Last seen on radar in 1937?
Wow, up till her last flight, she still needed a male navigator.
Tighar has been a running joke for so many years to those of us in the old airplane business.
People have been looking for any remains or clues about Earhart for a long time. I was in the Western Pacific (island of Saipan) in the early sixties and we had a number of visitors on expedition to search for clues. They interviewed natives and people with roots back to that timeframe. We never heard of anything substantial being found. There was always the rumor of her flight going down while on secret mission to spy in Japanese locations in the Pacific...but, who knows. They continue to look.
Amelia, it was just a false alarm.
- Joni Mitchell
They had radar in ‘37? If they did, it wouldn’t have had that range I think...not to mention, if they had, it would have been top secret.
This is not new information. Thousands of people said they heard something or saw something. But none could be verified and most where proven to be hoaxes. This news story is just bringing out some of the hold hoaxes long after the people who could shoot them down are gone.
But in any case, I think the researcher is just looking for funding for another search. Something else he said that didn’t make any sense was that Amelia needed a running engine to use the radio. That’s complete nonsense. The Radio ran off the battery with no engine being running, also that specific Lockheed had extra batteries installed.
For those who think Noonan wasn’t very good. He was one of the best in the nation. Arguably the very best. His reputation took a beating because the alternative would make you have to blame Amelia. So the “drunk” Noonan mush have been at fault.
Here ya go.
“Following a distinguished 22-year career at sea which included sailing around Cape Horn seven times (three times under sail), Noonan contemplated a new career direction. After learning to fly in the late 1920s, he received a “limited commercial pilot’s license” in 1930, on which he listed his occupation as “aviator.” In the following year, he was awarded marine license #121190, “Class Master, any ocean,” the qualifications of a merchant ship’s captain. During the early 1930s, he worked for Pan American World Airways as a navigation instructor in Miami and an airport manager in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, eventually assuming the duties of inspector for all of the company’s airports.
In March 1935, Noonan was the navigator on the first Pan Am Sikorsky S-42 clipper at San Francisco Bay. In April he navigated the historic round-trip China Clipper flight between San Francisco and Honolulu piloted by Ed Musick (who was featured on the cover of Time magazine that year). Noonan was subsequently responsible for mapping Pan Am’s clipper routes across the Pacific Ocean, participating in many flights to Midway Island, Wake Island, Guam, the Philippines, and Hong Kong. In addition to more modern navigational tools, Noonan as a licensed sea captain was known for carrying a ship’s sextant on these flights.
1937 was a year of transition for Fred Noonan, whose reputation as an expert navigator, along with his role in the development of commercial airline navigation, had already earned him a place in aviation history. The tall, very thin, dark auburn-haired and blue-eyed 43-year-old navigator was living in Los Angeles. He resigned from Pan Am because he felt he had risen through the ranks as far as he could as a navigator, and he had an interest in starting a navigation school. In March, he divorced his wife, Josie, in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Two weeks later, he married Mary Beatrice Martinelli (born Passadori) of Oakland, California. Noonan was rumored to be a heavy drinker of alcoholic beverages. That was fairly common during this era and there is no contemporary evidence Noonan was an alcoholic, although decades later, a few writers and others made some hearsay claims that he was.”
Not the guy pop culture makes him out to be.
Everybody has a theory. I prefer the Nikumaroro one, because so many “experts” claim it’s wrong. I detest internet “experts”.
I’d call his bluff. Whose radar does he claim tracked her?
In 1937, the best range for British radar was 60 miles. The Germans were still in the 3 mile range. A year later, the US could detect planes at 100 miles, but didn’t have operational ship mounted radar until 1939. The Japanese, although technically advanced, were far behind the west in deployment of radar.
She continued to encourage other women to enter the field of aviation, however, and became a member of the Ninety-Nines, an international organization for women pilots which was founded by Earhart and 98 other female aviators.
In 1936, Kalep published the first edition of Air Babies, a children's book that she wrote and illustrated to teach children about flying. The story followed two young planes, Happy Wings and Speedy, and a 1938 reprint included a foreword from Earhart, who embarked on her last flight three days after writing the piece.
Kalep began creating leather artworks which she sold to her neighbors to make a living. She created three-dimensional paintings made out of small pieces of colored leather imported from France. Throughout the 1960's and 70's she showcased her art in exhibitions across the United States and sold works to high-profile customers, including Eugene Ormandy, long time music director and conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
The one I have of Elvy Kalep’s paintings, is a three-dimensional sailboat using the colored leather pieces as described above to create the painting. It is approximately 20 x 30 inches, framed and done on wood instead of canvas.
My parents were acquainted with a woman in California who had several of Kalep’s leather paintings. They got two or three from her, including the one I have. This elderly woman, a Mrs. Day, whom I met once, knew Elvy Kalep. As I recall, Mrs. Day lived in Alhambra. Perhaps she was one of Elvy Kalep’s high-profile customers. I do recall that she was ‘well-to-do’.
**Earhart’s plane was last seen on the radar on July 2, 1937.**
Was radar up and running in that area at that time?
>> she safety landed on another island, believed to be Nikumaroro, also known as...
Chicken Island.
The Chinese school of navigation says in a proverb:
” Woman who fly upside down have crack up!”
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Mark her down as another dead American, courtesy of that communist cripple FDR.