TIGHAR researchers Dan Brown, Bill Davenport and I have been trying to figure when an interesting series of photos was taken (see August 10 1936 on the
Google Docs timeline). August 10 was Dan's initial best guess but we now agree that that can't be right. Below are my thoughts.
I agree that all of these photos were probably taken on the same day. They’re the only photos I’ve seen in which AE is wearing that blousy jacket.
I think these are very early photos. The ship was registered by Lockheed in the Experimental category on July 19, 1936. Elmer McLeod made the initial test flight on July 20. There are no photos known to have been taken that day. The first photos of the completed (or sem-completed) airplane were taken at the press event/photo op on July 21 when AE introduced the airplane to the media. For that event it carried the incorrect and technically illegal registration markings NR16020. By August 2, when McLeod and AE flew the airplane to San Francisco, the markings had been corrected to X16020, so these photos predate August 2.
In the July 21 photos I can’t see a wire on the belly antenna masts. I suspect the radios had not yet been installed. That same day, July 21, in a letter to Locheed, Earhart authorized Paul Mantz to accept delivery of the aircraft in Las Vegas on her behalf. Although the letter is dated two days after the airplane was inspected, a day after its first flight, and on the day Earhart first flew in it, the letter of authorization says "you are hereby authorized to deliver
when completed Electra airplane No. 1055
which you are now constructing for me …" Apparently Earhart did not yet consider the airplane to be ready for delivery.
But in the iconic photo of AE striding in front of the plane, the antenna wire is clearly there - so these photos were taken after July 21 but before August 2.
Also, wherever these photos were taken, it wasn’t at Union Air Terminal, Burbank. This is a small scruffy airport.
The Purdue website has the arms-spread photo date February 12, 1937 but that's clearly wrong. February 12, 1937 is the date AE announced her world flight at the Barclay Hotel in Manhattan. The photo was probably released to the press that day.
My best guess: Contrary to her plan on July 21, she decided to ride along with McLeod and Mantz on July 24 for the flight over to Las Vegas to take formal delivery of the airplane. While they were there, Elmer took a few photos for her. She’s clearly exuberant in the photos. It’s her birthday and her new airplane is officially hers. It’s also possible that on another day she and Mantz took the airplane somewhere, but I don’t think Mantz was yet checked out in the airplane. McLeod goes with her to San Francisco on the August 2, not Mantz.
If we can find a photo of what the airport in Las Vegas looked like in 1936 we may be able to see that dumpy little hangar or find that mountain in the background.