Amelia Earhart's plane found?
 

A new sonar image may show the long-sought wreckage of Amelia Earhart's plane at the bottom of the Pacific.

Amelia Earhart: sonar image shows what may be lost aviator's wrecked plane - Telegraph

could be anything from that picture - most likely to be a spar or some such

Apply the famous Scottish double positive used to express extreme doubt.


"Aye, right"

But it must be true!

TIGHAR says so!

Don't be surprised if they find Shergar's skeleton sitting in the cockpit.

Now come on. Everyone knows Sheagar is with Elvis in an alien UFO:rolleyes:

SGC

That just leaves Lord Lucan then?:)

From certain angles you can just about make out the rego.

Let me get this right. This is the TENTH search by TIGHAR over the last 23 years? - and all this searching has been fully supported by the U.S. Govt.?

This is the nation that can put men on the moon (and return them safely to Earth) - can put an exploratory rover on Mars and send back reams of technical information about the Red Planet - can find the Titanic, the HMAS Sydney and the German Raider, the Kormoran - can explore the depths of the seven seas to the nth degree - but they can't find the aeroplane of a pioneer aviatrix who was reputedly lost at sea? - despite TEN searches over 23 years, with full Govt backing??

Is there something I'm missing here? Are they just going out there to have a good ole booze up, and all-out party, every time??
Is it really possible that they can't find her 'plane, because Amelia and her Electra were kidnapped by aliens, sucked out of the sky and are being held captive in the underground alien anti-gravitational tunnels at the South Pole?? :rolleyes:

Why don't they just call up David Mearns and let him have at it?? I'm sure if Amelia really did crash near Nikumororo, then he'd pick up the wreckage within a couple of weeks of starting his searching.

probably because its nowhere near where they think it was and assuming they ditched the plane is in very small pieces scattered over a large area - 60+ years ago

Onetrack yes I think you are missing a lot,

Look at these numbers, the you may start to understand the difficulties in finding something in an ocean;

RMS Titanic 880+ft long, 90 ft wide and with a mass of 3341000000 lbs , mainly iron was found after 73 years of searching, interrupted admittedly by 2 world wars.

Earharts L10E was 38 long, 55 ft wide, mass 10000lbs, mainly aluminium with some wood and fabric,which doesn't react too well to salt water. Various theories put its likely depth at anything between 600ft (the current TIGHAR claim) and 18000ft, (National Air and Space Museum curator). 10 expeditions in search of it were/are all looking for a needle in a giant haystack. No surprise it is still missing after 76 years

Yes....but....
 

At first glance, it holds little promise. All organizations tend to assume the prime motive of keeping themselves in business and TIGHAR is perhaps no exception, and it would certainly seem to have its fair share of late middle-age enthusiasts (resplendent in baseball caps) who are only too willing to expound upon their pet theories.

The term sequestered as currently referenced to the US budget implies that not much free money is flowing upstream into TIGHAR's coffers. Primary funding is probably from TV/Documentary rights - which does unfortunately give a motive for flogging a dead horse and whipping up some interest.

If it was just an ambiguous photograph (not mentioned in the article) and a wobbly line on a sonar scan (reportedly noticed by someone outside the team) then I'd agree that there's little reason to pursue the case - but the prior circumstantial evidence of cosmetic jars, personal items, tools and clothing which match the scenario contextually and chronologically do indicate that additional investigation may yield a result.

There's physical evidence for this one - it's not like buried spitfires in Burma.

The documentary from last year made interesting viewing. Be nice to see a conclusion although the question of what happened to Amelia has perhaps exceeded its sell by date.

The difference...
 

'Plane'

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...yHVZlJK_6uVJAb

'Aircraft'

http://www.mainememory.net/media/ima...0/75/25022.JPG


[/PEDANT] :E

TIGHAR is a non-profit institute. Funding for searches is raised through contributions from private citizens, foundations, and corporations.

It would have been possibly more correct to use 'plane, (note the leading apostrophe), a contraction of the English 'aeroplane' or US 'airplane'.

'Aircraft' is the generic term for any man-made object capable of flight. Balloons, helicopters and airships are all 'aircraft', as are aeroplanes.

'Pedant VOLMET out'.

Ahh, there's nothing like the use of an apostrophe to bring out the pedants. It's the literary equivalent of banging on an ants nest. :)

http://oxforddictionaries.com/words/...owing_omission

Of course, I'm also at liberty with modern English (according to Fowlers Modern English Useage - see number 9), to simply use the word "plane" to describe a missing Lockheed Electra L10E, without an apostrophe.
This is because the shortened version of aeroplane or airplane is already widely recognised as an alternative word to "aircraft"; as "aircraft" has a much wider level of descriptiveness, than the more specific word, "aeroplane".

apostrophe: Definition from Answers.com

Getting back onto the thread subject, I find it amazing how much interest there is in Earharts demise - and yet how little success there has been in finding any evidence - even despite nearly 76 years of searching involving many professionals, from the U.S. Navy on down to every amateur sleuth with a dream.

The following site is rather interesting, and provides a lot of very well-researched historical evidence.
It appears that the Electra was lucky to even get off the ground in Lae. The Electra bounced off the crown of a road that ran past the airfield boundary, before it became airborne.

THE ELECTRA PROJECT

Despite the apparent difficulty of finding a relatively small airframe (in comparison to a ships hull) in the waters around Howland or Nikimaroro, surely a couple of P&W Wasp engines would give a reasonable magnetometer return from a towed submersible?
It's not like there's a vast area to cover - the Electra's navigator was reputedly the "worlds best", and as such, you'd expect he had a reasonable handle on their whereabouts at all times?

No.

As Evan posted, they are supported by donations and grants from non-government sources.

Bring in Dirt Pitt
 

If Dirk Pitt and NUMA were on the case, they would have found it along with Elvis and Shergar!

This is the aviation history forum and some of us are "aviation history" ourselves.

To be absolutely correct, they're "Flying Machines". ;)

But to be more specific, it's an aeroplane!

2 s