Veritasium - 2024-11-20
The mistakes of Amelia Earhart’s final flight, and the physics that could have saved her. Use code VERITASIUM to get 50% off your 1st club crate when you join a club for kids aged 3+ or go to https://kiwico.com/veritasium 00:00 Amelia Earhart’s final flight 03:33 Who was Amelia Earhart? 05:36 The flight plan 07:13 How celestial navigation works 09:16 Invention of radio technology 12:02 Radio waves explained 22:44 Earhart makes her critical decision 24:55 Communication failures 28:30 “Gas is running low” 31:39 Her desperate final message 33:01 The small detail that could have saved her Special thanks to Clifford Heath for his help putting together the radio demo, and the folks at the Victorian ARDF group for connecting us. Thank you to Brian Harrison and Michael Murphy with the AWA Communication Technologies Museum for their assistance with early research. Thank you to Peter Bevelacqua over at Antenna Theory for help filling in some missing details. Sharp-eyed viewers might notice there doesn't seem to be a loop antenna in the flight simulation shots. It sadly wasn't included in the simulator's model of Earhart's Electra, but it features prominently in old photos. The Secret Life of Radio video credits: Tim Hunkin - https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=4AyDKVi6brMqSIMD&v=LMxate9gegg&feature=youtu.be Join us on Patreon for early access videos, bonus content, and to support Veritasium! https://ve42.co/PatreonDE Patrons: Adam Foreman, Albert Wenger, Alexander Tamas, Anton Ragin, Balkrishna Heroor, Bertrand Serlet, Bill Linder, Blake Byers, Bruce, Dave Kircher, David Johnston, Evgeny Skvortsov, Garrett Mueller, Gnare, Greg Scopel, I. H., John H. Austin, Jr., Juan Benet, KeyWestr, Kirill Shore, Kyi, Lee Redden, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Matthias Wrobel, Meekay, Michael Krugman, Orlando Bassotto, Paul Peijzel, Reed Spilmann, Richard Sundvall, Sam Lutfi, TTST, Tj Steyn, Ubiquity Ventures, gpoly, john kiehl, meg noah, wolfee If you’re looking for a molecular modeling kit, try Snatoms, a kit I invented where the atoms snap together magnetically - https://ve42.co/SnatomsV References: https://ve42.co/RefsEarhart Directed by Sulli Yost and Derek Muller Written by Sulli Yost and Derek Muller Edited by Peter Nelson Animated by David Szakaly, Fabio Albertelli, Ivy Tello, Mike Radjabov, Mohamed Alhaj, Emma Wright Illustrations by Jakub Misiek, Emma Wright, Maria Gusakovich Filmed by Derek Muller and Bernard Lau Additional Research by Gabriel Bean, Geeta Thakur Produced by Sulli Yost, Derek Muller, Rob Beasley Spence, Emily Lazard, Tori Brittain, Umar Ijaz Thumbnail contributions by Peter Sheppard, Ren Hurley Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images and Storyblocks Music from Epidemic Sound and Jonny Hyman
My introverted friend Emily was invited to our Halloween party. She dressed up as Amelia Earhart, sent us all a photo and said she’s on her way, and then never showed up. Truly iconic.
Lol that sounds like a great idea 😂
😭
i should not laugh on this😭
this never happened
Amazing 😂
If you ever feel forgotten, just remember there was another person in the plane when Amelia Earhart went missing (Fred Noonan).
Right!? I didn't even realize he was with! I used to think she was alone.
In Apollo 11 there were 3 Astronauts and 1 of them is always left out even though he had the most important job of waiting for the 2 that went to the surface all alone. If you don't know who I'm talking about I rest my case.
It's Michael Collins by the way.
He was an experienced airline pilot and expert navigator... but you do see his elbow in some of the animated shots.
Yeah, and he had an amazing career and history of his own.
🤣🤣
I have seen SO MANY Earhart documentaries over the years. I have never seen one that painted so clear a picture of what went wrong. Fantastic job.
Well yea, they were there.
If the Pacific Ocean had a world trade centre, Amelia woulda found a way to crash into it
@@jotrutchhahaha well if you consider flying a plane was relatively new still
And being a female pilot she definitely would have backed into after the First strike
right? i remember when i was young watching documentary about here. from what i watched i thought she got missing because she didn't have enough fuel. i was thinking to myself why would anyone do that? it was bad and stupid documentary it only focusd on that she is a woman pilot
great one !!
If I recollect correctly, the guy who installed the direction finder was frustrated with how little time Earhart spent with him learning how to use it, and that she seemed disinterested or distracted during what little time she spent with him.
Manning indicated that he had suspicions what happened, but never revealed what they were. He did seem spooked by the crash they had on the first attempt. Earhart’s advisor, Paul Mantz, was also on that crash flight, and he seemed concerned as to how Earhart flew the plane when it led to the crash.
The lack of her confirming receipt of radio messages during until the last stages of the flight I think is indicative that she didn’t receive those messages, probably due to the aerial being damaged taking off from Lae…film at the time does seem to show something happening under the belly of the Electra.
Fred Noonan often gets forgotten, but was possibly the best navigator of his time in the air…he plotted the early Pacific routes for the Pan Am Clippers of the day. His background was shipping, and with his experience he must have known that Dead Reckoning errors must be greater with air navigation because the aircraft is traversed faster than a ship, so by the time the calculations were completed the aircraft would have covered quite a distance and potentially with changes in wind direction and speed. Apparently, he used Drift measurements to obtain wind speed. This required dropping flares or dye balls into the sea and measuring how far they moved off from the ideal position predicted by the Drift Meter. Noonan must have known that he’d struggle to find Howland, but trusted that Earhart could get them the rest of the way using direction finding equipment.
Earhart believed in psychism, fortune telling and destiny. She seemed to believe that positivity would get her through. She’d had several scrapes but got through them, and I think that this reinforced her belief in her abilities or that a guardian angel was watching over her.
I grew up seeing her as a bit of a historical hero, but having read all that I could find about her, she was an amateur whose luck ran out.
I appreciate this context. However, there's one thing I don't understand about your comment. You said she was an amateur whose luck ran out. Were there professional women pilots at the time? I thought it would have been impossible for a woman to be a professional pilot - or indeed to have the kind of long-term knowledge a man might have built up from serving in the air force, for instance. So... of course she was an amateur. Of course she didn't know what she was doing. Maybe she was too cocky, and maybe that's even part of what got her killed. But wouldn't she have needed that audacious amateur spirit just to get where she was?
I'm honestly asking. I don't know the answers to this. I just thought it was weird you're being so hard on someone who was doing something she wasn't supposed to be able to do, based on mainstream American opinions about women's capacities at the time.
@ I guess I am being hard on AE. I guess it’s because she makes me so angry about her loss and that of Fred.
I’ve read everything that’s publicly available about her (including her own book “20Hrs 40Mins) and I sense someone who liked flying but wasn’t particularly good at it, and had no intention of improving her skills. I believe she was really a hobby/amateur flyer who used her fame as a female pilot to make money. It sounds like I’m being horrible to her and her memory, but it is the truth as i see it.
There were plenty of good female pilots of the day, flying instructor Neta Snook being one of them and AE took some lessons with her…but becoming a better pilot wasn’t what AE wanted to do, she wanted to milk her fame as much as she could. Women like Harriet Quimby were true pioneers and she died in 1912 in an aviation accident. To me, Harriet deserves more fame than AE for being a women in a “man’s world”, yes AE may have achieved more but she got where she was because of trailblazers such as Harriet. In my view AE gets disproportionate interest because she “mysteriously” disappeared on her last flight. Yes she had achievements but many were because aircraft themselves were improving: Harriet Quimby (whom I’m sure by now people will sense I admired) died in 1912, so she never lived long enough to witness aircraft that could fly over oceans, I’m sure if timings were different we’d be talking about Harriet today!
To AE was an early example of an ‘influencer’ in a consumer market. AE had clothing and even luggage lines that she shared profits from. She even allowed herself to feature in cigarette advertising despite not being a smoker and hating smoking as a dirty habit. I don’t blame her, her peak was was around the time of the Great Depression, and she was well aware of how bad life was for many people with her formerly being an early form of social worker to deprived kids, and I sense insecurity that drove her to make money from her fame while it lasted.
AE was a huge believer in psychics and sixth sense, even attributing her “intuition” at times for things working out right, which is why I believe that she thought things would turn out well when she left on her World Flight…I firmly believe that with Fred Noonan’s navigation, the direction finder and her intuition she didn’t think she could fail.
As for her flying abilities, on her first attempt at the World Flight she crashed on takeoff because of an amateur’s mistake, a ground loop. A top pilot of the day, Paul Mantz, was her aviation advisor at the time and was in the cockpit when she crashed. He seemed astonished at how poorly she flew the plane, which was the first time in her career she personally flew a plane with two engines. I can’t remember the details now but he noticed on takeoff that she wasn’t doing what she should be doing to keep the Electra on the runway until takeoff. Paul Mantz would later go on to die in a plane crash filming the 1965 movie “Flight of the Phoenix”, in which he was a stunt pilot.
I started from a place as a young guy really impress with AE and her achievements, and was driven to find out what happened to her. It ate at me as a schoolchild. As I grew to adulthood and started reading all that I did my opinion changed from admiration and putting her on a pedestal to almost disbelief that tragedy didn’t strike her sooner. I do think she was headstrong and a feminist, but only a theoretical feminist. She went on about being the match of men, yet never attempted to understand aircraft and the technology, that’s demonstrated by her not being willing to learn how the direction finder worked. Wherever she went it was men that worked on her aircraft to get them to fly. To me she missed a golden opportunity to show women were the match of men by learning about engines, for example.
I may be wrong about her, but after her original fame she did little flying until the World Flight, and admitted it’d probably be her last such project.
@@chasm6091I think ElectricSmurf's use of the word "amateur" is misleading, as we tend to think of it mainly as someone who's not a professional and tend to conclude that they are therefore not as proficient. An amateur in the true sense of the word could very well have similar experience and expertise to a professional in a particular arena while not necessarily making a living from that pursuit (as in the case of Harriet Quimby); it sounds to me like "dilettante" would be the more accurate term for Earhart as an aviator.
@@chasm6091 this is a great question. There we many female pilots at this time, Amelia was just one of the most lasting names we remember because of the search to find her and her extreme popularity at the time. Look into the book Amelia Earhart's daughters - it gives a bit more historical context for the many women pilots at the time who made names for themselves working as barnstormers, stunt flyers, plane racers, and war plane ferry pilots. There was even a campaign to train more women as pilots to help the war department as men were flying planes on the battlefield so women were used to pilot planes between bases and overseas. They were badass women!
An amateur with 16 years of flying, several times as the first person to have done something and sometimes as the first woman having done something.
The bravery of these early pilots is impressive. They pushed the boundaries of what was technically possible.
And it was Noonan who made the navigational error.
Since the facts show the opposite of your claims it is clear you are very biased.
One word: preparedness. If you want a fantastic example of preparedness, look at how Amundsen organized his South Pole expedition. Leftover fuel cans were found over 50 years later and were completely full. He marked his supply depots with rows of red flags for 1200 m in each direction (E and W as he was travelling S and then N on the way back). He got to the 1200 m by taking the largest possible error on navigation, and then doubling it. They had enough food to miss a depot and still make it to the next one. His entire team were expert skiers and dog-sledders, so everyone could do everyone else's job. All this in 1911.
I believe that he didn't bother with (converging)latitude measurements when he got close to the pole - kept it simple. Opposed to Scott calculated both, time and complexity.
Another word: Money
@@herrk.2339 I mean she got the contacts to let runways build on remote islands and move 3 navy warships into position. I doubt money was an issue.
@@jurgenpeters1373 The runway is what made the expedition physically possible, the strategy by Amundsen outlined in the comment above seems to take it from physically possible to a slam dunk. Having two navy ships assisting your journey is very useful, but not that much considering the size of the pacific. The nature of the endeavour makes it a more difficult thing to be prepared for
@@herrk.2339 I haven't looked into it, but at the point where she found a mistake, sent a telegram to one of the ships before the departure but never waited for an acknowledgement (and the correction did indeed not reach the ship in time), wasn't there an element of haste in this? It might be harder to prepare for, but I do think she rushed too quickly into this.
I have a bone to pick with public education. They way Amelia's story was told essentially boiled down to: "she disappeared mysteriously over the Pacific ocean and nobody know what happened". The full story is so much more interesting.
My public education included a filmed dramatization of the actual communications between Itasca and Earhart. It was clear to everyone in the classroom there were radio issues. It was also understood her amateur understanding of radio technology - that there was literally a communication breakdown somewhere. It did not attempt to lay 'blame" or make conclusions - just that during the attempt great effort was put into guiding her flight but through accident or bad luck or the enormity of the challenge with the technology of the era, that it failed. And that she likely had to make a water landing and was probably killed or dead from exposure not long after. Public education typically sucks when it comes to history - I learned far more reading in the library than was ever presented in class - but in the case of Earhart and her disappearance, it got a pretty fair and unusually intesnive treatment for elementary school in the mid 1970's.
We have worked out a lot more of the details since I was in school. And schools are slow to get updates on ALL the things they have to educate upon.
The absolute minutia of every significant historical event is really hard to cover. How detailed you get into what topics also depends on your teacher, school, state, textbook supplier, and other factors.
@@PaulNechifor That's the wrong lesson to take away from this, mate
The curriculum probably doesn't have much room for stories like this, what with all the wars and stuff
IMHO, the larger factor in this: "Get there itis", a mental issue that has killed many pilots, as evidenced by:
A. Leaving when conditions were less than ideal.
B. Sending VITAL communications to ships about radios frequencies & etc. and not ensuring said communications were received, understood, AND that they made sense.
C. Not turning back when she had a chance, and things were already going wrong.
In other words, she was SO focused on getting there, she just kept blowing of potentially huge issues.
Closely related to "Go Fever" in rocketry.
The fact that she appears to not have been receiving voice communication and did not turn back on such a radio dependent flight is quite remarkable.
It's always good to exercise vital equipment before your life depends on it and part of her radio array had from out point of view shown no capacity to work. Perhaps she didn't expect to receive the weather updates and so didn't know that she was missing them, but the absence of a handshake communication protocol was a clear failure in the plan.
@@cidiousblack2136 Dude, it was 1937. People hadn't worked this stuff out yet. It's flights like this which are the reason we have these procedures today. We learn from others mistakes.
@@qarnos I'm sorry, what? We hadnt figured out the basic logic of "this entire project depends on the radio, we should make sure it works?" Even before ships went terribly wrong, I think we could figure out "the sailboat trip I set up needs a sail."
@@qarnos Nah mate. You know what you don't know and plan for it. In this instance, she did not know what she did not know and went ahead anyway. Her hubris or arrogance was astounding.
Growing up I used to think Earhart was some sort of legend, flying literally solo, in a tiny plane. But after watching this it really makes me feel she was unprepared and naive for what she was up against. Kinda like the Oceangate CEO.
Also there was so much job done to make this happen - new flying strips, three guarding ships... It's huge recourses that only a celebrity could pull up. All this sounds much less of an a solo achievement.
not solo
With the backing of the entire US government. Then after all that, she’s sending last minute telegraphs that never arrived in time.
She was, but that is why the navy commander shouldve taken charge and told her what waves to use so he could guide her home had she had the proper guidance the trip wouldve been easy and she wouldve been remembered as the first woman to ever fly around the world, but now because of his arrogance she remember as the one that died with crew during the around the world trip, she wasnt completely unprepared she was 80% done the trip
Yeah we were definitely sold a feminist lie about her in school.
I sailed in the US Navy as a Radioman/IT for 25 years and then 5 years on commercial ships. An old hand on my first commercial ship told me "You get careless out here, danger will find you". He was correct about sailing and life in general.
Complacency. It’s so so easy to relax when you didn’t die last time.
"Luck favors the prepared" - Edna Mode
Yep, that's why mostly highly experienced professionals are KIA...
I never considered how complex radio communication was back then, having multiple antennas tuned to different frequencies. I grew up on video games that have a map marker to the destination. I've always wondered if modern planes have something similar to that because they use GPS. Is flying today as simple as portrayed in the video games? Just point your nose to the map marker?
That is true in many fields. If you are surrounded by danger, you will eventually stop seeing it. I am a chemistry teacher and handling dangerous chemicals on a daily bases makes you careless. You need to constantly remind yourself that the safety measures are necessary, because if something goes wrong, even if it is unlikely, the results could be devastating.
This was the absolute best documentary on Amelia Earhart's final flight that I've ever seen. Despite seeing dozens of depictions of the flight over the years, none of the radio mistakes/malfunctions were ever explained. Most of the documentaries wanted to focus on the conspiracy theories instead of the science. The science is infinitely more interesting. Thank you for this!
Only now years later do we realize what a waste of time discovery channel was :)
@Machoman50ta Doesn’t stand up to analysis, financier and organizer was Palmer Putnam, navigator and radio operator was Fred Noonan. Incomplete preparation was the culprit.
@@PRH123 Behind every successful man is a woman. Behind every unsuccessful woman is a man.
@@clinch4402 To us it doesn't matter if you're successful or not, we're always right behind you clapping them cheeks.
Ok bootlicker
The sheer amount of veritasium content released recently is a true blessing
They are freaky 😲
All thanks to AI, I think he probably outsources everything to a Chinese and Indian video editing sweatshop and he usually stands in a studio and the entire environment in the back is cgi including the grass lands he is standing on cuz all those places he gets to access is insane cuz no one can enter those places but how him lol something to think.
He's fooling a lot of people.
Thankfully an old head like me who is 45 yrs old can spot these classic tactics 😊
@@muazunais2378 Take your meds
yeah less than a week since last upload
@@muazunais2378 1/10 trolling attempt. You made it WAY too obvious.
What this made me realize is how far we’ve come in terms of navigation and communication since. And even with all the technology we have today, mistakes happen.
Not mistakes, but ignorance and hubris, often fueled by greed.
I'm 77 years old and this video is by far the absolute best presentation and explanation on Earhart's disastrous last flight. You did an excellent job of breaking down the technical problems and explaining it to a general audience. Would love to see the bonus Patreon vid, but I am disabled, below poverty line. I do not understand why almost 99% of other media does cheap tabloid versions of Earhart's final flight. Thanks again for such a superb investigation and researched video. Dima
Bless you dmitry ❤ you seem lovely
Bless you dmitry, you seem super chill and lovely
God bless you bro
Agreed. This is probably hands down a great presentation on how and why she disappeared.
"Disasterous" - Yes, indeed!
I'm amazed at how ill-prepared the expedition to cross the Pacific was. Amelia Earhart certainly had ambition and bravery, but it seems she was seriously lacking in her understanding of risk and how to mitigate that risk with redundancies. Instead of resolving uncertainties and potential issues before takeoff, she just hoped for the best.
It had worked out before, so she thought shes doing good enough.
She was brave and everything, but her behaviour seems incredibly stupid. It blows my mind how you can go on a journey like that and be lacking this amount of certanity and understanding...
It's common when you make mistakes but get away with them. You start to belive that it always be that way or even that you are special. It's even worse if other people praise you for your acheivments and bravery.
@@cyrkielnetwork The problem with complacency is that it DOESN'T get you every time. Also it's crazy that she didn't check her equipmet once in the air after takeoff.
We must remember that aviation in the 1930s was an ENTIRELY different beast than what we know today. Obviously in equiment and knowledge, but even more important in mentality. Today it is the best regulated, best trained and best controlled sector short of nuclear technology. There is an in depth investigation into ANY relevant accident or almost accident with recommendations published to reach everyone. Every failure has been analysed, chewed through by multiple experts.
And even then, we have tragic accidents like Air France 447. A situation where a minor malfunction combined with misinterpretation leads to a desaster and the death of hundreds of people. That was just 15 years ago.
In an era where communication was a challenge under the best conditions, technology often unreliable and understood by very few, training scarce and daring counted for much it is perfectly understandable how Earhart ended up with her plan. Nobody of her peers would have acted much differently.
This story is a chilling reminder of how small errors can cascade into tragedy, especially in high-stakes situations. It makes you think about all the "what ifs" and how important clear communication and shared responsibility are. RIP Amelia Earhart.
We call it the "swiss cheese effect" in aviation (and probably lots of other places). Sometimes the mistake makes it through all the holes and doesn't get stopped by the cheese, and that's when there's an accident.
SMALL errors? And she stacked up a whole slew of large risks on top. The possibility of the outcome realized was predictable, at some fairly high percentage.
@dannymaxx510 I have only heard the Swiss cheese effect in discussions about aviation safety, but I bet it is a common engineering term too. I just started to think about the Therac-25 incident
@@savagesarethebest7251 Only on over lightened components.
Yeah, like, what if she'd gotten another radio operator to fill in.
There's a Brazilian Aviation YouTuber called Lito from the channel Aviões e Músicas (Planes and Music) that always says, every plane crash is a chain of events, if you break one link of the chain, the accident won't happen.
We can see this in Amelia Earhart's case
This is absolutely maddening. It's error after error, messages not being received nor acknowledged, fundamental misunderstanding of radio frequencies, and on and on. So incredibly frustrating.
women have evolved to expect to have a man to fall back on, this is why they make such terrible leaders. this is also why they seemingly have no real understanding of risk, risk assessment is what men evolved to do.
Radio technology was in its infancy in 1930, give them a break. Also, all adventurous pilots have a bit of arrogance, so it fits.
@Kopernicus67 people knew how radio worked. I collected Radio News magazines from the 1920s. Radio had an enormous hobbyist audience and wasn't a subject that only experts knew about. It didn't take any extraordinary effort to get the information they needed. Give ME a break.
Females for you
@@Kopernicus67 false
The hands on radio demonstration really helped me understand what all the documentaries on this subject have always described. Thank you!
+
I wondered how direction trackers worked, and that demonstration was great.
what part of the video do you refer to with your comment?
We still use these systems in modern aircraft today
I knew I would be sad, but I didn't think I would get this angry at the lack of preparation on Earhart's part. I always figured it was just adventurism hitting the limit of the technology. But I can't understand not having complete understanding of vital equipment and complete synchrony with the people you relied on for such a bold journey.
Might have been better to arrive near Howland at night, to use Itasca's searchlight.
I can’t believe she didn’t know how to use Morse code. How basic is that and she didn’t bother to learn it. Instead she insisted that the US Navy paid by American tax dollars call her by voice. WTF.
Poor Noonan. 😢
@@VS-yu5wk And also: insisting going around the globe the hardway. That she was, at best spotty for flying. And no one was the adult in the room and told that the plan was literally a deathwish, and hell no, and why.
Redirect your anger towards marx ideology and its revisionism
This story perfectly shows how important two things are anyone should live by:
- Prior Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance.
- Good communication is key.
Prior Preparation and Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance**
9:18 - God could you imagine discovering you think will be absolutely pointless, only for it to essentially redefine the course of humanity. To think, radio waves were literally the impetus for Radio, Television, eventually Wifi and Cellphone signals. It potentially altered the course of WW2. Hertz was so incredibly humble for how monumental this discovery was.
He was looking for radio waves because Maxwell had predicted a world of electromagnetic waves beyond those already known
@@otterlyso As with almost everything we discover, they're always standing on the shoulders of giants. I'll never discount how important the discoveries of those that come before us were and still are.
At least he got a car rental business out of the deal! 🙃😇🤣
Amazing, isn't it? Although you can see where he was coming from. Tiny sparks you could only see under a microscope? And with the emitter super close by? Yeah, what do you do with that? It's mind-boggling to think that despite the square-cube law we can use these same waves to communicate with spacecraft outside our solar system and even see the very beginning of the universe!
I mean, light and sound were always available as wireless communication methods, so...
I'm assuming he didn't know about the atmosphere being a mirror to radio waves. How could he have predicted any usecase?
"When attempting any challenging endeavor, you need someone with the right knowledge who will also take responsibility for getting things right." This is so true. Too many projects fail due to unknowledgeable people in charge or knowledgeable people not taking enough responsibilities.
@@ben-z similarly her grandson Dale didn't know not to hit the wall at Daytona in his NASCAR
FSD
Simple, people with the right knowledge don't want to get blamed, they think it's not their problem, better someone else to take the responsibility.
Yah the knowledgeable people are walked over by unknowledgeable people because of nepotism,wokeism and the sort. So guess what, the knowledgeable people give up and watch the disaster happen.
One can only speculate why the navel officer didn’t take responsibility for her, but one can imagine her personality and connections made it impossible
As a pilot who's been lost before as well as one who's flown over large bodies of water in single engine aircraft, I have at least a basic understanding of just how challenging what she attempted was and how your mind can start to run away with incorrect or fatalistic assumptions if not trained or rested properly. My heart sank for her as the story progressed. She had a lot of odds stacked against her and she has my deepest sympathy and respect.
Agree, the Pacific is vast, the understanding of radio waves before WW 2 was limited as was the equipment. Much was learned during WW 2. Dad spent his adult life flying in the Canadian Arctic he was a very good navigator he could find the trappers cabin at night on the vast tundra, lake shore, or where it was.
As a student pilot, I kept getting both amazed and mortified more and more about what early aviators had to do to find their way.
In a more amusing note, while VORs are going out of fashion in lieu of GPS, they're not THAT different than what they had finding the dips in signal with their loop antenna.
About 20 years ago in my country, a 737-300 lost their navigation and communication (according to national transportation safety board, both device was malfunctioned) in the middle of sea. The pilot decided to turn to the right which according to map, land should be somewhere to the right. But they could only guessed since they had no devices to measure how much degree they were turning. Their only hope was they could spot a land then try to figure from the land features to guess where they were at. They ended up landing on small airport around 800 kilometer away from their origin and destination.
She put this odds in place herself
@@noisycarlos VORs are much more advanced than what they were using. That is the difference--a very significant difference.
Came here for a history lesson and got an extra science lesson included. Now that’s good value.
Of his own skills he once remarked, "Navigation in bad weather was my specialty. One passenger remarked, "You don’t always get a glad hand when you sail with Manning, but you feel damned safe."
He retired to a quiet and private life of lecturing and consultant work. He died at his home in Saddle River, NJ on August 1, 1974.
Manning was smart to call it quits. Survival of the smartest.
Yeah, he surely was. He saw this coming after that take off blunder. I don't know why they were so desperate and didn't prepare well for this world travel. Maybe they thought that there was no way this could go wrong.
@@ShubhamKumar-wm9vg Maybe they just feared that someone else would beat them if they delayed it too much. She was certainly on a rising trajectory and it probably got to her and her crew heads in some way.
@@sailormatlac9114 she obviously became a star for no reason. Things just played out in her favour all of her life and she became the first woman to cross the Atlantic but she was just a passenger in that journey, Anyother woman could have been given this opportunity. But she got all the fame and awards for that. She must be desperate to keep rising. Their preparations had a lot of shortcomings and the journey decisions were wrong too. This all led to that ultimate demise. This could have been a different story if she just would have put some time into learning more about radiophysics.
Well in the end Manning has managed to dodge a bullet. Later surviving U-Boat encounter and manage to become a Vice Admiral in the Navy. All because he bail out immedietly after seeing AE incompetence after just a simple take off.
@@ShubhamKumar-wm9vgi feel even back then there must've been some ppl saying "first women passenger to fly across the Atlantic? So what? Passenger"
As a wildland firefighter I was taught that the cause of almost every single fatality could be traced to a breakdown in communication. The most recent ones all occurred because their radio signals stopped working. The technology has improved but the same risks and challenges still exist and still cause deaths.
Quick, another burning bush meeds saving!
I think it’s true in almost every fatality, when it comes right down to it. Clear and concise communication saves lives, failure to communicate often leads to catastrophic outcomes and for more than just yourself.
Star link will fix this
@@leprechaunbutreallyjustamidgetNot when the guiding intent is ill-informed and malicious. Greed, EGO and hate make these times especially perilous for the United States. The ignorance, avarice and corruption of one man almost seals our fate. Hopefully, we will have a few good men of character and integrity from within who will guide the ship and do the right thing to save Democracy!
This is not really true. Major incidents happen because a chain of errors that are not mitigated by procedures and equipment. This is as described by Dr James Reason. The Swiss Cheese model.
I spent my entire life thinking she was a great pilot and navigator who was lost due to unavoidable disaster.
Now i realize she was lost due to sheer, insane, and unfathomable incompetence by all parties
i feel a bit sad. I did a project on her in primary school, clearly it was all fiction.
Agree, i think she was rather reckless and ill-prepared. She didn’t equip herself with adequate knowledge and preparation, leaving the entire journey by hoping for the best. I would say she was brave but naive.
Primarily her. She was the pilot in command.
The Navy kept telling her, I don’t think they can be blamed
It was the Bermuda Triangle
The way you summarised the video at the end on how knowledge and responsibilities go together was just amazing.
Being an ex airline pilot, who flew across the Pacific regularly, I found the presentation utterly fascinating, thank you! 🙏🏻
You're not an ex airline pilot.
@@cx3622 How can you be so sure? I’ve seen rarer circumstances
I read this in a very sophisticated British accent. Like a Butler accent
@@cx3622I agree, once a pilot, always a pilot.
"Joe Bullwinkle" sounds like the name of a dominant gay man in adult entertainment.
This video made me appreciate even more having a device that fits in my pocket and can tell me precisely where on Earth I am. Not knowing about radio waves nor stars.
We do tend to forget about it!
So, if that device malfuntion you’re in big trouble hah. At least have backup, like packing 3 of those 😂
So what you are saying is that, if we lose all electricity, we are completely screwed.
@@qfnkdv4771 lol it's hilarous yet very effective solution,
@@JaasauBINGO!!!!
The last message of the video was truly a powerful one. As an engineer, it resonated with me. You have to have proper knowledge to take on the responsibility.
Get it. Resonated.
Amen from another engineer. Knowledge seems to be in good supply. Responsibility seems to have fallen off. But to be fair, it seems that taking a stand for engineers is a greater risk than in days gone by. Just seems so to me.
@@mrcat5508😊
@@mrcat5508As an amateur radio operator, it resonated with me too.
Clearly you were on the same wavelength as the message
Trying to locate a speck of pepper in an Olympic size swimming pool from about 100 feet high would be very difficult for even the most skilled pilots today. In 1937 Amelia Earhart's plane simply ran out of gas after she left New Guinea.
The best analogy for Earhart I ever heard was that of a person that throws a baseball pretty well but doesn't understand the game. She could fly a plane pretty well but didn't understand flight.
Barely - she was known as poor to decent pilot at the time. Her flight instructor Neta Snook Southern described her as a nice person but a poor pilot. Even her husband and promotor tried to hire Louise Thaden as her ''mechanic''. Thaden was an accomplished pilot who was supposed to handle the take off and landing in secret but was insulted and rejected it. As is in many of these cases, it's not the skilled that are remembered but those with good marketing...
There's enough IMO to speculate that the experienced merchant marine (and pilot) Captain Manning left because he was genuinely afraid for his life considering what a raging ego fraught with dangerous compulsion Earhart was. She was a flying deathwish. I always wondered where Fred Noonan stood on all that. Naive perhaps or just as reckless as Earhart.
@@gullinkambe6726this isn't saying a whole lot considering how new flying was as a whole to humans.
@@justincase4812what gets ne about all this and Noonan, is that despite how smart and accomplished he is, everyone just seems to accept that he had 0 say in any choice that happened during the journey
Hard to argue with a woman so they killed off the radio
This is the best explanation of what happend to Earhart I have ever seen. No mysticism, science based explanations and addressed in laymans terms. Great video
Industry I worked in for many years, we always trained, "Okay, but what do you do if THAT doesn't work.... and if THAT doesn't work? What if..." Seems like she relied on things working just right and didn't really have any backup plan.
Not entirely true. The video mentions they had dead reckoning, celestial navigation, and multiple radio systems. They had backup plans, but they didn't do the due diligence to ensure each plan was fully baked and operable, that all parties involved were well informed and prepared.
@@error.418 I think celestial navigation is a bit overrated in aircraft. At the start of WW2, the RAF bombers could barely find the right city to bomb using celestial and dead reckoning, in fact they often found the wrong city. In fact Switzerland was bombed several times, and that's not even the right country.
@@dougerrohmer Oh I'm making no comment as to what is viable, just that they did have multiple methods. I also have no clue if it's reasonable to compare Noonan's abilities with those of WW2 bomber pilots.
I think it's very much a sign of the times. Just look at workplace death rates throughout the last century. Today, we do what you say, having backups for backups. Back then, "try not to die" was sort of the equivalent of current OSHA standards.
And @error.418, having a backup plan that isn't tested and confirmed is virtually the same as not having a backup plan. It's the difference between going on a summer camping trip and bringing jackets vs. saying "ah, it shouldn't rain I think"
If you're saying that they didn't do their due diligence to ensure that the plan was operable, then to me that would be the equivalent to having no backup plan at all @@error.418
Thanks!
Thank you!
this is literally the first time in my years of fascination with Amelia Earhart that I’ve actually seen someone talk about what scientifically was planned and what scientifically went wrong. Thank you!❤️❤️❤️❤️
What 'scientifically' went wrong is despite her socialite status; best friends with Eleanor so had the Presidents ear, had runways built for her and a friggen navy escort she still messed it up.
As pilot in command it was entirely her fault - especially so as she didn't even know half the expected things required. It's called being coddled through life and told you are a genius amazing women even though she did nothing men hadn't done before (who actually had the correct skillset).
Things have only gotten worse since then.
@smackhead THIS.
Only a few seem to want to point this absolutely glaring consistency out.
95% of her story is absolute propaganda. 5% reality of the world we live in.
Continues to this day, if not far far worse…
@@smackhead this feels oddly sexist and weird.
@@jayboy2kay7 okay chill
Failing to fix her position with the USS Ontario was her BINGO fuel moment. The fact that she did not return to her departure point but instead proceeded on is proof enough of Manning's doubt about her airmanship and decision making.
Woman driver.
Right. And no: gender doesn't have anything to do with that.
Doubt of her could have led to that decision, if the people around you expect you to fail then you're going to be determined not to
the mirage of global fame must be so powerful... few of us can really comprehend its impact on one's actions and decisions... history is full of examples of 'silly' decisions by powerful and skillful individuals who got 'blinded' by this mirage. i imagine the feeling to be intoxicating, a form of inebriation capable of twisting realities.
as expected some comments refer to her abilities as a woman but some great worriers led entire armies on futile paths (against the pleads of other experienced worriers) just to 'prove a point' or 'make history'.
She didn't take the right equipment and had the chance to notice.
What happened to Earhart is similar to the lost colony of Roanoke: the outcome is somewhat clear but it obscuring details makes it seem more mysterious.
what's the clear outcome of Roanoke?
@ The survivors likely went to live with the Croatan Indians, and due to disease they likely died with the tribe. Or, the English quickly became absorbed by the tribe—and the English genetic traits disappeared upon a couple generations of intermarriage. Walter Raleigh and his financial backers could chalk up the colony’s demise as an act of God and not their fault in order to take heat off of their backs from the Crown or investors.
@captainjack8319 ohh ok thank you for explaining
@@captainjack8319 The english would not suffer from europian deseases. I find it more likely they simly assimilated. Hunter gatherers spend less time working than farmers and back in the day civilization provided very little as compared to the fun of not having to stick to a rigid christian code.
@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714That was only the puritans.
Hey, do y’all ever wonder why do we only talk about Amelia? Why don’t we talk about Fred? The navigator in the plane with her was Fred, they both died (there are some myths about them surviving and stuff)
A nice reminder why redundancy is the number one rule for NASA.
Not just NASA, but yup.
And number 2. 😁
@@robthaham3408 😂
Thats why they have killed more crews than anu other space agency
@@Semystic wait till we bring out the triple redundancy systems
I wonder what Manning's private thoughts may have been after the flight went missing? "Whew, glad I didn't go I thought this might have happened." Or, "Had I gone, this never would have happened." I suppose he was interviewed, and someone here may have read something about what he may have said, if any thing.
IMO, it seems like he left the mission because he knew there were flaws in the plan, and perhaps Earhardt wasn't willing to listen to him about it? Either way, after the previous crash which he'd been in, he was probably thinking "I'm not surprised"...
Edit to clarify this is my opinion not something I've read.
She probably got rid of the one antenna that does Morse code against his wishes and he decided it ain’t worth it
@@ExhaustedOwl it is your guess
@@deehaws4334 It's a fairly well educated guess. If I were in a car wreck with someone I would certainly never let them drive me anywhere again. Doubly so for an airplane. Airplane problems may occur less frequently, but when problems do occur it's fairly rare that one simply walks away from the incident unharmed.
Her preparation was clearly lacking and she was taking unnecessary risks with her and her crew's life, he clearly cottoned on to her recklessness and bailed before she got him killed.
All my life I had no clue how radio signals work. Your instruction has explained it in a way I can follow. Bravo to you and thank you.
This video was so amazingly done! I learned so much about frequency and waves, and have so much respect for the scientists who discovered it and it makes so many things possible because of it
Vertitasium must have hired so much (many) more people recently, the amount of videos recently at this production quality is astonishing
there's an open job listing for Veritasium for a writer/researcher that's been up for a few months now
I don't like correcting people's grammar online but it's *many, not much.
*many more people
AI bro
@@musafirgauravv AI must have been gotten really good to umm... what did the AI do again, can you elaborate?? If it's done the whole thing it certainly wouldn't look this good at the current level of AI; if they just did the animation well I've got bad news for you buddy, 3Blue1Brown did a video on how to make these style of animations using Manib(m). Nevertheless, I still wanna know what you meant when you said it was made by AI
@@matercan5649 Empty vessels make the most noise, hence why they can't back up their statement.
Taking responsibility is a risk-taking behaviour. I remember when on a summer job at a power supply manufacturer, I found out an issue with the product that had to be corrected - when boxes were already about to be loaded into the shipping truck. So I said wait, we have to fix this. Later that day, my boss said, it's great that you stopped the shipment, it was a responsible decision. But you should have gone straight to my office, because you did not have the right to stop the shipment. And he was right - I had no such right. I just had the responsibility to pretend I did, because the alternative would be a recall.
Some people are primarily mission-oriented: they want to accomplish the end-goal. Others are more process-oriented, they are motivated to follow the procedures. Aviation is an interesting combination of the two, because following procedures is critical to safety. That means it is very risky to start improvising, and there is a strong requirement to avoid doing it.
There were two key elements that were missing in Earhart's flight: understanding of radio propagation on her part, and a strict, mutually-agreed to, detailed communication plan. Given that there was no possibility to divert, disaster was a distinct possibility. And yet, everyone seemed to have thought "we'll make it - somehow."
Of course, hindsight is 20-20.
Fun fact: The Electra originally had a very different tail, until a young guy told the chief designer the plane would be unstable like that. The young guy turned out to be right, and got to running the extra wind-tunnel tests to re-design the tail. His name? Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, and he'd go on to heading development on the first US jet-fighter (P-80), the U-2, and the SR-71, and his division of Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin) would create the idea of a Skunkworks division and the first stealth-plane - the F-117. The hypersonic test-plane "SR-72 Darkstar" in Top Gun: Maverick was designed with the support of Skunkworks, and if you look close you see on the tail the traditional skunk logo.
how do u know this man
@@dumbahhpersonI was also skeptical but I just went a searchin in the internets and can confirm the parts about the “Model 10 Electra”. Didn’t care to confirm anything about the Mavrick movie but the career part was true and very impressive
His name? Albert Einstein
That sounds very Kelly Johnson: later in life someone else at Lockheed was known to say of him "that damn Swede can see air." He was a proper legend of aircraft design.
@@dumbahhperson What can I say, I'm a big nerd, and I like seeing connections
Wow, I always thought that she was flying solo and I really never thought about the communication. I kinda thought there had been none. It's really tragic to realize that she and Noonan only got lost because nobody realized they should point out the issues within the assumed use of radio communication. The telegram that never arrived is so frustrating as well. With all of the tech and the slimming-down of the Elektra, she probably felt very well prepared due to her experience. Man, what a story and what a sad conclusion.
I also thought it was awesome how you demonstrated the functionality of the loop, I was quite amazed at the accuracy because I thought maybe it was just too inaccurate and that's why they never made it to the island. Today I learned. Great video and awesome channel!
I've heard this story told many times over the years. Never have I heard of the detailed breakdown of the radio communications errors explained in such detail. Great show. Subscribing now!
@veritasium - 2024-11-26
If you enjoyed this video and want to go deeper, you'll find an exclusive bonus video on our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/amelia-earhart-116754675
@leandrrob - 2024-11-27
I feel it was probably arrogance, going without a radio operator, not testing and making all sorts of radio operation errors was a sure way to die in a place where there was no other option but to land using radio signals
@GlORIALALICON - 2024-11-27
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@kaizokujimbei143 - 2024-11-27
What actually happened to Amelia Earhart?
@kaizokujimbei143 - 2024-11-27
Good thing America voted for Trump. Because Kamala is disaster incarnate.
@musicburst2513 - 2024-11-28
@@veritasium what about the continuation of the thermite and action series?