Last night (before I had joined TIGHAR, which I did this morning) I emailed a suggestion to TIGHAR concerning Amelia's height. I received an encouraging reply from Marty Moleski so I'll repeat the idea here. My suggestion involves the photo in which Amelia is standing immediately adjacent to the Vega's propeller---and the idea is to use the propeller as a measuring device---a "yardstick". This can be done by carefully measuring the propeller length at the Air& Space Museum. However, the propeller in the Museum may not be the exact one in the photo, so it would be necessary to find out if there could have been any changes to the propeller specs (i.e., length) from the Museum aircraft and the propeller in the AE photo. The propeller logo in the photo (and in a photo I have of the Vega at the Museum; see attached) indicate that it is from the Hamilton Standard Propeller Company. Even if the Museum propeller and the propeller in the AE photo are of identical length, it would be best to first test the technique independently. One way would be to, say, photograph Ric (who stated that he is 5' 10.5") and see, if by knowing the length of the prop measured at the Museum, one can accurately determine Ric's height from the photo of him using this technique. This initial test might also indicate ways to refine the technique to account for distortions before using this approach with the AE photo itself. The major advantage here of this approach is that factors such as tire inflation are by-passed and the prop itself becomes a "measuring stick"---like the rulers one sees in line-up photos!
Steve Burk