Amelia Earhart's sad demise

Dozens heard Amelia Earhart's final, chilling pleas for help, researchers say

Distilled from 2 posts in the  Washington Post and the Web

Amelia Earhart waded into the Pacific Ocean and climbed into her downed and disabled Lockheed Electra. The famous aviator started the engine, turned on the two-way radio and sent out a plea for help, one more desperate than previous messages.

The high tide was getting higher, she had realised. Soon it would suck the plane into deeper water, cutting Earhart off from civilisation - and any chance of rescue.

Aviator Amelia Earhart's cries for help were heard by people who just happened to be listening to their radios at the right time.
Across the world, a 15-year-old girl listening to the radio in St Petersburg, Florida transcribed some of the desperate phrases she heard: "waters high," "water's knee deep - let me out" and "help us quick."
A  housewife in Toronto heard a shorter message, but it was no less dire: "We have taken in water . . . we can't hold on much longer."

On July 2, 1937, just after Earhart's plane disappeared, the US Navy put out an "all ships, all stations" bulletin.

That harrowing scene, the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) believes, was probably one of the final moments of Earhart's life. The group put forth the theory in a paper that analyses radio distress calls heard in the days after Earhart disappeared.

In the summer of 1937, she had sought to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. Instead, TIGHAR's theory holds, she ended up marooned on a desert island, radioing for help.

Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, could only call for help when the tide was so low it wouldn't flood the engine, TIGHAR theorised. That limited their pleas for help to a few hours each night.

It wasn't enough, TIGHAR director Ric Gillespie told The Washington Post, and the pair died as castaways.

But those radio messages form a historical record - evidence that Gillespie says runs counter to the US Navy's official conclusion that Earhart and Noonan died shortly after crashing into the Pacific Ocean.

"These active versus silent periods and the fact that the message changes on July 5 and starts being worried about water and then is consistently worried about water after that - there's a story there," Gillespie said.

"We're feeding it to the public in bite-sized chunks. I'm hoping that people will smack their foreheads like I did."

Some of Earhart's final messages were heard by members of the military and others looking for Earhart, Gillespie said.

Others caught the attention of people who just happened to be listening to their radios when they stumbled across random pleas for help.

Almost all of those messages were discounted by the US Navy, which concluded that Earhart's plane went down somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, then sank to the seabed.

Gillespie has been trying to debunk that finding for three decades. He believes that Earhart spent her final days on then-uninhabited Gardner Island.

She may have been injured, Noonan was probably worse, but the crash wasn't the end of them.

On July 2, 1937, just after Earhart's plane disappeared, the US Navy put out an "all ships, all stations" bulletin, TIGHAR wrote.Authorities asked anyone with a radio and a trained ear to listen in to the frequencies she had been using on her trip, 3105 and 6210 kilohertz.

It was not an easy task. The Electra's radio was designed to communicate only within a few hundred kilometres. The Pacific Ocean is much bigger. The searchers listening to Earhart's frequencies heard a carrier wave, which indicated that someone was speaking, but most heard nothing more than that.

Others heard what they interpreted to be a crude attempt at Morse code.But thanks to the scientific principle of harmonics, TIGHAR says, others heard much more.

In addition to the primary frequencies, "the transmitter also put out 'harmonics (multiples)' of those wavelengths," the paper says. "High harmonic frequencies 'skip' off the ionosphere and can carry great distances, but clear reception is unpredictable."

That means Earhart's cries for help were heard by people who just happened to be listening to their radios at the right time.

According to TIGHAR's paper:

"Scattered across North America and unknown to each other, each listener was astonished to suddenly hear Amelia Earhart pleading for help. They alerted family members, local authorities or local newspapers. Some were investigated by government authorities and found to be believable. Others were dismissed at the time and only recognised many years later.

Although few in number, the harmonic receptions provide an important glimpse into the desperate scene that played out on the reef at Gardner Island."

The tide probably forced Earhart and Noonan to hold to a schedule. Seek shelter, shade and food during the sweltering day, then venture out to the craft at low tide, to try the radio again.

Back in the United States, people heard things, tidbits that pointed at trouble.

On July 3, for example, Nina Paxton, an Ashland, Kentucky, woman, said she heard Earhart say "KHAQQ calling," and say she was "on or near little island at a point near" . . . "then she said something about a storm and that the wind was blowing....Will (or We'll ) have to get out of here," she says at one point. "We can't stay here long."

What happened to Earhart after that has vexed the world for nearly 81 years, and TIGHAR is not the only group to try to explain the mystery. Gillespie is just one member of competing researchers who have dedicated their time and resources to one of aviation's greatest mysteries.

Mike Campbell, a retired journalist who wrote Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last, insists along with others that Earhart and Noonan were captured in the Marshall Islands by the Japanese, who thought they were American spies, and died in Japanese custody after being tortured.

Elgen Long, a Navy combat veteran and an expert on Earhart's disappearance, wrote a book saying her plane crashed into the Pacific and sank.

Gillespie said he believes that evidence supporting his Gardner Island theory is adding up.

He believes that the messages sent out over those six days were by Earhart and, occasionally, Noonan. He believes that bones found on Gardner island in 1940 belonged to Earhart, but were misidentified and discarded.

He believes that Amelia Earhart died marooned on an island after her plane was sucked into the Pacific Ocean. But he realises that the public needs more than his tide tables and extrapolations from data that predates World War II.

"We're up against a public that wants a smoking gun," he told The Post.

"We know the public wants, demands, something simple. And we're also very much aware that we live in a time of rampant science denial. Nobody does nuance anymore."

Bones discovered on a Pacific island in Kiribati 'belong to Amelia Earhart'

Amelia Earhart's story is revolutionary: She was the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean, and might have been the first to fly around the world had her plane not vanished over the Pacific Ocean in 1937. After decades of mystery surrounding her disappearance, her story might come to a close.

A scientific study claims that bones found in 1940 on the Pacific Island of Nikumaroro belong to Earhart, despite a forensic analysis of the remains conducted in 1941 that linked the bones to a male.
The bones, revisited in the study Amelia Earhart and the Nikumaroro Bones by University of Tennessee professor Richard Jantz, were discarded. For decades they have remained an enigma, as some have speculated that Earhart died a castaway on the island after her plane crashed.

Nikumaroro, or Gardner Island, is part of the Phoenix Islands, Kiribati in the western Pacific Ocean.

The bones were uncovered by a British expedition exploring the island for settlement after they came upon a human skull, according to the study. The expedition's officer ordered a more thorough search of the area, which resulted in the discovery of several other bones and part of what appeared to be a woman's shoe. Other items found included a box made to hold a Brandis Navy Surveying Sextant that had been manufactured around 1918 and a bottle of Benedictine, an herbal liqueur.
"There was suspicion at the time that the bones could be the remains of Amelia Earhart," Jantaz wrote in the study.

When the 13 bones were shipped to Fiji and studied by Dr D W Hoodless of the Central Medical School the following year, Jantz argues that it is likely that forensic osteology - the study of bones - was still in its early stages, which therefore affected his assessment of which sex the remains belonged to. Jantz, in attempting to compare the lost bones with Earhart's bones, co-developed a computer program that estimated sex and ancestry using skeletal measurements. The program, Fordisc, is commonly used by forensic anthropologists across the globe.

Jantz compared the lengths of the bones to Earhart's measurements, using her height, weight, body build, limb lengths and proportions, based on photographs and information found on her pilot's and driver's licenses. His findings revealed that Earhart's bones were "more similar to the Nikumaroro bones than 99  of individuals in a large reference sample."

"In the case of the Nikumaroro bones, the only documented person to whom they may belong is Amelia Earhart," Jantz wrote in the study.

Earhart's disappearance has long captivated the public, and theories involving her landing on Nikumaroro have emerged in recent years. Retired journalist Mike Campbell, who authored Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last, has maintained with others that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were captured in the Marshall Islands by the Japanese, who thought they were American spies. He believes they were tortured and died in custody.

But Ric Gillespie, director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) spoke to The Washington Post's Cleve R. Wootson Jr. in 2016 about how he too believes the bones found on Nikumaroro belong to Earhart.

In 1998, the group took Hoodless' measurements of the Nikumaroro bones and analysed them through a robust anthropological database. They determined the bones belonged to a taller-than-average woman of European descent - perhaps Earhart, who at 5 feet 7 (170cm) to 5 feet 8 (172.7cm), was several inches taller than the average woman.

In 2016, the group brought the measurements to Jeff Glickman, a forensic examiner, who located a photo of Earhart from Lockheed Aircraft that showed her with her arms exposed. It appeared, based on educated guesses, that Earhart's upper arm bone corresponded with one of the Nikumaroro bones.

Glickman, who is now a member of TIGHAR, told The Washington Post at the time that he understands some might be skeptical about his findings, as they were based 76-year-old medical notes. But the research made clear, he said, that Earhart died on Nikumaroro.

Boeing Dreamliner 787-9 takes to the skies: Air NZ the first customer

Dreamliner 787-9

A longer version of Boeing's Dreamliner made its first flight, passing a key milestone for a plane that should be more profitable both for Boeing to sell and for its customers to operate than the current production model.

Orders have been places by several carriers, Air New Zealand being the first, also Canada, Japan, KLM, Air France, Virgin, and others

The 787-9 jet, which left the ground at 11.02 am local time has room for 290 passengers, 40 more than the original 787-8 jetliner, and has about 300 more nautical miles (555km) of range.

That means Boeing can charge US$37.7 million ($45.8 million) more for the plane at list price, and airlines can sell more seats on longer routes.

Boeing has unfilled orders for 936 Dreamliners, worth about US$217 billion at list prices, or nearly eight years worth of production at its target construction rate of 10 per month, which it aims to hit by year's end.

About 41 per cent of the orders, or 388 planes, are for the 787-9.

Boeing began selling an even longer version of the jet, the 787-10, in June. It has garnered 50 orders so far. The rest of the orders are for the 787-8.

In its maiden voyage on Tuesday, the 787-9 will fly for about five hours, running detailed tests of its flight controls, part of a nine-month testing program.

The aircraft used for the tests will eventually be delivered to Air New Zealand in mid-2014, Boeing said.

An hour behind schedule, in overcast weather, the jet rose smoothly before TV crews, reporters and thousands of Boeing employees, who watched from an adjacent runway. The flight began at Paine Field in Everett, Washington, near Boeing's main 787 assembly lines, and is due to end at Boeing Field south of Seattle, near Boeing's 737 factory.

The jet was scheduled to fly at a speed of up to 250 knots and altitude of 16,000 feet if the two test pilots aboard feel it is safe, Boeing said.

The jet will fly over Puget Sound and then head inland to Moses Lake, Washington.                                 (Reuters)

Airbus A350 Takes to the skies

Airbus A350 First Flight

(Reuters) - After the Dreamliner, the Hushliner?

Europe's latest extra wide-body passenger jet, the Airbus A350, made its maiden flight on Friday and its chief salesman, opening a new front in a battle with U.S. rival Boeing declared it so quiet that airport residents won't even notice it.

The lightweight carbon-plastic jet flew over the Airbus plant in Toulouse to salute production workers before wrapping up a four-hour inaugural flight that Airbus officials said had achieved more than expected.

Watched by 10,000 staff and spectators, the aircraft's curled wingtips sliced into clouds above the factory in southwestern France and flew over the Pyrenees.

The sortie caps eight years of designing and development costing an estimated $15 billion.

Airbus's ebullient New York-born sales chief, John Leahy, lost no time in talking up the plane's benefits moments after its two Roll-Royce (RR.L) engines hoisted the A350 from the same runway where the supersonic Concorde took its first ground-shaking run 44 years ago.

"Did you hear how quiet it was? We are going to set new standards ... People round airports won't even know we are taking off," Leahy said.

It is a milestone for the EADS (EAD.PA) unit as it seeks to catch Boeing's 787 Dreamliner in sales of a generation of lightweight jets designed to save fuel and do less harm to the environment.

Boeing was first off the mark with the use of revolutionary carbon-composite materials and its Dreamliner has so far outsold the A350, with sales reaching 833 aircraft to 57 customers.

With sales of 613 planes to 33 customers, Airbus hopes to catch up and also mount a challenge to the U.S. manufacturer's larger, metallic 777, thanks in part to the A350's low noise.

"READY TO FLY"

British test pilot Peter Chandler, who commanded a crew of six pilots and test engineers wearing helmets and parachutes over orange jumpsuits, was elated about the plane.

"It was ready to fly and it wanted to fly. It was clearly much happier in the air," Chandler said.

French co-pilot Guy Magrin, a former air force pilot, took the controls for the take-off at 10:01 local time

Competition for wide-bodied jets is expected to dominate next week's Paris Airshow, where the A350 has its sights on another fly-by when French President Francois Hollande visits the event on Friday, if tests continue to go well.

"I am talking to airlines about placing orders in the very new future. I think you may see some announcements very soon," sales chief Leahy told Reuters.

Airbus is finalizing orders from Singapore Airlines  , Kuwait Airways and Air France  and hopes to add a new customer at the June 17-23 show, analysts say.

Boeing sees a market worth $1 trillion for one category of mid-sized long-haul passenger airplanes over the next 20 years and the A350 and 787 are chasing the lion's share of that.

More expensive than other aircraft at about $300 million apiece at list prices, the A350's business case relies on fuel savings of some 25 percent compared with ordinary airliners.

But aerospace manufacturers are also under pressure to cut emissions and noise to comply with tougher global regulations.

EDGE ON NOISE

Airbus and Boeing both claim the edge on noise levels, which remain politically explosive at airports like London's Heathrow.

Airbus said the A350 is up to 16 decibels below international requirements. Boeing said its 787 has a smaller noise footprint than other widebody aircraft, and is equivalent to the sounds of heavy traffic when standing at a roadside.

"We welcome any moves towards quieter planes, but let's not run away with the idea that the A350 is a quiet plane. It is simply less noisy than its predecessors," said John Stewart, chair of a residents' group opposing the expansion of Heathrow.

The A350's maiden flight is the start of a 12 to 13 month test program that will include putting it through the harshest possible conditions around the globe.

Airbus says it is on track to put the aircraft into service with Qatar Airways in the second half of 2014, but the timetable remains "challenging".

Project leader Didier Evrard, a former missiles boss credited with preventing a repeat of the disarray on recent Airbus programs, has a major job to produce four more test aircraft and could not relax during the flight.

"I will still be nervous until it comes back. I'm an engineer so I have to be connected to the ground and make sure everything is fine," he told reporters.

Evrard said Airbus would soon add a customer in the United States, where industry sources say United Airlines is negotiating to expand an order for 25 jets.

Airbus initially dismissed new mid-sized aircraft like the 787 as it focused on building the world's largest airliner, the A380 superjumbo, in the last decade.

But faced with burgeoning Dreamliner sales, it changed tack and overhauled the design of the 270- to 350-seat A350 by adopting similar composites technology in 2006.

To boost sales, Boeing is expected to soon confirm plans to build a larger version of its Dreamliner. It is also overhauling its 777 with new engines and wings.

Space Flight for the Common People: Branson's Dream becoming reality

Branson's Virgin Galactic Commercial Dream a step closer

MOJAVE, California, USA. » The spaceship bankrolled by British Music and Aviation tycoon Sir Richard Branson made its first powered flight today in a test that moves Virgin Galactic toward its goal of flying into space later this year.

While SpaceShipTwo remained sub-orbital and did not break out of the atmosphere during the test flight, it marked a significant milestone for Virgin Galactic, which intends to take passengers on suborbital joyrides.

During the early morning flight, SpaceShipTwo, strapped beneath a twin-fuselage jet, took off from an airport runway in the Mojave Desert north of Los Angeles. The jet released SpaceShipTwo, which ignited its engine for 16 seconds, then glided to a safe landing.

Until now, SpaceShipTwo has only performed unpowered glide flights. Several powered flights are planned this summer, culminating with a dash into space targeted toward the end of the year.

SpaceShipTwo is the commercial version of SpaceShipOne, which in 2004 became the first private manned rocket to reach space. Since the historic flight, more than 500 aspiring space tourists have paid US$200,000 or plunked down deposits, patiently waiting for a chance to float in weightlessness and view the Earth's curvature from 62 miles up.

Branson initially predicted commercial flights would begin in 2007, but a deadly explosion during ground testing and longer-than-expected test flights pushed the deadline back.

No date has been set for the first commercial flight from a custom-designed spaceport in New Mexico, but Virgin Galactic executives have said it will come after testing is complete and it secures approval from the government. Branson previously said the maiden passenger flight will carry his family.

Igor Sikorsky and Helicopters: Anniversary of the first successful chopper flight

Igor Sikorsky and the helicopter: Happy birthday today ?
The Aircraft genius at work:

Heard on the radio today that it was the anniversary of Sikorsky's first successful helicopter flight. I've had a look at this extraordinary gentleman's history, and the history of the helicopter in general

                                                


The Russian-born scientist, engineer, pilot and entrepreneur made fixed and rotary wing aviation history with a mix of genius, determination and humanity. An established Russian aviation pioneer, arrived in New York or March 1919. His passport revealed he entered America to "construct aircraft". He made several attempts to re-enter aviation in his new country without success.

Airplanes and engines built for World War I were available at extremely low prices and aviation was described to him by some as a "dying industry". Soon his money was running out and he resorted to teaching Russian immigrants mathematics; later, astronomy and aviation lessons were included.

He also started to lecture to various groups which brought him in contact with people who shared his enthusiasm for aviation and convinced him to start his own aeronautical enterprise. March 5,1923, saw the creation of the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation.

The company was dedicated to building the S-29A (Sikorsky type 29, America) and was based at fellow immigrant Victor Utgoff s farm near Roosevelt Field on Long Island, N.Y.

One biographer summarized that  Igor Sikorsky had three careers in aviation:

• Constructing and flying fixed-wing aircraft in Russia, 
• Constructing and flying fixed wing aircraft , including seaplanes in America, 
• and helicopters, actually his first love. 
• 
  

                                

He was fascinated by science in general, and in many ways was a classical philosopher. It has been said that he was initially inspired by a Jules Verne novel as a very young boy

He passed away peacefully in his sleep in 1972 at the age of 83 after putting in a typical day at his office at Sikorsky Aircraft. Sikorsky Aircraft has a proud and rich history of aircraft design and construction dating to the early part of the last century, making it one of America's pioneering aerospace companies.

A list of Sikorsky's firsts:

In Russia:

1909 H-1, Constructed his First helicopter "This machine was a failure to the extent that it could not fly. In other respects it was a very important and necessary stepping stone."

1910 S-2, Igor Sikorsky Flew for the First time

1911 S-5, Igor's First pilot license issued from the Imperial Aero Club of Russia

1912 S-6A won First place in the Moscow Aircraft Competition, pilot Igor Sikorsky

1913 S-9 First monocoque fuselage constructed in Russia

1913 S-10 establish a Russian Aviation Record flying 500 kilometers in 4 hrs and 56 min

1913 S-12 First Russian aircraft capable of a loop

1913 S-12 Established a Russian Altitude Record of 3,680m

1913 Igor Sikorsky flew the S-21 "Grand" the World's First successful four-engine plane

1913 S-21 set a World's Record for duration and literally set one World's Record after another for a four-engine plane with each fligh

1913 S-10 & S-11 won First and Second place in the Petrograd Military Competition

1914 S-27 set two World Records for payload and flight duration

1914 S-27 with pontoons was the largest seaplane built in the World

1916 S-27G with 880 horsepower was the largest plane produced in the World

LAUNCHING THE FLYING-BOAT IN THE US

1923 Igor founded Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation

1924 S-29A First twin-engine airplane capable of flying on one engine and First all metal aircraft

1925 S-29A World's First airplane to broadcast a radio musical program in-flight

1926 S-29A World's First airplane to show a motion picture in-flight

1929 S-37 First airplane to fly over the Andes Mountains

1929 S-38 Used in pioneering Central and South American air routes by Pan American Airways

1929 S-38 Piloted by Charles Lindbergh inaugurated air mail service between the US and Panama

1931 S-40 "American Clipper" was the Worlds largest airliner produced

1934 S-42 First production aircraft with wing flaps: allowed high flight speeds and low landing speeds.

1934 S-42 Established ten World Records, of which eight were set on one flight. This flight of August 1st vaulted the United States into First place holder of World Aviation Records

1935 S-42 First transoceanic air service, flying the first airmail from Honolulu to the mainland.

1937 S-42 made the First regular airline crossing of the North Atlantic Ocean and pioneered the transpacific route to Asia

1936 S-43 Established four World Altitude Records

1937 S-44 (XPBS-1) long range bomber first flown August 13, 1937. It had a max range of 4,000 miles and superior performance but lost out to a lower cost competitor.

1942 VS-44 Civilian version of the S-44 first flew in January 1942. It was the wold's longest range commercial aircraft and the only aircraft to have flown commercial scheduled non-stop across the north and south Atlantic. This was the last fixed wing aircraft built by Sikorsky.