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[Ric Gillespie]

In Last Flight AE wrote:
"Where to find the tree on which costly airplanes grow, I did not know.  But I did know the kind I wanted - an Electra Lockheed, big brother to my Vegas, with, of course, Wasp engines."

But not necessarily a Model 10E "Electra Lockheed."  In Putnam's original pitch to Elliott on November 11, 1935 he says:
"A plane is available with the desired requirements. It embraces refinements and improvements whose practical demonstration can be important factors in commercial aeronautical progress.
Either a stock model will be purchased or a ship built especially. That can be decided only after careful comparison of the two proposals. For this “custom-built” job the engineering has already been done. It is not an “experimental” ship, but a development of proved design, power plant, etc. Unless the finished product fulfilled pre-determined requirements, delivery would not be taken.
The contemplated ship would have a maximum speed, at average altitudes, in excess of 225 miles an hour. With two pilots and full fuel load, its cruising range exceeds 6000 miles. It would be capable of sustained flight on one motor. I would, of course, have special tanks, instruments, and other devices."

The airplane he's talking about is the Model 12 Electra Junior then being designed for a Bureau of Air Commerce competition for a "feeder-liner" to serve small commercial markets.  The Model 12 was a scaled down Model 10 that used the same 450 hp Wasp Jr. engines (P&W R-985) as the Model 10A.  It was to be a real hot-rod with an anticipated top speed of 225 mph at 5,000 feet but the 6,000 mile range Putnam mentioned was pure fantasy. The engineering had been done but it was still a paper airplane. The first prototype would not fly until June 1936.  Until mid-February 1936 the plan was for AE to make her world flight in a Model 12 (wait for it....) on pontoons.  The problem was, the floats were going to be hideously expensive.  When Lockheed said they could guarantee a 4,500 mile range for a modified Model 10E Putnam and Mantz went for the bigger airplane. Earhart appears to have been almost completely disengaged from the whole process.

[Ric Gillespie]

In "Amelia Earhart - a Biography" (page 225) Doris Rich says that Putnam stole the term "flying laboratory" from public relations man Jack Maddux who used it to describe Lindbergh's new plane in 1930 (apparently the Lockheed Sirius on floats that he and his wife used for survey flights).  She cites NYT Jan. 16, 1930 as the source but I can find no such reference.

[Ric Gillespie]

Rich (page 224) also says Putnam "refused Mantz permission to use the ship in a film."  If the reference is to Love On the Run, we know how that turned out and it says something about Mantz's relationship with Putnam. Rich cites a letter in the "Dwiggins file".  That's Mantz biographer Don Dwiggins (Hollywood Pilot, 1967) but where is "the Dwiggins file?"  The EAA Library and Archive in Oshkosh has Dwiggins' papers but they include no correspondence between Putnam and Mantz.  The NASM Archive has Rich's papers which supposedly include her "Dwiggins file."   Dwiggins died in 1988. Rich's book was published in 1989, so it's possible that so she may have gotten copies of the correspondence directly from Dwiggins. I really need to get into Rich's papers at NASM. 

[Karen Hoy]

NEW LINDBERGH PLANE A 'FLYING LABORATORY'; Colonel Will Test Possibilities of Aviation Above Storm Clouds, Air Line Head Says.

This was the headline from the NYT of 1/16/30.

LTM,

Karen Hoy

[Ric Gillespie]

NEW LINDBERGH PLANE A 'FLYING LABORATORY'; Colonel Will Test Possibilities of Aviation Above Storm Clouds, Air Line Head Says.

This was the headline from the NYT of 1/16/30.

Thanks Karen.  For some reason the U.S Newspaper Archives search engine couldn't find it.

[Matt Revington]

There is a program of Earharts scheduled events at Purdue  in November 1935 on the Purdue site

http://earchives.lib.purdue.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/epurdue/id/716/rec/69

[Ric Gillespie]

There is a program of Earharts scheduled events at Purdue  in November 1935 on the Purdue site

Yes.  No dinner at Elliott's home but I wouldn't expect something like that to be on an official schedule.

[Ric Gillespie]

NEW LINDBERGH PLANE A 'FLYING LABORATORY'; Colonel Will Test Possibilities of Aviation Above Storm Clouds, Air Line Head Says.

This was the headline from the NYT of 1/16/30.

Here's another one for you Karen (or anyone else).
Doris Rich (Amelia Earhart - a biography, page 196) quotes the January 19, 1935 issue of Newsweek as saying:
“Every so often Miss Earhart, like other prominent flyers, pulls a spectacular stunt to hit the front pages. This enhances a flyer’s value as a cigarette endorser, helps finance new planes, sometimes publicizes a book.”

I want to use that quote but I can't cite a secondary source.  Did Newsweek really say that?

[Ric Gillespie]

Similarly, Rich (Page 197) says that the British weekly The Aeroplane of January 16, 1935 called Earhart's Hawaii to Oakland flight "A Useless Adventure."
I need primary source confirmation.

[Albert Durrell]

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00380/cah-00380.html#a0

University of Texas at Austin has articles from 1933 in their library.  Anyone in that area with time to check it out?

[Harbert William Davenport]

Ric, I can try to find that Newsweek quotation, within the next day or two, but I do not wish to duplicate anyone else's effort.  Our university library catalog shows that they have old Newsweeks, but I will need to verify that.

[Ric Gillespie]

Ric, I can try to find that Newsweek quotation, within the next day or two, but I do not wish to duplicate anyone else's effort.  Our university library catalog shows that they have old Newsweeks, but I will need to verify that.

Bill has PM-ed me.  He has found the quote in the Jan. 19, 1936 Newsweek and will send it along.  Thanks to everyone who offered to help.  This is such as GREAT group.

[Ric Gillespie]

Here's Bill's PDF of thhe Newsweek piece.

[Ric Gillespie]

As I mentioned in an earlier posting, the initial plan was to mount the airplane for the world flight on floats.  I'd like to have the forum's reaction to the following draft commentary on that decision.

The motivation for putting the airplane on floats is difficult to fathom.  There are more lakes, rivers, and bays in the world than there are airports, so floats greatly increase the number of places an aircraft can land and takeoff.  The price of convenience is degraded performance and added expense. The prospect of doing an equatorial circumnavigation of the globe on pontoons is problematical.  While much of the route is over oceans and along coastal areas, there is no way to avoid the 3.500 mile expanse of Africa without detouring far from the Equator. Floats deny the flight the use of virtually all of the world’s airports and require the planners to find facilities with docks or seaplane ramps (equipped with suitable dollies) for refueling and maintenance.  Aircraft on pontoons must have relatively calm, protected water for safe operations.  An emergency landing on the open ocean may save the lives of the crew but only briefly postpones the almost certain loss of the aircraft.

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

I'd like to have the forum's reaction to the following draft commentary on that decision.

It's an excellent paragraph.

It depends on how you fit it into the narrative.

I don't think it was totally insane for them to have "planned" to use floats at first.

The first crossing of the Atlantic by aircraft employed seaplanes.

Wiley Post was using a homebrew float plane when he and Will Rogers were killed in Alaska.

Lindbergh and his wife flew a Lockheed floatplane to Asia (Lockheed Model 8 Sirius "Tingmissartoq"--beautiful lines!).

As we know, the Navy carried floatplanes on some of its ships.

So maybe it wasn't immediately apparent that taking a floatplane "around the equator" was ludicrous.