TIGHAR
Amelia Earhart Search Forum => General discussion => Topic started by: Ric Gillespie on February 05, 2016, 10:41:08 AM
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We're trying to find documentation for a visit Earhart made to the East Coast in November 1936. She supposedly flew the Electra to Purdue and from there to Hadley Field, New Jersey where Bell Laboratories and Western Electric worked on the radios on or about November 20th or 21st. We suspect, but we cannot yet prove, that the dorsal vee antenna was installed by Bell Labs/Western Electric at this time.
We know the airplane was at Roosevelt Field, Garden City, Long Island where it was inspected by the Bureau of Air Commerce on November 27. (Copy of the inspection report attached.)
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I have a contact at the NJ Aviation Hall of Fame Museum, my old flying club instructor, and I'll ping him with this question.
http://www.njahof.org (http://www.njahof.org)
Andrew
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Quick response from AHOF in NJ
<<<<
Andrew;
Nice hearing from you. Amelia was at Teterboro a number of times and I'm surprised she would use Hadley for the maintenance. Bell Labs was in Murray Hill and Western Electric in Newark, (both clients of mine). I'll research at AHOF; just give me a few days since I'm committed to a bunch of things. I enjoy reading about your exploits!
Best, Steve
>>>>>
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According to the New York Times, (Social News page 25, November 11, 1936):
"Miss Amelia Earhart, the aviator, is to address a company of General Electric engineers tomorrow night at Pittsfield [Massachusetts]. At her request a dinner arranged in her honor at the Wendell Hotel was canceled."
An article from November 15, 1936 declared Earhart was "on a lecture tour" but didn't say where.
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AE was at 2 West 45th Street New York City on November 10 1936 according to aletter she sent FDR, see this link
http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/daybyday/resource/november-1936/
On November 7 she attended the Notre Dame- Navy game in Baltimore
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2009-11-15/news/0911140057_1_amelia-earhart-female-pilots-flight
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AE was at 2 West 45th Street New York City on November 10 1936
A similar address appears on the March 23, 1936 purchase order for the Electra.
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I have been able to find several businesses listed for 2 west 45th street from the 20s through the 40s ( it was an office building with many tenants), the list includes a couple of publishers.
The 50 west 45th Street address was probably a hotel, there is no 50 west today (according to google street view) but I found a post card from the 1970s on eBay at that address for the Hotel Seymour.
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I wonder if Putnam had offices at 2 West 45th. A hotel (Hotel Seymour?) base of business operations makes sense for 50 West 45th. AE and GP were living in North Hollywood, CA in 1936. Putnam still had the house in Rye, NY but Rye is well outside the city.
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Amelia spent some of that November sitting for a portrait. There is a letter in the Purdue archive from illustrator Neysa Mcmein dated Nov 25 (no year) , the letter says the drawing of AE has been accepted by McCalls so she will not have to sit anymore, since Mcmein was based in New York and the sketch appeared on the cover of the May 1937 McCalls I think it is a safe bet to date this to Nov 1936.
The note also mentions AE lending her a pin and a promise to return it the following Monday afternoon ( Nov 30)
http://earchives.lib.purdue.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/earhart/id/937/rec/123
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Various newspaper reports place her in Syracuse, New York, on Saturday, November 14. After that:
MISS EARHART BACK AT WORK
LAFAYETTE, Ind., Nov. 19.—(UP.)—Amelia Earhart was back at the controls of her "Flying Laboratory" today after concluding an extensive lecture tour. Miss Earhart will take the plane to South Bend later this week to confer with Vincent Bendix, president of the Bendix Aviation corporation, concerning a new "homing" instrument and other equipment. Later she will fly to New York for adjustments to the plane's radio apparatus, after which she will head for the west coast. She will make a brief stop at Purdue, where she is a member of the faculty, en route west. (The Hammond [Indiana] Times, Thursday, November 19, 1936)
PERSONALS
Miss Maxine Lerch, 1325 George street, has returned from South Bend where she visited with relatives and met Ruckins "Bo" McKneely, Amelia Earhart's mechanic. Miss Earhart and her husband, George Putnam, guests of Vincent Bendlx at the Northwestern-Notre Dame football game, posed by their plane for snapshots taken by Miss Lerch before they took off for New York Sunday. (Logansport [Indiana] Pharos-Tribune, Wednesday, November 25, 1936)
AMELIA EARHART ON FLIGHT WESTWARD
(Associated Press Leased Wire) NEW YORK, Dec. 5.-Amelia Earhart left Roosevelt Field today for Burbank, after denying that she had any plans for a major flight. She was flying her twin-engined plane, "The Flying Laboratory," and was accompanied by Mrs Floyd Odhum, the former Jacqueline Cochran, aviator, and by a mechanic. Miss Earhart said they planned a leisurely flight to the coast. (The Bakersfield [California] Californian, Saturday, December 5, 1936) [Other articles published on December 6 specifically name the mechanic, R.D. McKneely]
I don't see anything in the on-line newspaper archives about a stop at Purdue on the way back from New York. She was in St. Louis on December 8, Amarillo on December 9 and Burbank on December 10.
Dan Brown, #2408
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AE with Vincent Bendix (I thinks it's Bendix) at South Bend Airport from:
http://flysbn.com/sbn/history/
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AE with Vincent Bendix (I thinks it's Bendix) at South Bend Airport from:
That's actually Bendix PR man Herbert Sharlock. The photo was taken on or about November 23.
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MISS EARHART BACK AT WORK
LAFAYETTE, Ind., Nov. 19.—(UP.)—Amelia Earhart was back at the controls of her "Flying Laboratory" today after concluding an extensive lecture tour. Miss Earhart will take the plane to South Bend later this week to confer with Vincent Bendix, president of the Bendix Aviation corporation, concerning a new "homing" instrument and other equipment.
Great work Dan. Later events had caused me to suspect a meeting with Vince Bendix about a new product he was about to introduce.
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Tom King has already identified those 45th street addresses in his blog
"They were at GP Putnam and Sons, 2 W. 45th street - corner of 5th avenue. There was a hotel at 50 W. 45th, the Seymour where AE got telegrams sent to her - Apparently they maintained a suite there as well. (NOTE: there's a Guest Quarters Hotel at 40 W. 45th, which looks like it's an old building, and there are pix of it)."
http://earhartresearch.blogspot.ca/2009/01/background-info-gp-and-fred-noonan.html
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Tom King has already identified those 45th street addresses in his blog
That 2009 entry is cited from "Wikipedia and other sources."
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Key question: In his report on what he thought happened to Earhart (see The Hooven Report (http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Documents/Hooven_Report/HoovenReport.html)), Fred Hooven said:
"I met Miss Earhart for lunch at Wright Field in the summer of 1936. She was accompanied by a younger woman flyer, quite unknown at the time, Jacqueline Cochran."
Hooven wrote his report in 1982, 46 years after the event he described. It is difficult to place Earhart and Jackie Cochrane at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio any time in the "summer of 1936." As Dan Brown cited, Earhart and Cochrane flew the Electra from New York back to Burbank "by a leisurely route" in early December 1937. The Hooven Radio Compass was already in installed when Earhart stopped in South Bend, IN on the way to New York on November 22-23, 1936.
So when did Hooven meet with Earhart and when was the Hooven Radio Compass installed? And what was the new homing device Earhart and Bendix discussed during her visit to South Bend?
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The homing device from Bendix was likely from its recent acquisition of Radio Research as a basis for the Bendix Radio division that formed in 1937.
"Radio Research, in particular, had by this time developed a wide range of unusual applications in the field of military communications equipment. Such items as the crystal frequency indicator, radio direction finders, later to be made famous, installations of remote controls for the convenience of pilots, setting up of interphone systems, and a great variety of then revolutionary devices for aviation purposes, were being or had already been developed and used."http://www.bendixradiofoundation.com/hist_early.htm
"In 1936, the Bendix Radio Corp. was formed as a result of the sale of an interest in the Radio Research Company to the Bendix Aviation Corporation. As a fully owned subsidiary of Bendix Aviation Corp., Radio Research was joined by the W. P. Hilliard Co., the Jenkins & Adair Corporation and Industrial Instruments Inc., all of Chicago, and the Radio Products Co., of Dayton, Ohio.
Initially, the Bendix Radio plant was placed in Chicago where the majority of the acquired firms were already located nearby. Chicago was also closer to the Aircraft Radio Labs at Wright Field with which the new corporation had significant established business through its component companies. Since Radio Research was already set up in Washington, close to the Naval Research Laboratories as well as the government procurement agencies, the Washington factory was maintained and functioned actively both as a research and production center. In short order, the demands on research and production became too heavy for the new company’s Washington plant and it was moved to a former General Motors plant located at 920 East Fort Avenue in Baltimore in November of 1937."
http://www.microwavejournal.com/articles/11239-history-of-nrl-bendix-and-westinghouse-in-maryland
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That 2009 entry is cited from "Wikipedia and other sources."
(http://i1297.photobucket.com/albums/ag36/thespiessfamily/20150825-00100001_zps0swr1o2g.jpg)
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That 2009 entry is cited from "Wikipedia and other sources."
(http://goo.gl/5425wX)
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That's better. Thanks Marty.
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That's better. Thanks Marty.
You're welcome.
There is lots more online about the Putnam Building (https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=%22putnam%20building%22%20west%2045%20street%20new%20york), which seems to have been a three-building complex (2-4-6 West 45th).
Wikimapia still identifies 2 West 45th as the "Putnam Building." (http://wikimapia.org/26366745/Putnam-Building)
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Lot's of good research on this thread. You guys are awesome.
To summarize, here's what November 1936 looks like so far:
Sat., Nov. 7
AE is on the east coast. The airplane is in Burbank. She attends the Notre Dame - Navy football game in Baltimore.
Tues., Nov 10
AE writes a letter to FDR from the Putnam Building in Manhattan.
Thur. Nov. 12
AE does a speaking gig in Pittsfield, MA.
Sat., Nov. 14
AE does a speaking gig in Syracuse, NY
Thur., Nov. 19
AE has returned to the west coast after "an extensive lecture tour" and leaves Burbank with GP and Bo to fly the Electra to New York "for adjustments to the plane's radio apparatus." On the way, they'll stop in South Bend, IN for a meeting with Vince Bendix.
Fri., Nov. 20 or Sat. Nov. 21
AE, GP and Bo arrive South Bend.
Sat. Nov. 21 or Sun. Nov. 22
AE attends Northwestern - Notre Dame football game with Vince Bendix.
Mon., Nov. 23
AE and company fly the Electra to New York. In "The Mystery Solved," Elgen Long wrote (page 60) that Earhart was in South Bend to seek sponsorship from Bendix and came away with "a promise of $5,000 and some new Bendix aircraft radio equipment." Unfortunately, no source is cited.
Wed. Nov., 25
AE has been in New York sitting for a portrait that will appear in McCall's magazine.
Fri., Nov. 27
The airplane is inspected by the Bureau of Air Commerce at Roosevelt Field, Garden City, NY
Sat., Dec. 5
Earhart leaves New York to begin a "leisurely flight" back to Burbank accompanied by Jacki Cochrane. We don't (yet) know whether the trip included a stop at Purdue. Such a visit would logically have been on or about Dec. 6 or 7. A photo of the plane anytime during the trip back to Burbank would be important. The dorsal vee antenna does not seem to be present when she stops in South Bend. Was it added in New York?
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So the airplane is in New York from Monday, November 23 until Saturday, December 5. - 13 days. It seems likely that whatever "adjustments" were made were done in the three days (24th, 25th, 26th) before the airplane was inspected on Friday, November 27.
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The closest to Dayton that AE appears in the on-line newspaper archives for 1936 is that she spoke in Hamilton, Ohio (40 miles from Dayton) on Monday, March 23, 1936. She traveled on from there by car to Cincinnati. (Hamilton [Ohio] Journal and Daily News, Tuesday, March 24, 1936). No details on who else was traveling with her at the time.
Dan Brown, #2408
Update:
WOMAN FLIERS SEEKING EXCITEMENT-KNOWLEDGE (Wichita [Wichita Falls, TX] Daily Times, Sunday, December 6, 1936)
NEW YORK, Dec. 5. (US)-[Excerpt:] "Miss Earhart is off on a leisurely flight to Burbank. Calif., in her flying laboratory, as she calls her plane. She is accompanied by a copilot, Mrs. Floyd Odlum, and Mechanic R. D. McNeely. She plans to stop over a day or two in Dayton, Ohio." This supports the 99s newsletter that Matt Revington linked.
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A note in the Ninetynines newsletter for January 1937, no exact date, although it comes right after a mention of something that happened December 2, 1936, nothing new except stopping at Dayton instead of Purdue Could this have been the time Hooven met Earhart and Cochrane together in Dayton, big difference between December and summer but recollection 46 years later can be confused .
"Amelia Earhart Putnam and Jacqueline Cochran Odlum left Roosevelt Field in Amelia's Lockheed Electra for Dayton, Ohio. After having the Bendix Radio Compass in the ship checked at Dayton, they will proceed to the West Coast"
http://www.ninety-nines.org/pdf/newsmagazine/193701.pdf
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We have a bit of a mystery. Photos show that the Hooven Radio Compass is not on the airplane at the time of the Bendix Race in early September. On September 20 AE and the Electra are at Purdue but the co-eds standing on the wing block our view of the top of the fuselage so we don't know whether the Radio Compass is there yet. We know it's there by the time the airplane is inspected on Nov. 27 because it's mentioned in the paperwork.
Hooven is based in Dayton. At some time between the end of the Bendix race in September and the trip to New York in late November the Radio Compass gets installed. It seems like that must have happened in Dayton but we don't have any record of the plane being in Dayton during that time. Dayton is only about an hour's flight from Lafayette, IN (Purdue) in the Electra.
On the way back from New York, Amelia and Jackie stop in Dayton to get the Radio Compass checked. Was it not working right or was this a routine check as part of the preparations for the world flight? Bear in mind that, at this time Earhart was still planning on doing the world flight solo.
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Take this one with a grain of salt: from
http://hixnews.com/0905/newsletter.htm
"It is an extremely good resolution picture of Roosevelt Raceway during a Vanderbilt race. No, this is not a horse track but an automobile track and no, it is not located on the same site as the Roosevelt Raceway Trotter track was, although close. The date is likely 10/12/1936 as the picture indicates. A blow up reveals cars from that era and a Lockheed Electra similar to Amelia Earhart's at the time parked at Roosevelt airfield in the lower right. Amelia did frequent the area before her disappearance in 1937, but that is research for another day. "
What was posted on the site was not a extremely good jpg, think I can make out the plane he is talking about but when I blow it up all I get is pixels,
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This photo from the purdue archive from the same set with the coeds shows pretty clearly that the radio compass was not there on Sept 20/21
http://earchives.lib.purdue.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/epurdue/id/393/rec/23
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There maybe footage of the electra from later in December 1936 at this link, from a search for a plane lost near Salt Lake City in mid December :
https://www.wpafilmlibrary.com/videos/75951
"Shaky, jumpy, rolling, light in contrast and imagery Amelia Earhart Putnam, famous aviatrix and Trans-Atlantic flier, volunteers her aid in the long, vain search for a missing airliner with seven persons on board. The Birdwoman joins hundreds of others seeking the craft."
Edit: it appears that Earhart and Mantz did not use the Electra on this search
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Edit: it appears that Earhart and Mantz did not use the Electra on this search
That's a Lockheed Sirius.
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At some time between the end of the Bendix race in September and the trip to New York in late November the Radio Compass gets installed. It seems like that must have happened in Dayton but we don't have any record of the plane being in Dayton during that time. Dayton is only about an hour's flight from Lafayette, IN (Purdue) in the Electra.
TIGHAR member Bill Davenport points out that according to Hooven's report:
"The improved sensitivity made it possible to use a much smaller loop than the older device, and in Fig. 2 may be seen the smaller, streamlined housing of the newer loop as it appeared when installed on the Earhart plane in October, 1936. Miss Earhart did not realize that this streamlined loop reduced air resistance to an extent that would have saved several times the five gallons of fuel that she had added by removing the radio compass and replacing it with the older device."
But Hooven also says:
"I met Miss Earhart for lunch at Wright Field in the summer of 1936. She was accompanied by a younger woman flyer, quite unknown at the time, Jacqueline Cochran."
As we've seen, the meeting with Earhart and Cochrane was in December, not the summer, of 1936 so Hooven's recollection was less than perfect (as recollections often are). Is his October date for the installation accurate? It makes sense, but I'd rather have independent contemporaneous documentation - a reliably dated photo, a letter, or a newspaper clipping.
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I have found that Earhart was around the midwest during October:
1) at a Roosevelt campaign event on Sept 29 in Syracuse NY
http://idnc.library.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/illinois?a=d&d=DIL19360930.2.1&srpos=9&e=------193-en-20--1--txt-txIN-earhart----1936--
2) at another Roosevelt event on October 24 in Chicago
http://idnc.library.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/illinois?a=d&d=DIL19361025.2.44&srpos=4&e=------193-en-20--1--txt-txIN-earhart----1936--
3) Gave a talk at Lake Erie College ( outside of Cleveland) on October 29
http://www.ninety-nines.org/pdf/newsmagazine/193612.pdf
Also gave at talk in Moline Il in October but I can't find the exact date
http://www.help-fast.com/isbn-find-book-title/Quad-City-International-Airport-Images-of-Aviation_9780738583716
None of these mentions whether she flew the Electra or if it was still in Burbank
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I have found that Earhart was around the midwest during October:
1) at a Roosevelt campaign event on Sept 29 in Syracuse NY
http://idnc.library.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/illinois?a=d&d=DIL19360930.2.1&srpos=9&e=------193-en-20--1--txt-txIN-earhart----1936--
2) at another Roosevelt event on October 24 in Chicago
http://idnc.library.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/illinois?a=d&d=DIL19361025.2.44&srpos=4&e=------193-en-20--1--txt-txIN-earhart----1936--
3) Gave a talk at Lake Erie College ( outside of Cleveland) on October 29
http://www.ninety-nines.org/pdf/newsmagazine/193612.pdf
Also gave at talk in Moline Il in October but I can't find the exact date
http://www.help-fast.com/isbn-find-book-title/Quad-City-International-Airport-Images-of-Aviation_9780738583716
None of these mentions whether she flew the Electra or if it was still in Burbank
Since the movie "Love on the Run" discussed in another thread was filmed in the fall of '36, I'm betting it was still in Burbank. Wonder if AE knew her new airplane was being horsed around the ramp for a movie?
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I have found that Earhart was around the midwest during October:
That sounds like a lecture tour by car. Earhart did not use the Electra for transportation on lecture tours. Way too expensive and subject to weather delays that would mess up her speaking schedule. Hooven's comment about meeting Earhart and Cochrane seems to suggest that it was the first time he had met her, and we know that was in December. I wonder if Mantz or someone from Lockheed flew the plane to Dayton in October for the installation of the Radio Compass.
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That's a Lockheed Sirius.
This looks like the Sirius in question. It belonged to Paul Mantz (no surprise).
From http://www.aerovintage.com/mantz_photo1.htm
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I wonder if Mantz or someone from Lockheed flew the plane to Dayton in October for the installation of the Radio Compass.
Has anyone ever looked at Mantz's pilot logs?
He probably had a LOT of them over his career, but if anyone kept them, you might be able to half-answer the question.
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AE speaking engagements during October, 1936 (in the on-line newspaper archive):
October 2: scheduled for a radio interview, "Magazine of the Air" on WBBM, Chicago, IL
October 8: Petosky, MI (crossed on ferry by car, "cream-colored Cord")
October 9: Manitowoc/Wausau/Menasha, WI
October 12 (approx.): Ottumwa, IA
October 14: LaSalle, IL
October 15/16: Quincy, IL
October 17: Columbia, MO (by car)
October 21: Edwardsville, IL
October 22: Tipton/Ft. Wayne/Bloomington, IN (by car)
October 26: Kenosha, WI
October 28/30: Oak Park, IL
Dan Brown, #2408
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and no Interstates.
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I'm sure that you're right that she travelled between the talks and campaign events by car but we know the Electra was at Purdue Sept 20-21 and there is an article mentioning her at the Roosevelt event in Syracuse NY on Sept 29 and then all of her talks right through Oct that Dan found.
Do we know for sure that the Electra went back to Burbank after leaving Purdue? If so it seems unlikely that AE went with it unless she caught a commercial flight back to NY within a couple of days. That leaves the possibility of someone like Mantz flying it back to Burbank and then flying it to Dayton sometime in October or that it was left in in the east (that fuzzy picture of what might be an Electra at Roosevelt field in early October) and was moved to Dayton by AE (or someone else) sometime in October where the compass was installed while she drove around the Midwest giving lectures.
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Do we know for sure that the Electra went back to Burbank after leaving Purdue?
No. The Bendix Race ended in Los Angeles so we know the plane was back in California at that time (Can we get the dates of the Bendix Cross country Race of 1936?)
She obviously then flew the plane back east to Purdue by September 20 and within a week or two apprently set off by car for her lecture tour. It's entirely possible that the plane remained at Purdue during that time.
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The Bendix Race finished on Sept 4 in LA.
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The Bendix Race finished on Sept 4 in LA.
The start was from Floyd Bennett Field in NY - on Sept 2 or Sept 3?
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This page says AE flew to the New York Democratic state convention in Syracuse that was held in the last week of September 1936, no details
http://cnyhistory.org/press/2016-01-10-PS-Earhart.pdf
So likely Purdue to Syracuse. The convention ended Sept 29 or 30th, according to Dan's list above she had to give a radio interview to a Chicago station on Oct 2, I don't know if that meant she had to be in Chicago or could do it remotely.
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Susan Butler's "East to the Dawn" biography of AE has the race kicking off at 0137L on 4 Sep 36. AE and her co-pilot Helen Richey were off at 0247L. AE and Helen came in fifth. The winning time by Louise Thaden and Blanche Noyes was 14:55, a record that stood for two years.
The race probably finished sometime on 5 Sep. (pages 346-48).
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Susan Butler's "East to the Dawn" biography of AE has the race kicking off at 0137L on 4 Sep 36.
Butler mentions the times but not the date. She doesn't cite any of it. The race was apparently a one-day event, no overnight, so Sept 4 for the start and finish (maybe after midnight) seems to be right.
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My copy has a date also.
Butler mentions Don Dwiggins' book, "They Flew the Bendix Race" at the beginning of the section. I presume she's paraphrasing from his book, as there are no footnotes in this section. In the Notes section for that chapter Butler cites Louise Thaden, "High, Wide, and Frightened", p 184 and Blanche Noyes, Columbia, OH, p. 22. (Butler, p. 437)
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My copy has a date also.
My bad. The date is there.
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The Bendix Race finished on Sept 4 in LA.
The start was from Floyd Bennett Field in NY - on Sept 2 or Sept 3?
Lot of good information in these documents; http://dmairfield.com/Collections/Chouree_Collection/Documents/1936_NAR_Program.pdf http://scholarworks.csun.edu/bitstream/handle/10211.3/121651/AlgarJames1978.pdf?sequence=1
I don't have the time to digest most of the contents right now.....Matt or anyone else, if you have the time they may produce some tidbits.
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Lot of good information in these documents;
It's the program for the 1936 National Air Races. Great way to steep yourself in the context of the times. Makes you wish you could be there.
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MISS EARHART BACK AT WORK
LAFAYETTE, Ind., Nov. 19.—(UP.)—Amelia Earhart was back at the controls of her "Flying Laboratory" today after concluding an extensive lecture tour. Miss Earhart will take the plane to South Bend later this week to confer with Vincent Bendix, president of the Bendix Aviation corporation, concerning a new "homing" instrument and other equipment.... (The Hammond [Indiana] Times, Thursday, November 19, 1936)
This may be important. She already has a proven, easy-to-use Bendix "homing" instrument (the Bendix/Hooven Radio Compass) on the airplane. What new piece of equipment is she conferring with Vince Bendix about? My suspicion: Bendix wants her to swap out the Hooven Radio Compass for the Bendix RDF developed for the Navy and that he plans to soon introduce for commercial use. He needs publicity for the new RDF. The Hooven Radio Compass already got great publicity when it was used in September on the Vultee V1-A "Lady Peace" flown by Dick Merrill/Harry Richman on the first round-trip transatlantic crossing.
THAT is why, in late February/early March 1937, the Hooven unit goes away and is replaced by the now iconic loop antenna.
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We're trying to find documentation for a visit Earhart made to the East Coast in November 1936. She supposedly flew the Electra to Purdue and from there to Hadley Field, New Jersey where Bell Laboratories and Western Electric worked on the radios on or about November 20th or 21st. We suspect, but we cannot yet prove, that the dorsal vee antenna was installed by Bell Labs/Western Electric at this time.
We know the airplane was at Roosevelt Field, Garden City, Long Island where it was inspected by the Bureau of Air Commerce on November 27. (Copy of the inspection report attached.)
At the start of this thread Ric asked about when the dorsal vee antenna was installed by Bell Labs or Western Electric from the picture taken in South Bend on or about Nov 23, 1936 the mast for that antenna does not appear to be there. The second picture dated as being in December 1936 in Burbank the mast and antenna is clearly there.
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I think we have this pinned down. The dorsal vee seems to have been installed during Earhart's visit to the east coast in November 1936. She leaves
Burbank on Nov. 19. On Nov. 22 she's in South Bend, IN attending a Notre Dame football game with Vince Bendix. It was during that visit that the South Bend photo was taken. No dorsal vee. On Nov. 25 she is in New York. The airplane is at Hadley Field, NJ. for work by Bell Labs/Western Electric. We think this is when the dorsal vee is installed. On Nov. 27 the airplane is Garden City, NY being inspected by the Bureau of Air Commerce. On Dec. 5, AE and Jackie Cochrane head back west.
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AE with Vincent Bendix (I thinks it's Bendix) at South Bend Airport from:
http://flysbn.com/sbn/history/ (http://flysbn.com/sbn/history/)
We received in email today promoting the new website for South Bend International Airport:
https://www.south-bend-airport.com/ (https://www.south-bend-airport.com/)
The history page with the photo of AE on the field in 1936 does not seem to be on the new version of the website.