Research Needed - November 1936

[Ric Gillespie]

Tom King has already identified those 45th street addresses in his blog

That 2009 entry is cited from "Wikipedia and other sources."

[Ric Gillespie]

Key question:  In his report on what he thought happened to Earhart (see The Hooven Report), 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?

[Matt Revington]

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

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

That 2009 entry is cited from "Wikipedia and other sources."

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

That 2009 entry is cited from "Wikipedia and other sources."

[Ric Gillespie]

That's better.  Thanks Marty. 

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

That's better.  Thanks Marty.

You're welcome.


There is lots more online about the Putnam Building, which seems to have been a three-building complex (2-4-6 West 45th).


Wikimapia still identifies 2 West 45th as the "Putnam Building."

[Ric Gillespie]

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?
***********************
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. 

[Daniel R. Brown]

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.

[Matt Revington]

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

[Ric Gillespie]

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.

[Matt Revington]

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,

[Matt Revington]

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

[Matt Revington]

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

[Ric Gillespie]

Edit: it appears that Earhart and Mantz did not use the Electra on this search

That's a Lockheed Sirius.