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[Diego Vásquez]

.... Here again is a professionally scaled overlay of the artifact on the patch....

Ric - Forgive me for asking what I believe to be a question whose answer is obvious, but I just want to make sure that I am interpreting this overlay correctly.  In this overlay, has 22V1 been lined up so that its known rivet lines are lined up with the putative rivet lines that Mr. Glickman sees on the Miami patch photo?  I assume this must be the case because I can't figure out any other way to overlay the photos that would make sense, but I just wanted to confirm that I am getting it right.  Thank you.

Diego V.

[Ric Gillespie]

Ric - Forgive me for asking what I believe to be a question whose answer is obvious, but I just want to make sure that I am interpreting this overlay correctly.  In this overlay, has 22V1 been lined up so that its known rivet lines are lined up with the putative rivet lines that Mr. Glickman sees on the Miami patch photo?  I assume this must be the case because I can't figure out any other way to overlay the photos that would make sense, but I just wanted to confirm that I am getting it right.  Thank you.

No Diego.  The overlay has been lined up so that the bottom row of staggered rivet holes lines up with the staggered row of rivets on the aircraft and the lower right edge of the artifact that we know failed from metal fatigue after cycling back and forth against a rigid underlying structure lines up with the underlying structure to which the patch was riveted.  When you place the artifact that way the lines of rivet holes on the artifact happen to align with the discernible rivet lines on the patch. 

[Ric Gillespie]

On Tuesday, Jeff Glickman, Aris Scarla and I spent a marvelous morning at Wichita Air Services getting up close and personal with Lockheed 10A c/n 1091.  Being able to see both the exterior and interior surfaces in the area where the window, and later patch, were installed on c/n 1055 it became obvious where the edges had to be. With the outline carefully taped off we could hold up the artifact and see how it fit.  The answer is - perfectly.  We were able to answer many, but not all, of the questions that have been bugging us. It will take a day or two to put together a summary of what we learned but I know that everybody is eager to know so I'll get on that right away.

Here's a photo of me briefing the guys who have been working on this airplane for two years.  You can see more photos on the Wichita Air Services Facebook page.

[Krystal McGinty-Carter]

This is so exciting!!!

Im assuming lots of photos were taken?  Cant wait for the full report!

[Mark Appel]

It's really enjoyable to watch the progress of the effort to ID this artifact move through distinct phases of investigation, from "what the hell is that?" to "probably nothing" to "maybe it is something" to "perplexing and intriguing" to "kinda hard not to get excited..."

Great work. Quite the 'A' Team in Wichita.

[Randy Conrad]

Loved the pictures Ric!!!! Glad you guys made the trip!!! This is starting to get really exciting now! Anyway, wanted to touch base on one of the photos that the Wichita Air Service had on their Facebook page. I'm really baffled to find out exactly what this thing is. Anyway, it shows an accordian style device that looks like it could open up wide and used for some type of supporting device. But not sure! Let me know...Thanks!!!!

[Greg Daspit]

I'm really baffled to find out exactly what this thing is. Anyway, it shows an accordian style device that looks like it could open up wide and used for some type of supporting device. But not sure! Let me know...Thanks!!!!

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[Greg Daspit]

Those are great pictures on the Wichita Air Services Facebook page. Nice to see the different stages of their work.  Hats off to them in helping test 2-2-V-1.
I'm looking forward to reading the summary.

[Gus Rubio]

With the outline carefully taped off we could hold up the artifact and see how it fit.  The answer is - perfectly.

This gave me chills, I exaggerate not.  Wonderful to hear, looking forward to more. 

[JNev]

I am very glad to hear of a productive trip to Wichita by Ric, Jeff G and Aris, and am looking forward to the report. 

Short of having c/n 1055 with actual window, etc. to work with, I don't know how you could find a better working model or better support than the folks at WASI.  Many thanks to them for working with TIGHAR.

Here's hoping for great results!

[Ric Gillespie]

I don't know how you could find a better working model or better support than the folks at WASI.  Many thanks to them for working with TIGHAR.

Amen to that.  We ended up "unrestoring" a good bit of their airplane to get at what we needed to see.

[Monty Fowler]

And Aris lending his expertise to the trip ... wow. It shows that TIGHAR's scientific and deliberate approach attracts the best possible minds to devote to this mystery.

LTM,
Monty Fowler, TIGHAR No. 2189ECSP

[Diego Vásquez]

No Diego.  The overlay has been lined up so that the bottom row of staggered rivet holes lines up with the staggered row of rivets on the aircraft and the lower right edge of the artifact that we know failed from metal fatigue after cycling back and forth against a rigid underlying structure lines up with the underlying structure to which the patch was riveted.  When you place the artifact that way the lines of rivet holes on the artifact happen to align with the discernible rivet lines on the patch.

Ric - Thank you for the info.

Diego

[Steve Lee]

Ric, 

What book is this photo taken from?

http://tighar.org/smf/index.php/topic,1490.msg33955.html#msg33955

[Ric Gillespie]

What book is this photo taken from?

Elgen Long's "Amelia Earhart - The Mystery Solved".