence that point to the Earhart/Noonan flight having ended at Gardner Island are the people and events that might have discovered the fate of the lost flyers – but didn’t. These are the dogs that didn’t bark and they provide us with as many clues about what happened as the dogs that did.
Time and TideThe available evidence suggests that Amelia Earhart landed her Lockheed Electra on a particular section of the reef at Gardner Island (now Nikumaroro) and sent radio distress calls or several days before the aircraft was lost to rising tides and surf – but was that possible? TIGHAR Researcher Bob Brandenburg’s technical paper explains how we calculated the water levels on that part of the reef at particular times more than three-quarters of a century ago, and how we discovered the remarkable way in which those water levels correlate with the credible post-loss radio signals.