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[Ric Gillespie]

Could it be a shelter of some sort?

That's seems like as good a hypothesis as any.  One thing we know about the airplane-shaped thing is that it's reflective value is different from the vegetation, so it would appear to be something other than just an oddly shaped clump of bushes.  If it's a shelter, what is it made of?  As far as we know, there were no big tarps aboard the airplane.  There were "engine covers" in the Luke Field inventory but it dosn't seem like they would be that big.

[Tim Collins]

Ric -

I've been looking at the fotos you posted of the "airplane-shaped thing" and I think your arrow in the second image isn't pointing to the same feature that is seen in the first image. It's a bit too high in the frame. Line up the bushes (?) on the beach. It should be directly inland from the biggest bush in the darker area next to the beach (how's that for directions!) which would be a bit lower in the frame. But even then that's not where I see the original airplane-shaped thing, I see it a bit lower even, facing the original direction.
 
Ok enough already, i give up. I'm starting to see bunnies everywhere.

[Hal Banks]

Could it be the lifeboats' sails and a scavenged tarp as described by Capt. Hamer in his statement:

"The boats’ sails were used to make a tent to keep out the rain but when they became saturated rain began to come through making life fairly miserable."

and here:

"A more suitable site was selected and parties told off for various jobs. One party under the Second Officer was told off to obtain water, another for cocoanuts and the remainder to build a shelter. The lifeboat axes came in very useful for this. Small trees were cut down, trimmed and lashed between four large trees in the form of a square. A trellis of smaller trees and branches was formed on top and over this the two sails were spread. Around three sides a barricade was made to keep out the crabs, leaving the lee side open for the fire, which was soon got under way. The ground was cleared of twigs etc., and then covered with leaves over which was placed a couple of blankets and old canvas which had been washed ashore."

Here's a link:

http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Documents/Norwich_City/NorwichCity3.html#4

[Hal Banks]

I agree it's most likely not the Norwich survivors camp.  I'm suggesting it could be AE's Camp Zero, re-using the Norwich's lifeboat sails and the canvas as her own shelter.

[Hal Banks]

That's a good question.  Maybe the NZ party interpreted it as the Norwich camp given the materials used.  As I understand it, they were on the island for 10 weeks busy surveying the northwest end of the island for a potential airstrip.  That seems like a lot of time to find and catalogue other items on the island as well.  I need to reread their report.

[Greg Daspit]

I agree salvaged supplies from the Norwich City mixed with AE supplies may have caused it to be confused by survey crews as related to the Norwich City.
Survey crews did not know to look for AE.
Note the described sails and old canvas appear to be missing in the picture of the Norwich City shelter.
The Norwich City crew knew rescue was on the way and made their camp deep in the trees out of the rain
AE may have had a different situation and it may have made sense for AE to move some N.C shelter materials closer to the open so as to be ready to signal for help.
That possible trail is in the direction where one may go from the hypothesized camp zero (close to the plane when it was still on the reef) to salvage NC wreck debris as well as to salvage any supplies that may have washed up from the plane after it went over.

[Hal Banks]

That's right, they did photograph it but I've always assumed it was the second NC camp.  Good question.

[richie conroy]

the following image is off NC survivors camp, By the reflection of certain objects means the site was uncovered, Now bare in mind a few men struggled to erect a rain cover due to battering from wind, Would Ameila and fred be able to erect a canvas sail on there own ?

Am a window installer i build \ replace conservatory's regularly so if it starts raining and the customer has carpet or wooden flooring we have to cover roof with tarpaulin which is a lot lighter than a canvas sail, Yet for the customer it must be like watching a clip from laurel and hardy   

So i would rule out it being camp zero, My honest opinion is it's a flaw but foreign matter is underneath the negative and not above it

[Hal Banks]

I guess that would all depend on AE and FN's condition and whether it was raining and/or windy when the operation was performed. 

[richie conroy]

Well no because both Amelia and Fred fresh as daisy's would not in my opinion be able to build such a sturdy shelter, Maybe rather than it being a shelter they piled tree's on tree's or bushes to build a defense wall against wind and by coincidence the wall finished level with surrounding bush to give off the shelter like properties ?

More to the point on looking for a place to land Amelia and Fred would have been aware of,  Being noticed from a certain altitude of searching planes If you view the over flight by Ric, It took Ric to point out people on shore for us to see them?

A human at the height over flight search was conducted you may be mistaken to be a floating stick in all honesty, However if Amelia or Fred attached some branches\brushes  to their  back and ran out It would be 100% chance of being spotted out of curiosity alone

[Ric Gillespie]

Glickman looked vey carefully at both the airplane shaped thingy and the trail.  They are not flaws.
Would a sail survive eight years?  Gallagher found no clothes with the bones after only three years.

[Ric Gillespie]

Ya gotta admit it's pretty crazy.  I was just noticing the similarity in the shape of the Harney Electra model in this photo of me and my Dad at a talk I gave at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome last summer and the "not-an-airplane" in the bushes in the 1938 photo.  It's a great lesson in how easy it is to see something that's not there.

[George Lam]

Ric, great comparison images.  It's really amazing how one can make out an engine, wing, fuselage, cockpit windows, and tapering nose cone in the 1938 photo,  but simply be fooled by illusion.

Ric -

I've been looking at the fotos you posted of the "airplane-shaped thing" and I think your arrow in the second image isn't pointing to the same feature that is seen in the first image. It's a bit too high in the frame. Line up the bushes (?) on the beach. It should be directly inland from the biggest bush in the darker area next to the beach (how's that for directions!) which would be a bit lower in the frame. But even then that's not where I see the original airplane-shaped thing, I see it a bit lower even, facing the original direction.
 
Ok enough already, i give up. I'm starting to see bunnies everywhere.

I noticed the same thing as Mr. Collins.  Thought I'd call out where I think the "not an airplane" blurred object may actually lie in the overhead image.

It's hard to tell how inland the "not an airplane" object is from the shallow image angle.  So I added a couple arrows pointing out where its location might be more likely.  I am no expert at deriving the location based on the other image, and I did only use the posted low-res jpegs, but here goes:

1) Red arrow indicates original callout by Ric/Jeff Glickman.
2) Green arrow indicates possible actual location of the "looks like, but not an airplane" object, facing same direction, it seems, as in the other image.
3) Blue arrow indicates possible other location for the object, closer to shore.  This is just me trying to "triangulate," in a sense, based on the other image.

Or it could lie somewhere in between the green and blue arrows. 

In the last image attachment, the first thing I noticed, besides the possible trail, is the two large mounds with dark tops, as indicated by the white small arrows.
I never saw a "plane" until someone called it out.  Mounds seemed very similar in size, shape, and shading, so thought it was interesting. 

[Monty Fowler]

Would a sail survive eight years?  Gallagher found no clothes with the bones after only three years.

Eight years? Untreated canvas in the harsh environment of Niku?

My guess - and it is only that - is that the untreated canvas of a sail would probably not survive. By untreated, I mean it did not have waterproofing of any kind, which it could not have because otherwise it wouldn't be able to be used as a sail, let alone be stowed in the cramped confines of a lifeboat.

As an argument to support that, I offer up the evidence at the titular "shoe site." When TIGHAR went back the second time to that site, to excavate its possible grave, they found the remains of a leather work glove Ric had left there the year before - and there wasn't much left of it at all. After only one year.

Now lifeboat covers, on the other hand, might survive, because they were both treated and, usually, painted. Or paint alone may have been the treatment in that era. Either way, something was applied to one side of the canvas to make it more durable.

I would guess that the engine covers for the Electra weren't treated, or if they were, it was with something like linseed oil on one side only. Otherwise they would have been too stiff to use. "Scotchguard" spray-on waterproofing hadn't been invented yet.

LTM, who tries to keep things covered,
Monty Fowler, TIGHAR No. 2189 CER

P.S. - the plane shape in the bushes looks like a P-47 to me, the early razorback version. But that is my WWII mental map at work.

[Irvine John Donald]

Sorry Monty. P47 first flew in 1941. Photo taken in 1938. Not a P47. Not a DC3. Not a DC2. No aircraft known to have crashed there. Likely not an aircraft but likely it's "Vegetitis". Very similar to "Coralitis".  A medical condition where lumps of coral are identified as real objects for no good reason.