NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Amelia movie
From: Douglas Denny
Date: 2009 Nov 17, 04:32 -0800
From: Douglas Denny
Date: 2009 Nov 17, 04:32 -0800
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.fer3.com/arc Or post by email to: NavList@fer3.com To , email NavList+@fer3.com