Pensacola Naval Air Station Museum

July 2, 2009
TIGHAR Presentation
L-10 Replica Rollout
Earhart Disappearance 72nd Anniversary

The presentation started at 3:00 pm with VADM Hoewing, President and CEO Naval Aviation Museum Foundation introducing Ric Gillespie, Founder, The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery.  It was a very bright and hot afternoon with the tempeture near 100. The L-10 outside the window made an excellent back drop.

The presentation lasted 1.5 hours and ended with a character appearance of Amelia Earhart and book signing by Ric Gillespie.  Ric also provided some small artifacts found on Gardner Island including a button and zipper.

Ric started by introducing some of the people who were associated with the world flight including Harry Manning, Paul Mantz, and George Putnum.  He then moved to describing his theory of the disappearance and what TIGHAR has produced so far in ways of evidence.  Two key points which I found intriguing was his discussion of the radio frequencies used and a description of Betty's Notebook.  It was noted that in 1935, Earhart had packed some important papers inside a suitcase which she did not want the public to discover in the event of her death. She placed this in her closet.  The fact that Betty Klenk two years later during the world flight made reference to hearing "get the suitcase from my closet" over shortwave radio is considered by TIGHAR more than coincidental.

The aircraft itself was disappointing because it is far a replica of Earhart's L10E.  The inside was gutted. No long range fuel tanks were installed.  There were no refueling doors on the port side of the aircraft.  The engines were Pratt Whitney WASP Junior.  They did install the navigator's windows on both sides of the aircraft however there was no navigator station. The aircraft was painted in Navy Blue. The paint on the tail was tacky.  Perhaps the Navy would consider more effort to bring this aircraft into Earhart's L-10E specs before promoting it as such.

Though Ric's focus was on TIGHAR's efforts much of the information he provided regarding the world flight was interesting.  He managed to hold the audiences attention for 1.5 hours with very little bailout.  About 150 people attended the event.