CD ad and order

Announcing

The Earhart Project
Compact Disk Research Library
Volume 1

This is the first in a series of CDs for the serious Earhart researcher. Assembled and presented for the first time anywhere are literally thousands of historical documents which tell the true story of the events leading up to and following the disappearance of Amelia Mary Earhart and Frederick Joseph Noonan on the morning of July 2, 1937.

The material on Volume 1 was collected, compiled and organized over a period of five years by Dr. Randy Jacobson, TIGHAR #1364, a scientist at the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research in Arlington, Virginia. TIGHAR is indebted to Dr. Jacobson for his generous contribution of this unprecedented collection of original source material.

Contents of Volume 1

The Radio Messages

Between October 24, 1936 and May 9, 1938 some 3,239 official U.S. government radio messages chronicle the preparations for the first and second world flight attempts, the ill-fated flight from Lae, the coordination of the massive search that followed the disappearance, and the aftermath of its failure. Every message is here, corrected for time zone and presented chronologically. Instructional sections explain the procedures, call signs and radio shorthand notations used in 1937, enabling the researcher to read and understand the messages just as they were sent. The amount of information in this section alone, if printed out in six point type (like the fine print in an insurance policy) would result in a volume the size of a large city's telephone book.

The Radio Logs

The best source of information about the events surrounding the final flight of Amelia Earhart and the search that followed are the logs kept by the radiomen aboard the Coast Guard cutter Itasca , the Coast Guard radio operator on Howland Island, and by Pan American Airways direction-finding stations on Midway, Wake and Oahu. Each log entry is reproduced, and presented chronologically. Instructional sections explain procedures, call signs and terminology. For ease of use, the content of each message is presented in both the original format and in plain English.

Navigational Data

This section details the movements, hour by hour, of every ship that participated in the search for Earhart and Noonan: Itasca, Swan, Colorado, Lexington, Lamson, Cushing, and Drayton--where they went, when, and how fast. Also included is a detailed reconstruction of the 24 hour flight of the PBY dispatched from Pearl Harbor to Howland Island but forced to turn back due to weather. Here too are the movements of USS Ontario, stationed midway along Earhart's route from Lae to Howland.

In addition, Dr. Jacobson has compiled a navigational analysis of Earhart's March 17/18,1937 flight from Oakland, California to Wheeler Field, Oahu.

Weather Data

This section contains weather information compiled from the bridge logs of all the ships involved in the support of Earhart's flight and in the search which followed its disappearance. This is the most accurate information available describing actual, observed weather conditions--including cloud cover, visibility, wind speed and direction, sea conditions, etc.--in the Central Pacific between June 17 and July 21, 1937.

Volume 1 of The Earhart Project Compact Disc Research Library is available to TIGHAR members in appreciation for a contribution $100 (tax deductible within the limits of U.S. law) and to non-members for a contribution of $150. Future volumes will include complete copies of the official search reports, the entire Bureau of Air Commerce file on Lockheed NR16020, and much, much more. Use the order form to order Volume 1 of The Earhart Project Compact Disc Research Library.

NOTE: Documents and data are reproduced in PDF format. The CD is compatible with all common hardware systems and requires only a current version of the ubiquitous Adobe Acrobat Reader.

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