Pacific Wrecks and Gillespie observations
I can show you an observation where Pacific Wrecks say B-17's are powered by P&W Wasps....
However, Pacific Wrecks, in this instance are correct. There is no documented case of an Electra aircraft being missing in or around PNG. The two Model 10A’s that were owned by Guinea Airways were in Australia during WWII and only one went up to New Guinea ferrying troops and supplies to the Dobodura strip when the battles at Buna, Gona and Sanananda were on. None of those Electra’s were lost in New Guinea.
In respect to the observation by Richard Gillespie, neither Gillespie or anyone else knows where the last known position of the Earhart Electra was and in clarification that should read: “The last known position in distance from LAE” to give the correct aspect on what we require to know. Gillespie “assumes” that because Earhart Tx’d “We must be on you but cannot see you” at 1912GMT, that she was on the sunline which went through Howland but that cannot be assumed. He goes into myriads of explanations of sunlines and flights on 157 True to get to Gardner Island but that is all a bunch of assumptions. If you study the works of Richard Gillespie, you will find that his assumptions are many and varied.
Obviously, they did not get to Howland so the navigation failed for whatever reasons, wind, cloud, mechanical problem, equipment failure and so on.
As to how the Electra would get back to ENB, that is contained in the Hypothesis side of the Project and explained on the website. I do go into a Hypothesis on the website, that when they encountered a 26 mph Easterly wind, there became a necessary change in the operation of the aircraft. I firmly believe, on what we do know of the timings and locations of the radio calls made that they ended up short of Howland. Fully written up in the website.
The Hypothesis is just that, a Hypothesis.
Many years ago, a TIGHAR member, Alan Caldwell an ex-USAF B-47 Pilot, said to me, "David, no-one knows where the aircraft got to or how far it went...".
That is correct for we just do not know and why we do not know is as follows:.
No-one knows what the actual wind value was and what the exact wind direction was on 2nd and 3rd July 1937...
No-one knows for sure what the exact route was and whether corners were cut or extended...
No-one knows for sure when the cloud cover started that would limit the Navigation...
No-one knows for sure, where on the track line between TABITEUEA Is. and HOWLAND Is. the Electra started the "Line of position" search...
What I do know from the Radio calls is that if they were at or overhead the
S.S. Ontario at 1036 GMT, then they were late and that can be shown to be because of the Groundspeeds, which were low.
What I am simply trying to do is to locate that wreck which we now know is buried for it MUST be found to be able to say one way or the other, whether it is the Electra or not. I would rather concentrate on finding the wreck and then let the geniuses work out what went wrong and where they got to.
I believe, on the documentary evidence that it is the Electra. The fact that the USAAF "disowned" the wreck, the visual description of the wreck by the Vets that saw the engine and airframe fits with the Electra.
David Billings
www.earhartsearchpng.com