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[Ric Gillespie]

What have we seen - other than 2-2-V-1 itself, that supports the idea of off-setting members such as the conjectured vertical bracing (away from STA 307) and conjectured horizontal bracing (along the parallel rivet lines on 2-2-V-1)?

Indications of the possible presence of a vertical member in the false color imaging in the Darwin refueling photo.
That photo also shows apparent oil-canning distortion to the patch that corresponds to deformations in the artifact. Coincidences perhaps, but coincidences that add to a rather large pile of coincidences that support the hypothesis that 2-2-V-1 is the patch.

[Ted G Campbell]

All,

I keep coming back to the one nuance on the patch that may answer the question was it or was it not the window patch; and that is the strange rivet pattern at the bottom of the part in question (circled below).

You will note the rivet pattern of the two rivets to the left in the circled area and the extended distance to the third rivet to the right.

 Now look at the rivet spacing going on to the right of the patch.  It appears that the rivet spacing from left to right is fairly consistent until you get to the “in circle right hole” and thereafter the spacing seams to be consistent with the holes prior to the “in circle right hole”.

At last years meeting at Ric’s place I asked Jeff Glickman to take a look at this while he was looking at various pictures of the bird to see if he could detect this anomaly, I never heard nor read anything regarding the forgoing.  Have we found any thing in this regard?

Ted Campbell

[Ric Gillespie]

I keep coming back to the one nuance on the patch that may answer the question was it or was it not the window patch; and that is the strange rivet pattern at the bottom of the part in question (circled below).
...
At last years meeting at Ric’s place I asked Jeff Glickman to take a look at this while he was looking at various pictures of the bird to see if he could detect this anomaly, I never heard nor read anything regarding the forgoing.  Have we found any thing in this regard?

The "tab" and the unexplained irregularity in the rivet pitch is one of the most puzzling features of 2-2-V-1 but none of the photos of the aircraft are of sufficient resolution to discern individual rivets.

One possible explanation is that there was some structure on the inside of the aircraft that they had to go around when riveting the staggered double row along the bottom of the patch.  If so, the same structure should logically have been in the way when riveting the window coaming.  Unfortunately the only photo we have that shows the window in sufficient detail stops short of showing the area in question. 

[Diane James]

Some more newbie ramblings:

How much do we know about the stop in Miami in late May?  Am I correct that it was the Pan Am facility there that did work on her radios?  If so, do we believe the Pan Am shop is where  the patch on the window was made? Why do we think that?

I'm thinking Ric is likely right that the initial big window modification may have been made behind closed hanger doors in California before the trip, without the benefit of engineering studies. That sort of thing seems to fit the pattern of other corner-cutting that has been unearthed.  It's hard, though, to imagine the feds never taking an interest in such a visually obvious modification to the aircraft 

But more importantly for our quest, any maintenance done on the trip by a US flag-carrier airline such as Pan Am, would certainly have been carefully documented.  Hubby and I have a little Part 135 charter flight operation, and the feds watch our every move. 

I don't have a feel for how closely the FAA's predecessor in 1937 (Department of Commerce?) would have kept an eye on activities which today would be kept under a microscope, but the joking legends of the paperwork equaling the gross weight of an airplane go way way back in aviation lore. I can only imagine that Pan Am would have had some pretty close fed oversight on their shop activities, particularly when this wasn't just some routine big flying boat, this was arguably the most famous person in the world at that time, and she was standing right there asking for services.

Whether it was Pan Am or even if it was some other shop, any mechanic would have been aware that publicity would follow Amelia everywhere, and anything he did to her airplane was likely to be examined by press and feds and better have exacting proper documentation.

I'm thinking the patch was signed off as a non-structural window covering, but my point is I'm betting it was signed off.  There would have been an entry in the Lockheed's logbooks, and more importantly there would have been internal shop records. There is, or at least was, a paper trail.  Has research been done or is research happening in that direction?

[Ric Gillespie]

How much do we know about the stop in Miami in late May?

Quite a bit but not nearly enough.

  Am I correct that it was the Pan Am facility there that did work on her radios?

Pan Am technicians came from the Pan Am seaplane facility at Dinner Key (about half an hour away from Miami Municipal where the Electra was hangared) to work on Earhart's radio and autopilot.

  If so, do we believe the Pan Am shop is where  the patch on the window was made? Why do we think that?

There was no Pan Am shop at Miami Municipal.  The Electra was hangared with the FBO, "Karl Voelter Inc.  Sales – Service – School."  My guess is that the patch was fabricated and installed in the Voelter shop by Earhart's own mechanic, "Bo" McKneeley.

I'm thinking Ric is likely right that the initial big window modification may have been made behind closed hanger doors in California before the trip, without the benefit of engineering studies. That sort of thing seems to fit the pattern of other corner-cutting that has been unearthed.  It's hard, though, to imagine the feds never taking an interest in such a visually obvious modification to the aircraft 

During the time that Earhart's close friend Gene Vidal was Director of the Bureau of Air Commerce a blind eye was turned on many of Earhart's shenanigans. For example, she successfully dodged taking the required Radio Navigation portion of the Instrument Rating test.

But more importantly for our quest, any maintenance done on the trip by a US flag-carrier airline such as Pan Am, would certainly have been carefully documented.

I agree.  That's why I don't think Pan Am did the metal bending.

Whether it was Pan Am or even if it was some other shop, any mechanic would have been aware that publicity would follow Amelia everywhere, and anything he did to her airplane was likely to be examined by press and feds and better have exacting proper documentation.

The patch didn't appear on the airplane until, at the earliest, Sunday May 30.  Monday the 31st was Memorial Day.  Earhart was on her way to Puerto Rico at sunup on Tuesday, June 1.  How many feds work holiday weekends??  Nobody in the press seems to have even noticed the change in the airplane. Incredibly, the whole thing went unnoticed until we started asking questions about 2-2-V-1.

There is, or at least was, a paper trail.  Has research been done or is research happening in that direction?

We've looked. Nada.

[Tim Collins]

What's the status of the Glickman report on the photos as pertains to 22v1? Did I miss it somehow?

[Diane James]

This is Diane's current speculation about the genesis of 2-2-V-1, assuming it is in fact the window patch.

OK, let me be Bo, her mechanic, for a minute.

To the Karl Volter people I'm just some stranger surrounded by a bunch of VIPs, and they aren't going to let me root around blindly in their shop. So they have assigned some guy from their maintenance department to hang out with me and assist.

This mechanic is able to provide a clean new sheet of .032 Alclad, and most curiously, some thicker reinforcing strips with pre-drilled 3/32 holes at precise one-inch spacing.

As Bo, I could have made such things on the bench, and with the precision enabled by a drill-press and table made them quite accurately, but more likely they were pre-made, probably in a factory, and were laying around in Volter's inventory from some other job. It's entirely possible they were not even aircraft parts.

I, Bo, have the airplane right here with me, from which to take precisely accurate measurements. At the workbench I cut the patch's shape out of the sheet of raw Alclad.  I lay a narrow strip of aluminum as a vertical reinforcement, and trap it under the four rows of horizontal reinforcements.  The rivet spacing is precise because I'm able to drill the Alclad sheet through the pre-drilled holes in the strips.  I rivet the strips down, and then use brute force to bend the piece into an approximation of the fuselage shape.

Now the guy and I go rivet the pre-assembled window patch into place on the airframe. There is no need, and we make no attempt, to align the vertical reinforcement with the ring former. One of us holds the patch in place from the outside, and the other guy drills through an existing rivet hole in the airframe into and through the patch, and we hold it in place with a Cleco, and then do the same with all the other rivet holes.  We get it into position with the Clecos, and then rivet and buck the patch into permanent place, and go fill out the paperwork. Total billable time about two hours.

And this simple flat piece of .032 aluminum sheet passes through Nikumaroro to end up in TIGHAR's collection, with all these people fascinated about it.  I'm one of them.

[Randy Conrad]

Found this very interesting~~~




https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2206&dat=19821103&id=cLkmAAAAIBAJ&sjid=aAIGAAAAIBAJ&pg=6516,670165&hl=en

[Ric Gillespie]

What's the status of the Glickman report on the photos as pertains to 22v1? Did I miss it somehow?

Glickman's findings will be included in a lengthy update on 2-2-V-1 that I am writing for the next issue of TIGHAR's journal TIGHAR Tracks.  When I finish the piece I'll run it by Jeff for any corrections.  This TIGHAR Tracks will also include:
• new findings regarding "the anomaly."
• Guthrie Ford's post-loss message language study;
•  a response to Dr. Richard Wright's paper "The Nikumaroro bones identification controversy: First-hand examination versus evaluation by proxy — Amelia Earhart found or still missing?”;
• the first installment of TIGHAR's new book project: The Earhart Electra - Drawing Board to Disappearance;
• an update on the search for The White Bird.

We'll also be announcing some major changes to the TIGHAR website and a new membership campaign.  I'm hoping to get the writing finished this month.  When published, the journal will be mailed to all TIGHAR members in good standing.

[Bessel P Sybesma]

Googling Voelter also brings up this reference at http://www.historical-museum.org/collect/guide/vwz.htm
This definitely would sound as something interesting to have a look at - as an avid aviator he might well have been fully aware of the importance of Amelia Earhart, which would make it logical that he would collect at least some information about the stay of the Electra in his facilities..

626
Voelter, Karl B., collector.
Aviation scrapbooks, 1927-1982.
2 v.
Materials are arranged generally in chronological order. The smaller scrapbook begins with a preface by Voelter, and covers 1927-1936. The larger one contains some earlier papers but mainly covers 1936-1972. Some later clippings, including his obituaries, are in a separate folder.
Clippings, correspondence, club and meeting programs, telegrams, photographic prints, awards, pins, brochures and other memorabilia trace Karl Voelter's wide ranging interests in the field of aviation, especially within the Miami area.
Karl B. Voelter was active and respected in Miami aviation circles for over 50 years. 1929: came to Miami as Chief Timer for the first meeting of the All-American Air Races; worked for Curtiss-Wright. 1930: appointed Southern Manager for Curtiss-Wright, to be based in Miami. After 18 successful months is transferred to Pittsburgh. 1932: left Curtiss-Wright, returned to Miami to open his own flying school. Married Mary Louise Bright. Involved in a variety of aviation-related businesses. Mid-30s to 1962: joined Marines; attached to original Miami Naval Air Base. Served overseas during war; retires with 23 years' service as a combat and command pilot. Joined CAA: retired in 1962 to the Miami / Coral Gables area. Active in Ox5 and other aviation organizations. 1982 November 1: dies in Miami.
M24A

[Ric Gillespie]

Googling Voelter also brings up this reference at http://www.historical-museum.org/collect/guide/vwz.htm
This definitely would sound as something interesting to have a look at ...

Been there.  Done that.  Glickman and I looked at that scrapbook when we were in Miami chasing the Albasi photo. There's nothing in the scrapbook relating to Earhart.

[Monty Fowler]

The Pan Am archives at the University of Miami were also thoroughly vetted by a TIGHAR researcher - that was what turned up the heretofore unknown Albasi photos - but nothing substantive about Earhart or Noonan was found. Cryptic notations in the archive folders indicated that there had been a wholesale purging of records sometime in the 1940s or 50s, so all we have to work with is what remains. Ric and Jeff went through the relevant archive folders again while looking for more on the Albasi photos, if I remember correctly.

Of course, anyone in the Miami area is free to plow through the volumes of material for themselves, should they so desire.

LTM,
Monty Fowler, TIGHAR No. 2189 CE

[Jerry Germann]

Ok, ....Here is something you don't see everyday.

Amelia wearing shoes that look like they each have two heels on them, ...and personnel building a PBY in 1943 using aluminum stamped ALC 24 ST and ALCLAD 24 ST ......new and old mixed??? Different factory items???

[Ric Gillespie]

Amelia wearing shoes that look like they each have two heels on them,

A bit weird but of no particular significance to the investigation.

...and personnel building a PBY in 1943 using aluminum stamped ALC 24 ST and ALCLAD 24 ST ......new and old mixed??? Different factory items???

Interesting, and a classic example of how little we really know about how, why, and when ALCOA labeled its product. But it's not a PBY.  The tag on the photo says it's a PB2Y.  That's the Navy designation for the Consolidated Model 32 known to the USAAF as the B-24. This seems to be a National Archives photo.  Where did you find it?

[Jerry Germann]

Amelia wearing shoes that look like they each have two heels on them,

A bit weird but of no particular significance to the investigation.

...and personnel building a PBY in 1943 using aluminum stamped ALC 24 ST and ALCLAD 24 ST ......new and old mixed??? Different factory items???

Interesting, and a classic example of how little we really know about how, why, and when ALCOA labeled its product. But it's not a PBY.  The tag on the photo says it's a PB2Y.  That's the Navy designation for the Consolidated Model 32 known to the USAAF as the B-24. This seems to be a National Archives photo.  Where did you find it?

I thought they photos were imaging the Coronado.....see below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_PB2Y_Coronado

The images are from the National Archives and Records Administration......credit due them.
Here is another, ( full view)