NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Amelia Earhart's aerial navigation
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2009 Oct 27, 18:45 -0700
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2009 Oct 27, 18:45 -0700
Jackie, you wrote: "One of the few things we know for sure is there was a pelorus fitted on a bracket at the starboard window which I understood him to have used to take bearings. This is shown in several photographs." Can anyone point me to one of these photos somewhere online? I tried to find one. Based on the text descriptions I've found of the gear in the navigator's station on the Electra, I would now guess that the current film got the details exactly correct visually. And you wrote: "I havent seen the film yet, but I have heard it pays scant attention to Noonan. But at least this time round they get the resemblance right. Apparently he is portayed as unintelligent and boisterous. Quite the opposite. He was highly intelligent and quiet spoken." I wouldn't say that he's portrayed as 'unintelligent' --it's just that his character is barely fleshed out --"scant attention" just as you say. As for being 'boisterous', the rumors of drinking come up early and there's a speculative scene where he very mildly hits on Earhart while drinking the night before the last flight. He (the character) apologizes the next morning and all is forgiven and forgotten. Though that's all pure speculation, it wouldn't surprise me if the issue had arisen at some point during the circum-navigation given Earhart's well-known extra-marital activities and given the amount of time they spent together. Like I say, it's not played in the film as salacious gossip. It simply calls attention to something that every viewer has to be thinking. I think the square door I thought I saw, and mentioned previously, was a perspective trick. I checked the trailers online, hoping for a shot of Noonan's navigation station with the pelorus, and saw a different angle on the door --not square. -FER --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ NavList message boards: www.fer3.com/arc Or post by email to: NavList@fer3.com To , email NavList+@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---