American publisher and former
CQ editor Wayne Green makes repeated mention in his blog of a Bob Wemple:
In 1936 Bob Wemple, a good friend of my dad’s and Amelia's chief mechanic, came out to dinner at our house and explained that he had just outfitted her Lockheed with larger engines and extra gas tanks so she could, on her around-the-world flight make the hop from Lae, New Guinea, to Howland Island by way of Truk Island so she could take spy pictures of the Japanese installation there for President Roosevelt, who had earlier been the Secretary of the Navy. The Navy wanted to know what the Japanese were doing there. With the more powerful engines she would be able to make the trip to Howland Island via Truk in about the same time as she would have been able to do it flying direct with her standard engines. Bob said these pictures were the whole reason for her flight. There are immediate problems with some aspects of this statement; Ric has pointed out (
http://goo.gl/QGSEP) that in 1936, the plan was to fly from Howland to Lae, not Lae to Howland, for example.
I remained curious about this alleged Wemple, but hadn't been able to find hide nor hair of him.
Yesterday the fates relented, and I found a smallish trove of pictures, stories and genealogical entries relating to a Robert G. Wemple, who did indeed marry Miss Philadelphia 1928 as Wayne remembers, who was indeed a friend/colleague of Wayne's father (W. Sanger Green) at Central Airport, Camden, NJ, and who turns out to have had extensive aviation background, including work in aircraft design and aerial photography. (The details are in the "Government Surveillance Flight Theories" thread, so I'll avoid repeating them unless people would like all the Bob Wemple stuff in one place.)
Robert G. Wemple and Miss Philadelphia 1928, Florence Bogar (taken 1930)So who was this man? What was his connection, if any, to AE? Mr. Wayne Green strikes me as a very eccentric gentleman, and I, too, have taken his AE recollections with a grain of salt. But much of Green's Wemple story has now checked out.
I make no assumptions that Wemple modified or even worked on AE's aircraft, but I would like to find out more about this colorful and enigmatic character.
Here are the links to everything I've found on Bob Wemple--I apologize for the url thing, but haven't been able to make the hyperlinks function since rejoining the forum (any help appreciated).
Wayne Green's mention (one of several):
http://goo.gl/u17XIGenealogy and short bio:
http://goo.gl/OkIryWedding photo w/Miss Philadelphia:
http://goo.gl/046DkW. Sanger Green, Camden Airport General Mgr, in Wemple's wedding:
http://goo.gl/cbRyTWemple is Op Mgr of Camden Airport:
http://goo.gl/cbRyT (same as above)
Reports on CAA hearing:
http://goo.gl/PJHyQIn Roscoe Turner Papers:
http://goo.gl/Rvb3IMentioned as aerial survey pilot:
http://goo.gl/gG400I have to race outta here so won't be able to proofread this links before posting--will do so when I get home.