TIGHAR attempts at discrediting other researchThe Earhart Project has been TIGHAR’s main source of revenue and unquestionably it is their main project to date. They, meaning the members of TIGHAR, have done an incredible amount of research and due credit for the wealth of information which can be read on the TIGHAR website is due for that. In truth some research favours the TiGHAR brand and realistically some promoted ideas generated have to be taken with a pinch of salt. The very early promise to sort “Fact from Fiction” was not dutifully implanted in what could be read in many cases and picking out the fiction is a prerequisite on some matters.
When it came to “other entities” who were looking for a solution to the Earhart Mystery, TIGHAR became totally lacking in empathy and derided other researchers efforts. Notably in the case of “Crashed and Sank” researchers, TIGHAR has falsely stated many times that the case for ditching and loss at sea is a non-event because, if one Radio call heard from the Electra can be proved genuine after the supposed “loss time", then the Electra was on land. In this TIGHAR says some calls from the Electra are genuine but other radio experts do not consider the TiGHAR data produced to reflect that statement. TIGHAR blithely plows on with the statement, doesn’t listen to independent experts and so, ”Crashed and Sank" didn’t happen.
In my own case of The East New Britain Project, before I became involved, an Australian Army Veteran named Donald Angwin had been watching television and he heard during a documentary on Amelia Eahart that the Electra had been powered by “Wasp” engines and was still missing. Angwin who had been involved in finding a Wasp engine on the jungle floor on the island of New Britain, wrote to TIGHAR in 1990 and explained what had been seen on the Jungle floor in April 1945 and at that time in 1990, all that Donald Angwin knew was that a Pratt & Whitney Wasp had been found.
The leader at TIGHAR has a degree in History so I read and surely during the conflict that ensued in 1942 to late 1945, he would know that an aircraft powered by a Pratt & Whitney Wasp engine “in the low power range” would be in a precarious amount of danger by being sent anywhere near to the Japanese fortress of Rabaul where at any one time over a hundred fighter planes lurked. Therefore, low-powered aircraft would not be sent anywhere near to Rabaul.
Donald Angwin told me that the reply from TIGHAR, was rude and arrogant and he was surprised at the content and Donald told me when I joined the project, that he wanted nothing further to do with TIGHAR.
At this point in the story I have to mention that as a reader of the TIGHAR Forum since 1994, I have to remark that “any” slight mention on Earhart, Electra, P & W Wasp or anything to do with the missing duo or the aircraft that appears anywhere is immediately captured by TIGHAR and appears as information in the posts in the TIGHAR Thread on the Earhart Project.
In 1994, reading back in the threads, I could find no mention of Donald Angwin and his report to the Management of TIGHAR concerning the Wasp found on East New Britain.
In late 1994 we learned from the former Patrol Lieutenant, Ken Backhouse, that there was more wreckage than “just an engine” and that he had seen the wrecked aircraft thirty or so yards further on from the engine, covered in vines and tree debris. The wreckage was a twin-engined aircraft, was unpainted metal and bore no military insignia and looked as though it had been there for a good few years.
In 1996 I happened to be in Singapore on business and went to see the Pratt and Whitney Field Representatives in Singapore at the Loyang Industrial Estate. In 1994, we did know that the “Wasp” engine seen was associated with some information on a map and appeared to be an S3H1 variant rated at 600 H.P. (as written). I could at that time only find information that said the S3H1 Wasp was rated at 550 H.P., so I wondered what information could be had from the P&W Field office. The answer was “none” as the two Field Reps were both “Jet Men” and had not worked on Wasps. They asked what that was about and I told them. It was suggested that I write to “Big Pratts“ at Hartford, Connecticut.
Now, we know that the Electra Wasps were S3H1 “civilian” engines of 600 H.P. for T.O. when using 100 Octane gasoline. I can find no records of the S3H1 engine being in use in New Guinea before or during WWII, except for Earhart’s Electra and the single engine C.A.C. Wirraway aircraft which ran a three blade propeller, was a Geared engine and developed 650 H.P. in “military“ use. Post-war there
were S3H1’s in New Guinea.
Some time later and back in the Air Niugini Office, I received a FAX from TIGHAR, signed by Richard Gillespie. Gillespie had heard from Andre Malo, one of the P&W Field Reps in Singapore and Gillespie wanted to know if this Wasp I had been speaking of i.e.; an S3H1 Wasp, was the same Wasp that he had been informed about by Corporal Donald Angwin. By this time I knew more about TIGHAR and Don Angwin’s words came back to me. I replied to Gillespie in a mode of “Cannot Confirm or Deny”.
Nothing of this exchange appeared in the TIGHAR Forum Earhart thread.
I did write to "Big Pratt's" at Hartford and seemingly the name was appropriate... because, despite my letter to the President of P & W being headed as marked "Confidential", the letter was turned over to Gillespie for his "opinion". Well, it goes without saying what his opinion would be. A return letter from one of P & W's minions was quite open in saying they had turned over a Confidential letter to a person who had absolutely no empathy with anyone else looking for the missing duo who might well be able to take funding revenue away from his "World's best archaeological non-profit organisation"...
In 2004, we went public with the first website and immediately in the Earhart thread on the TIGHAR Forum, TIGHAR Members asked Gillespie if he knew about the East New Britain Project. After not informing the Members as he should have done over the years, Gillespie then blithely said, Yes, he knew about it and from that day on denigrated the Project but not only that, he allowed posts on the TIGHAR Forum which sneered at the project and which, worse still; inferred that the Australian Army Veterans
were liars.
I shall never forgive him for that.
David Billings
http://www.earhartsearchpng.com