Hello again to all who are interested in this project.
I've a had a log-in problem lately but it seems to be OK now.
First off:
VH-XXX:
I was a bit irked by your supercilious remark of two months ago that "I will be right and everyone else will be wrong". It is not a case of that, ending the mystery and perhaps actually finding out what did go wrong out there will be reward enough. I have been at this for 15 years now and I will say this to you: If you had the evidence we have, you would be at it too mate. If you want to partake in meaningful discussions, please do, but keep remarks like that to yourself and if there was "perhaps" any jealousy in it too, you can keep that to yourself as well. Thankyou.
SEAL 11
Thanks for reviving the thread. I couldn't find it (so to speak).
ZEEBEE
Thanks for your forthright statements. If that's the way it is then we have to have a re-think.
It was in 1994 that I and Don Angwin sat down with the CEO of GeoScience in Perth and discussed how it could be done. He assured Don and I that with the technology he had then that he could find the ferrous in the engines to a depth of 85 feet by a chopper towing a bird over the trees. He offered the data processing for free if we could raise the required 100K as it was then. Was that all pure BS ?
Since then technology has improved by leaps and bounds from what I read and the chopper with a boom can get closer to the trees. Data processing apparently now consists of removing the hard drive from the gear, taking it to the hotel room plugging it into a laptop and we get the Lat/Long in the morning.
I have spoken with Fugro on a few occasions. I say "I" have spoken with them, they seem not to want to talk until I show them the dough. This is broadly speaking along the same line as you infer.
Which company were you with, the former or the latter ?
There is about 500 lbs. of ferrous in each engine which is the crankshaft, the bob-weights, the con-rods, the clinder barrels and heads. Two concentrated blobs about 30 metres apart. There are also the ferrous parts in the landing gear struts and steel tubing of the mounts.
None of that would show ? What about the Magnetometer work done in PNG in the sixties and seventies where "it is said" WWII wrecks showed up as pinpoints on the scans ? BS too ?
Latest update
Two interested parties at the moment. We will see how that goes.
Back in 1936 when Earhart took delivery on C/N 1055, she and Kelly Johnson of Lockheed ran a series of flight tests to see what the Electra could do with some serious fuel management. This resulted in Lockheed Report 487 "Long Range Study of a Bi-Motor Airplane", the tests being done to see how far it could go on 1200 USG. The results show a range of 4100 to 4500 Statute Miles on that tankage but of course she never did fly with that amount for shortly after the tests they took out one tank and the tankage then became 1151 USG.
The tests seem to have been done at "Lean of Peak" and Johnson was a bit concerned about CHT's and figured that they may have to put shutters in front of the cylinders (like the Russians did on some of their radials)
There are three examples of fuel loads that we know about which would have resulted in extreme ranges:
1. OAK-HNL in March 1937. 2400 Sm on 947 USG. AE stated she had over four hours of fuel left if she missed Oahu. That would be for searching at low level.
2. HNL-HOW in March 1937. This flight did not take place as she groundlooped on T.O. The flight was supposed to be for 1900 Sm but with the contingency of the Gilberts making 2500 Sm possible on the 900 USG.
3. LAE-HOW, the final flight. 2556 Sm plus The Gilberts as a contingency which would be another 600 Sm making 3156 SM on 1100 USG.
Looking at Report 487 and Johnson advice to AE if she encountered adverse winds "Lean off into adverse winds..." we can say that she met an "adverse" wind at Nukumanu Atoll when she reported 23 Knots but did not give a direction.
Take -off from LAE was at 0000GMT 2nd July.
From my workings of the flight which from "The Chater Report" (on the
www.) went by way of LAE-CHOISEUL Is-NUKUMANU the sector CHO-NUK is on a track of 040 degrees TRUE. They ended up some 19 miles to the West of NUK, obviously blown off the track by an abeam wind. A simple vector diagram shows that Noonan used an Easterly of 12 Smph and if you use the 25 Smph reported and do the vector again you end up where they ended up. So the higher wind value was an Easterly.
If it was 25 mph Easterly at 7,000 feet what "could" it have been at 10,000 or 12,000 (Lovell reports the Cruise at 12 K) going into night ???
They were obviously late at the USCG Ontario at the half-way point at 1030GMT
Running the numbers again on fuel you can see that the turnback fuel available at around 2015GMT, twenty and a quarter hours from T.O would be around 300 USG.
On the OAK-HNL flight in March 1937, AE had not wanted to arrive at Wheeler Field on Oahu in the dark. On page 37 of her book "Last Flight" she says (in her own handwiriting it is on Page 36): "We are throttled down so as not to arrive in the dark. At 10000 feet and 120IAS we are burning less than 20 USG of gas."
I say that faced with no land where she thought HOW would be, she searched and then turned for the Gilberts. If you arrive overhead of the Gilberts with around 240 USG in tanks and you know that at 10,000 feet with 120 indicated that you will burn "less than" 20 USGPH, you KNOW that your endurance is 12 hours (MAX) to tanks dry, say 11 Hours Max to unusable fuel. If AE turned back at 2015 after searching and headed for the Gilberts and saw them at 2200GMT she can endure until around 0900GMT on the 3rd July.
Looking at the graphs for a weight of 9,500 lbs at 10000ft and 120 mph you get the H.P required and if you use an SFC of 0.46 the consumption is 18USGPH if you use an SFC of 0.50 (richer) you get 20 USGPH.
At 6:31pm, 6:43pm and 6:54pm RABAUL local time on 3rd July '37, (0831 to 0854 GMT) NAURU radio Station VKT heard calls on 6210 Kcs. The operator said the voice sounded the same as the voice he heard the night before (AE's call at 1030GMT "Ship in sight) but there was no hum of the aircraft in the background. He could not make out what the voice was saying. If the aircraft was near Rabaul it is still within VKT's reception range at night.
Who would be airborne over the SW Pacific and Tx'ing on 6210Kcs at that time of night ? Sounds to me like someone trying to raise a Ground Station. Those times are at last light and darkness in the Rabaul area.
0000GMT/2 to 0900GMT/3 is 33 Hours.
Any opinions/suggestions/remarks on this ?
Regards,
David Billings.