Warbird Information Exchange

My opening post did not make it through the moderator's filter. So this post deletes any reference to missing flyers prior to WWII and asks is this image (in my next post) a B25? The expected path of the missing B25 flight 1944 Canton to Tututila is shown in this GE screen grab.[url][URL=http://s32.photobucket.com/user/tmax123/media/CantontoTutuila_zpskymrajbn.png.html][/url][/url]

Does this 2006 GE image show an aircraft at the bottom of the Orona lagoon and is that aircraft a B25. A USMC B25 (PBJ) went missing on flight from Canton to Tutuila. A very few people (one other person on a different forum) have said it could be a B25. One other person on a different forum thinks it could be a different type of aircraft. What would be the best way to analysis this image to show that it might be a B25. The folks at Scripps Institute/Bent Prop Project Recovery have never responded, probably thinking it's just coral rocks and my imagination. But if I can show thru some logical analysis method that it might be a B25 then they would show interest and maybe want to investigate. The annotations of airframe parts are my own subjective interpretation.[url][URL=http://s32.photobucket.com/user/tmax123/media/OronaL10E_zps5mnafg49.jpg.html][/url][/url]

The flight path would pass very close to Manra on the left or east of the path and Orona on the right or west of the path. If at cruise altitude, both islands would be visible in clear weather.

Looks like a Lockheed twin (Lodestar, Hudson, Ventura, Harpoon) to me. Short nose and longer aft fuselage don't match B-25.

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Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Port Charlotte, Florida

That's exactly what I thought, too. Or maybe a Twin Beech--similar proportions.

Google Earth measurements nose to tail are 50-51 feet; very close to the 53' often cited for the B25. If the nose is buried in the sandy lagoon bottom, that would account for the extra 2-3 feet. I read somewhere that the Marines frequently modified their PBJ version and replaced the forward glass canopy with an all metal housing as the nose was beefed up structurally to house more guns. That might account for the smooth nose appearance.

I still say it's a Lockheed twin. The engines are too close to the fuselage for a B-25, and the distance from the wing to the tailplane is too long for a B-25. As always, happy to be proven wrong.

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Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Port Charlotte, Florida

Does not look like the nose and cabin line up to me. Would the "liferaft" be located so close the the airplane itself?

These fuzzy images could be random things. There seems to be a lot of wishful thinking here.

Any word on how deep the water is at this location? If shallow, this could just be a dumping ground for barrels and other refuse. Two barrels close together and aligned right, and let the imagination do the rest...

that tigger guy could probably conjure some aviation shapes if we passed a hat

I would opine that a life raft would be long gone.....

I bet rocks.

Squint a bit and it looks like an early 20th Century aviator, waving from the window of a twin-engine aircraft. Beech twin - no Lockheed. Definitely Lockheed. Looks like a female aviator too. With an older chap with her.

I'll launch a vactio.. sorry - expedition - immediately!

This was my exact observation. I agree that it looks Lockheed.

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Jeff

The Lodestar 18? by K5DH seems a good fit; cited length is 49+ feet. So that would fit with the 50' measure by the GE ruler. How does one initiate a poll to find what others think?

Could the route of Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10 perhaps pass this way?

Just wunderin'...

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JT
AeroAntique
"Preserving Warbird History...one artifact at a time"
http://aeroantique.com/
"All right, Striker, you listen, and listen close. Flying a plane is no different from riding a bicycle; it's just a lot harder to put baseball cards in the spokes."

That would require passing thru to the alternate parallel universe of disappearance theory. I don't think the moderator would like to do that.