In reference to the patch...and the link to Lockheed Martin the beginning...at mark 14.54 it shows laborers moving sheets of aircraft sheet metal into the factory and then cutting them to size. What I'd like to know is if we took this "patch" measured it, and then broke that size out into halves or quarters...would it add up to a full sheet of metal. Be interesting to know what the actual size of the full sheets would be. Anyone know Ric?
Not sure I follow where you're going with this, Randy, maybe missing your point. 2-2-V-1, whatever it was or where ever it came from, was simply cut from a larger piece of metal somewhere.
If memory serves, those rolls or sheets of stock are about 4 feet wide - maybe wider in some cases, and can be rather long. Small shops order smaller quantities cut from large stock, whereas a shop like Lockheed or PanAm might easily have full sheets or rolls in inventory to take something like 2-2-V-1 from. Typically the larger stock would be sheared to the desired size.
Elgen and Marie Long, in their book "Amelia Earhart, The Mystery Solved," p. 112, make reference to what may be the same lavatory window in debate here, but add to the confusion:
"In its normal passenger configuration, an Electra had an escape hatch over the wing on the right side of the cabin. This was the only exit on the right side of the plane, but because of the fuselage fuel tanks it was covered over on Earhart's plane. In January two new windows had been installed in her Electra, one in the cabin entrance door and one in the right sidewall of the lavatory compartment. During repairs it was decided to make an exit of the window in the lavatory compartment by replacing it with an aluminum hatch. Not only did this provide an escape route, the hatch could be opened on the ground for cabin ventilation."
Seems that the Longs are saying that the lavatory window was converted into a hatch, but of course, they could have been mistaken, or confusing it with window. Does all photographic evidence prior to the Pan Am Miami modifications point to this as definitely a window immediately after the Lockheed Burbank repairs (in January 1937), or was there ever any actual aluminum hatch installed in the lavatory compartment? Anyone know?
There was no window in the lavatory originally, Long is apparently mistaken on that point (and upstring somewhere here is a photo showing just that - original metal with no window, no patch, prior to the 'window mod').
What the full intent of the modification to create a window really was isn't clear to me so far. The size of it could relate to an emergency exit, or a viewing window for say, an aerial navigator. The latter has been suggested.
The 'patch' does not appear to be a removable panel - but I'm not sure that can be said for certain without more detailed information by photo or other record.
All the fascinating story per the Herald, etc. is just that - fascinating. Until we have a truly good picture by photo, blueprint or work-order / record, it is IMO impossible to know for certain whether 2-2-V-1 relates or not; the 'why' of the window matters not a whit, IMO, either - res ipsa - the thing (the 'patch') just
is for a fact, there. It (the 'patch')
wasn't when the bird got to Miami; it (the 'patch')
was when it (the bird) left Miami.
Nice to have attention from the Herald then, but all it does is perhaps raise interest and maybe promote a deeper search for photos, etc. - but of itself it does nothing to prove that 2-2-V-1 relates. It does stir the 'Elgen said / Ric said, et al' pot, I'll give 'em that.