WI: Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra Found In-Tact

Greenville

Banned
What if Amelia Earhart's lost plane is discovered intact somewhere in the vicinity of her last flight? Such as on an island, under the ocean, with human remains, etc.
 
After 80 years in near-tropical humidity and heat, with exposure now and again to salt spray? You can forget the interior, and much of the insulation on the wiring. Stainless steel control cables would be shot from chloride stress corrosion. Glass still unbroken would probably be badly de-laminated--and it's not unreasonable to expect that the occasional storm would have broken much of it. Assuming the prop(s) were wood, the varnish would have been long gone and there would be precious little left--and the hubs and bolts rusted badly, perhaps beyond reclamation. Anything rubber has oxidized and has already crumbled to dust or would if so much as touched. The engine(s) would probably be rusted into a seized condition, with the light ends long since gone from the oil, leaving a molasses-like sludge in the lubrication galleries. As for human remains, forget it. Maybe a few of the major weight-bearing bones and/or skulls if you're lucky and animals haven't gotten too aggressive. Long story short, this verges on ASB territory given the exposure conditions and mid-1930s materials. A hot maritime environment like Howland Island (let's say) is a rather aggressively corrosive environment.

About the best you could hope for is the builder's nameplate relatively shielded from the elements and in still-legible shape to establish definitively that this was Earhart's plane. The restoration project bhlee mentions is more like a near-total reconstruction.
 
If it is found in a oxygen free bottom pocket, rare deep lagoons in atolls are a example the damage would be less. A partial restoration or preservation/display might be practical.
 
After 80 years in near-tropical humidity and heat, with exposure now and again to salt spray? You can forget the interior, and much of the insulation on the wiring. Stainless steel control cables would be shot from chloride stress corrosion. Glass still unbroken would probably be badly de-laminated--and it's not unreasonable to expect that the occasional storm would have broken much of it. Assuming the prop(s) were wood, the varnish would have been long gone and there would be precious little left--and the hubs and bolts rusted badly, perhaps beyond reclamation. Anything rubber has oxidized and has already crumbled to dust or would if so much as touched. The engine(s) would probably be rusted into a seized condition, with the light ends long since gone from the oil, leaving a molasses-like sludge in the lubrication galleries. As for human remains, forget it. Maybe a few of the major weight-bearing bones and/or skulls if you're lucky and animals haven't gotten too aggressive. Long story short, this verges on ASB territory given the exposure conditions and mid-1930s materials. A hot maritime environment like Howland Island (let's say) is a rather aggressively corrosive environment.

About the best you could hope for is the builder's nameplate relatively shielded from the elements and in still-legible shape to establish definitively that this was Earhart's plane. The restoration project bhlee mentions is more like a near-total reconstruction.

That would be today. I wonder what would happen if it was discovered 40, 50, 60 years ago? Would her "legend" be such a big deal if we knew where and when she ended up at such an early date? Would the Smithsonian even bother to attempt a restoration if they discovered it intact in, like, 1947 or something?
 
If it is found in a oxygen free bottom pocket, rare deep lagoons in atolls are a example the damage would be less. A partial restoration or preservation/display might be practical.
That sounds more like Lake Superior off Isle Royale rather than the semi-tropical Pacific--but there in Superior, water temperatures don't get much above 45°F even in mid-summer.

I also take issue with the idea of the fuselage MOC as magnesium. Aluminum, no question. But magnesium? One stray exhaust spark or a lightning strike and the fuselage is in flames--and water only makes a magnesium fire worse.
 
The evidence is that they did find her body, but it has since been lost before they realized it was hers. The mystery has been solved. There's not much finding the actual plane would add.
 
I also take issue with the idea of the fuselage MOC as magnesium. Aluminum, no question. But magnesium? One stray exhaust spark or a lightning strike and the fuselage is in flames--and water only makes a magnesium fire worse.
The density advantage is great enough that people did (and do) it anyway, though. If you go looking around, it was (and is) used pretty heavily in aerospace applications. Even (maybe especially) for things like engine crankcases.
 
Likely duralumin, alclad treated. 2024 skin alloys had anywhere from .5 to 1.5 % magnesium.

So 100 kg of dualuminum melts from the fuel fire, releasing 500 grams of magnesium particles to be oxidized at high temperature.

I recall a safety article describing a effort to melt Lead in a Aluminium cook pan going badly. Aside from the wannabe bullet maker getting hit with a mix of liquefied Lead & pan the magnesium from the pan ignited atop the kitchen stove.
 
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That would be today. I wonder what would happen if it was discovered 40, 50, 60 years ago? Would her "legend" be such a big deal if we knew where and when she ended up at such an early date? Would the Smithsonian even bother to attempt a restoration if they discovered it intact in, like, 1947 or something?

When I was a schoolboy Earheart was as big a name as today. There were still some locals who remembered her from her year at Purdue University. The idea that she had been captured or shot down by the Japanese was still in strong circulation. Complete lack of evidence for this from the Japanese military records had not yet disabused the belief. I dont know if her name came up as often as Lindbergs in those days, but it was frequently seen in the magazines or TV.
 
A19760976000CP03.jpg

Speaking of names that never come up, Jerrie Mock, flying housewife and first woman to circumnavigate the globe solo and ride a camel. Her Cessna 180 is in the Smithsonian. So is Wiley Post's Winnie Mae.
 
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