Fred Noonan
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| Fred Noonan | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 4 April 1893 Cook County, Illinois |
| Died | unknown, missing 2 July 1937 en route to Howland Island, declared dead 20 June 1938 |
| Occupation | Navigator |
| Spouse | Mary Bea Noonan |
| Parents | Joseph T. Noonan Catherine Egan |
| Children | none |
Frederick Joseph Noonan (4 April 1893 – missing 2 July 1937, declared dead 20 June 1938[1]) was a flight navigator, sea captain and aviation pioneer who first charted many commercial airline routes across the Pacific Ocean during the 1930s. He was last seen in Lae, New Guinea on 2 July 1937 and disappeared with Amelia Earhart somewhere over the western Pacific during their World Flight.
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[edit] Early life and maritime career
Noonan was born in Cook County (Chicago), Illinois. His parents were Joseph T. Noonan (born in Maine around 1865) and Catherine Egan (born in England). Noonan's father died when he was four, and three years later a census report lists him as living alone in a Chicago boarding house, although relatives or family friends were likely caring for him. In his own words, Noonan "left school in summer of 1905 and went to Seattle, Washington,"[2] where he found work as a seaman.
At the age of 15, Noonan shipped out of Seattle as an ordinary seaman on a British sailing bark, the Compton. Between 1910 and 1915, Noonan worked on over a dozen ships, rising to the ratings of quartermaster and bosun's mate. He continued working on merchant and Royal Navy ships throughout the First World War. His harrowing wartime service included being on three vessels that were sunk by U-boats. [3] By 1919, Noonan had achieved some respectability as a ship's officer. Throughout the 1920s his maritime career was characterized by steadily increasing ratings and "good" (typically the highest) work performance reviews. Noonan married Josephine Sullivan in 1927 at Jackson, Mississippi. After a honeymoon in Cuba they settled in New Orleans.
[edit] Navigator for Pan Am
Following a distinquished 22-year career at sea that included sailing around Cape Horn seven times (on three occasions under sail)[3], Noonan contemplated a new career direction. After learning to fly in the late 1920s[3], he received a "limited commercial pilot's license" in 1930, on which he listed his occupation as "aviator." The following year he was awarded "license #121190, Class Master, any ocean,"[4] the qualifications of a ship's captain.[5] During the early 1930s, he worked for Pan American World Airways as a navigation instructor in Miami and an airport manager in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.
In March 1935, Noonan was the navigator on the first Pan Am Sikorsky S-42 clipper at San Francisco Bay. In April, he navigated the historic, round-trip China Clipper flight between San Francisco and Honolulu, piloted by Ed Musick (who was featured on the cover of Time magazine that year). Noonan was subsequently responsible for mapping Pan Am's clipper routes across the Pacific, participating in many flights to Midway and Wake Island, Guam, the Philippines and Hong Kong. In addition to more modern navigational tools, the licensed sea captain was known for carrying a ship's sextant on these flights.
1937 was a year of transition for Fred Noonan, whose reputation as an expert navigator, along with his role in the development of commercial airline navigation, had already earned him a place in aviation history. The tall, very thin, brown-haired and blue-eyed 43-year-old navigator was living in Los Angeles. He resigned from Pan Am because he felt he had risen through the ranks as far as he could as a navigator, and had interest in starting a navigation school. In March, he obtained a divorce from his wife Josie in Juarez, Mexico. Two weeks later, he married Mary Bea Martinelli (born Passadori) of Oakland, California. Noonan was rumored to be a heavy drinker, but this was fairly common during the era and there is no evidence it ever interfered with his reliability or accuracy as a navigator.[6]
[edit] Earhart world flight
Amelia Earhart met Noonan through mutual connections in the Los Angeles aviation community and chose him to serve as her navigator on her World Flight in the Lockheed Electra 10E she had purchased with funds donated by Purdue University, a circumnavigation of the globe at equatorial latitudes. Although the aircraft was of an advanced type and dubbed a "flying laboratory" for the press, little real science was planned, the world was already criss-crossed with commercial airline routes (many of which Noonan himself had first navigated and mapped) and the flight is now widely regarded as an adventurous publicity stunt. Noonan was probably attracted to the project because Earhart's mass market fame would almost certainly generate huge publicity, which in turn could reasonably be expected to attract attention to him and the navigation school he hoped to establish when they returned.
The first attempt began with a record-breaking flight from Burbank, California to Honolulu. However, as the plane was taking off to begin the second leg to Howland Island, its wing clipped the ground, Earhart cut an engine to maintain balance, the plane looped and the landing gear collapsed. Although there were no injuries, the Electra had to be shipped back to Los Angeles for expensive repairs. Over a month later they tried again, this time leaving California in the opposite direction.
Earhart characterized the pace of their 40-day, eastward trip from Burbank to New Guinea as "leisurely." They took off from Lae on 2 July 1937, and headed for Howland Island, a tiny sliver of land in the Pacific Ocean, barely 2,000 metres long. The plan for the 18-hour flight was to reach the vicinity of Howland using Noonan's celestial navigation skills, then find the island using radio navigation signals sent by the United States Coast Guard cutter Itasca. Through a series of misunderstandings or mishaps (which are still controversial), over scattered clouds, the final approach was never accomplished, although Earhart indicated by radio they believed they were in the immediate vicinity of Howland. Two-way radio contact was never established and the fliers disappeared over the western Pacific. Despite an unprecedented, extended search by the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, no physical evidence was found [7]
Later research showed that Howland's position was misplaced on their chart by approximately five nautical miles. There is also motion picture evidence that a belly antenna on the Electra may have snapped on takeoff (the purpose of this antenna has not been identified and radio communications seemed normal as they climbed away from Lae).
It is possible, even likely, that having run out of fuel, Earhart ditched the Electra in the ocean where she perished with her navigator. However, in her last message received at Howland, Earhart reported that they were flying a standard line of position (or sun line), a routine procedure for an experienced navigator like Noonan. This line passed within sight of Gardner Island (now Nikumaroro) in the Phoenix Group to the southeast and there is a range of documented, anecdotal testimony (but no proof) indicating Earhart and Noonan found Gardner, which at the time was uninhabited, landed the Electra on a flat reef near the wreck of a large freighter and sent sporadic radio messages from there. Other sources have indicated Noonan may have succumbed to either injuries or exposure rather quickly, while Earhart may have survived as a castaway for a period of months. For example, in 1940, Gerald Gallagher, a British colonial officer and licensed pilot, radioed his superiors to inform them he believed he had found Earhart's skeleton, along with a sextant box, under a tree on the island's southeast corner.
[edit] Cultural references
- Noonan is often mentioned in W.P. Kinsella novels.
- Both a baseball stadium and an airplane rental agency are named after him.
- Noonan was portrayed by David Graf in the "The 37s" episode of the Star Trek: Voyager television series.
[edit] References
- ^ Oakland Tribune, 23 June 1938
- ^ Fred Noonan, Sea Captain
- ^ a b c Taylor, Blaine. "Were They Spies for Roosevelt?" Air Classics, Volume 24, Number 2, February 1988. p. 26.
- ^ Fred Noonan, Sea Captain
- ^ Lovell 1989, p. 245.
- ^ Was Fred Noonan an Alcoholic?
- ^ Goldstein and Dillon 1997, p. 245- 254. Note: The US Navy Lexington aircraft carrier and Colorado battleship, the Itasca and even two Japanese ships searched for seven days, covering 150,000 square miles. The official search by a variety of vessels lasted until 18 July, a total of 16 days.
- Goldstein, Donald M. and Dillon, Katherine V. Amelia: The Centennial Biography of an Aviation Pioneer. Washington: Brassey's, 1997. ISBN 1-57488-134-5.
- Lovell, Mary S. The Sound of Wings. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989. ISBN 0-312-03431-8.
- Rich, Doris L. Amelia Earhart: A Biography. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989. ISBN 1-56098-725-1.
