NavList:

   

Reply

I saw the film last night.

I am sorry to say: it was a typical Hollywood 'smatltzy', turgidly long, 
disconnected, boring film of little relevance to the period or of the 
dynamics of the aviation pioneering of the time. Few aviation scenes which 
could have been an interstnig part of it, or mention of the others in 
aviation doing similar things.

Unlike the film of Howard Hughes 'The Aviator' which did give a good 
impression of his own personal dynamism and the exciting aviation period in 
America for the time, with excellent flying footage which really gave a sense 
of 'being there'.
The scene of his running our of fuel through the exuberance of flying and 
landing a sugarbeet field (or was it a cornfield), and the crash in the 
experimental aircraft had me clutching my seat with white knuckles.

The Earhart film showed the navigator (with a conveniently placed and very 
obvious chronometer at his side ... yes folks this is a _navigator_) wringing 
his hands in desperation with him looking out of a side window fiddling with 
a pelorus - this,  presumably being Hollywood's idea of a crack celestial 
navigator ("the best in the world") at work.

It was a rubbish film.  I do not recommend you see it.  Almost as bad as the 
one about the recovery of an Enigma machine from a German submarine (by 
Americans of course - though the actual person who did this actually lives a 
few miles down the road from me here in Warshash, and the ship was British, 
and it was the rotors only and a few documents).  History? ... what's that? 
to Hollywood?

Having seen the film, it has done one thing for me though - made me question 
the whole business and want to know more about Noonan's actual navigation 
techniques. Is there much known about the detail of his methods?

What equipment did he have? was there an astrodome in the aircraft (there was 
not one on the film aircraft); what air sextant did he have? what navigation 
tables did he use?  Did he plan to go to the island directly (which might 
explain him missing it) or use the offset method of Gatty and Chichester?  In 
the film it indicates there was a US Navy ship there ready to make smoke for 
identifying the island.  Was the radio dysfunctional?
I shall look up some more on this.  Can anyone point me in the right direction please? 

Douglas Denny.
Chichester.  England.

-- 
NavList message boards: www.navlist.net
Or post by email to: NavList@navlist.net
To , email NavList+@navlist.net

   

Reply