Hows an underwater drone helped solve one of the biggest mysteries?
Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, vanished over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 in their attempt to fly around the world. It’s a mystery that has lasted for 87 years. Is this Amelia Earhart’s plane? A look at possible wreck 16,400 feet
Deep Sea Vision, a Charleston, South Carolina-based underwater surveying company, scanned an area near Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean for Earhart’s Lockheed 10-E Electra airplane – which vanished on July 2, 1937 – using a sophisticated autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) for a deep-sea expedition last year. The Norwegian company Kongsberg developed the $9 million HUGIN 6000 AUV, which can scan the seafloor using high-tech sonar down to 20,000 feet. Amelia Earhart’s plane
Deep Sea Vision plans to return to the location sometime this year in an attempt to determine whether an object that appears to be a silhouette of an aircraft with twin vertical stabilizers is Earhart’s Electra 10-E. The AUV will be used again. Amelia Earhart’s plane
Here’s a look at the autonomous underwater vehicle.
The HUGIN 6000 AUV
The deep-water HUGIN 6000 AUV uses synthetic aperture sonar (SAS), a newly developed sonar that can produce high-resolution pictures. The technology is capable of classifying underwater habitats or biological creatures, imaging shipwreck locations and describing the composition of bottom sediments.
This AUV is launched from a ship and can operate independently without any physical connection to a ship or remote control from the surface. It can reach depths of nearly 20,000 feet − nearly 4 miles.
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More:Is this Amelia Earhart’s plane? A look at possible wreck 16,400 feet below the ocean: Maps
The disappearance of pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart – so famous she could’ve been the Taylor Swift of her era – has captivated aviation fans and history buffs for 86 years. Now, her missing plane may have been found deep in the Pacific.
Deep Sea Vision, a marine robotics company in South Carolina, says undersea scans produced a blurry sonar image that may be Earhart’s Lockheed 10-E Electra. Earhart, who was sometimes called “Lady Lindy” after Charles Lindbergh, was piloting the twin-engine craft in her attempt to become the first woman to fly around the world.
Enduring mystery: Why Amelia Earhart’s plane has eluded searchers for decades.
Tony Romeo, Deep Sea Vision’s CEO, said the image appears to be that of a plane on the seafloor about 100 miles from Howland Island. Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were heading for the island when they disappeared in July 1937.
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About Amelia Earhart’s plane
The aircraft is at a depth of about 16,400 feet. By comparison, the Titanic is located at a depth of about 12,500 feet. Amelia Earhart’s plane.
Deep Sea Vision said its 16-member crew used an an advanced underwater drone to scan more than 5,200 square miles of ocean floor in search of the aircraft.
The sonar image has intrigued archaeologists while others remain skeptical. Romeo plans another undersea visit to gather more visual evidence. A date has not been set.
US Navy searched for Earhart without success
Amelia Earhart’s plane and Noonan began their flight by leaving Oakland, California, and flying east on May 20, 1937. They landed in Australia on June 29 and left Lae, a territory of New Guinea, at about 10 a.m. on July 2, intending to refuel at Howland Island, 2,550 miles away.
Who else has looked for Amelia Earhart?
Modern-day searches for Earhart include:
2002: The ocean technology company Nauticos launches the first of three expeditions to find Earhart’s plane. The other two surveys are completed in 2005 and 2017, covering an undersea area of about 1,850 square nautical miles.
2009: Ted Waitt, a co-founder of a computer firm, finances an undersea search on the western side of Howland Island. No evidence of the plane is found. Amelia Earhart’s plane.
2010: The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, or TIGHAR, begins an undersea search off Nikumaroro, formerly Gardner Island.
2015: TIGHAR begins another search at a deeper sea level.
2019: Robert Ballard, who discovered the wreck of the Titanic, says he will search for Earhart’s plane around the Pacific atoll of Nikumaroro. No evidence is found.
Nauticos plans another search in the near future with SeaWord, a nonprofit organization specializing in marine education.
Why was Amelia Earhart famous?
Earhart was already a well-known pilot when she and Noonan attempted the around-the-world flight. Among her accomplishments:
◾ Broke women’s altitude record with 14,000-ft. flight (1922).
◾ The second person to fly a solo, nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean (1928).
◾ Published her first book “20 Hrs., 40 Minutes” (1928).
◾ Visited President Calvin Coolidge at the White House (1928).
The distance from New Guinea and Howland Island is 2,556 miles. There are no landmarks. There is nothing but water and sky. Amelia Earhart’s plane.
On July 2, 1937, somewhere between these two locations, Amelia Earhart and navigator, Fred Noonan, were crammed together in the twin-engined, Lockheed “Electra,” in mid-attempt to become the first to fly around the world at the equator.
At about 17:00 hours, they radioed their position: somewhere over the Pacific Ocean near Howland Island. They were low on fuel; communication with the U.S. Coastguard was not planned properly. Three hours later, Earhart radioed again. It was the last anyone ever heard from her. Amelia Earhart’s plane? A look at possible wreck 16,400 feet
Fast-forward nearly 75 years and Earhart’s name is still making headlines. Today, U.S. government officials met scientists and historians from The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), to discuss the investigation of an alternative scenario—one that suggests Earhart may have survived as a castaway.
The new search is backed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and funded by the Discovery Channel and is planned to coincide with the 75th anniversary of her disappearance. Scientists will use high-tech underwater vehicles to search for remains of Earhart and her plane near the remote island of Nikumaroro; a location researchers say is close to where Earhart’s plane went down.
And while new interest in Amelia Earhart’s disappearance has resurfaced as of late, Dorothy Cochrane, a curator at the National Air and Space Museum says “Lady Lindy’s” legacy has always held a place in the Smithsonian Institution.
“Everybody has a theory, some more serious than others, but it’s still the greatest mystery of the 20th century,” she says, “and looks like it’s heading into the 21st century.”
In fact, there are several artifacts from Earhart on permanent display at the National Air and Space Museum and at the Steven F. Udvar Hazy Center. And this June, “One Life: Amelia Earhart,” a new exhibit will open at the National Portrait Gallery.
“People come and the first thing they see is her bright, red airplane,” Cochrane says. “And they can say, ‘That’s Amelia Earhart’s airplane. Inside that machine is where she became the first woman to fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean.’”
The Smithsonian Institution is home to countless artifacts from Earhart’s life: her flying leather jacket—the quintessential part of a pilot’s outfit, some of the books she wrote after she completed her flights, a radio she used in her first voyage over the Pacific.
The Udvar Hazy Center goes further—housing a flight-suit of hers, a menu from one of the various dinners she attended after completing a mission—even a pair of scissors used to cut her hair. Cochrane says by displaying these items and telling Earhart’s story the Smithsonian Institution has kept her alive.
“These are things that Amelia Earhart touched—she tuned this radio when she was flying from Hawaii to California,” Cochrane says. “These are tangible pieces of history that relate to this marvelous woman and what she did for aviation.”
The new exhibit at the Portrait Gallery delves into the life of “Lady Lindy” beyond aviation, providing examples of her work as a champion for women’s rights. In this one-room display, her biography is told through a series of portraits and a small collection of items—her pilot’s license, the first earned by a woman, a leather flying helmet and smelling salts.
Earhart founded a pilot program for women called, the Ninety-Nines, (to represent the 99 women who were its first members) and served as a faculty member at Purdue as a women’s career counselor and an adviser in aeronautics. She also served as the aviation editor for Cosmopolitan and encouraged other women to learn to fly urging mothers to allow their daughters to take lessons—a radical suggestion for a woman growing up in the 1920s and 1930s.
“She’s really the epitome of the modern woman of that era, making up her own career and her own mind. That’s what we try to portray here,” Cochrane says. “If her plane were found, it wouldn’t change our story, but it certainly would bring closure to hers.”
“One Life: Amelia Earhart” will be at the Portrait Gallery, June 29, 2012 through May 27, 2013.
Update: Amelia Earhart was not the first women to earn a pilot’s license. That distinction goes to Raymonde de Laroche of France, who received her license in 1910.