amelia earhart remains a mystery. there are claims draw what has been found and what that will prove. i guess as far as my own research went, those discoveries never answered a question i was asking. we already knew about the disasters and that integrated by stories about the level of danger and the perception that and so everyone knew amelia earhart had gone down, had been lost and that is the more dramatic part that i integrated into my story. what exactly went wrong? maybe we will find out when i revised the book in subsequent editions, i might have to add a footnote definitely. >> i am curious, did you include airships? i think the crop zeppelin went around in 1929. that was a great feat but also by air. i am wondering, it was the first and i think the last sort of back-navigate lighter than aircraft. >> not the last. it was the first. the "graf zeppelin" did the letter from a whirl. it was phenomenally expensive but perceived as the grandest way to travel in its time. people always remark that zeppelin travel was

amelia earhart. >> reporter: she was a daredevil with the wings of an angel. r of it, too. 75 years ago amelia airhart climbed into her lockheed electra and with her navigator, friend noonan, disappeared somewhere over the pacific. >> the story of a brave woman in the air. >> reporter: for her to vanish without a trace at the height of all that fame was then and is now inconceivable to some. take ric gillespie. was it that she simply crashed at sea and sank without a trace? or was there a whole chapter that we've never known about? >> reporter: he's a part-time horseman who's actually a full-time missing airplane detective. he founded the international group for historic aircraft recovery. 25 years of research finally turned up this. a long forgotten photo that he says may show the holy grail in the earhart puzzle. a piece of the aviator's plane. >> the components of this image match the shape and dimensions of elements in the landing gear of a lockheed electra. >> reporter: that picture was taken in 1937 off gardner island. now called nikumaroro. but that was

an amphibian was questioned with a picture in our basement of amelia earhart. >> what did your father do? >> he was a military person. he attended clark university. his physics professor was robert. i did not think too much of that. robert needed funding later on. my father knew guggenheim had a lot of money, but he knew that guggenheim did not know eddie. so eddie went to talk to charles lindbergh and guggenheim did know who charles lindbergh was. so he got some of the funding to do that. later, my father, because of his degree, was the head of air core engineering school. that later became brightfield airspace. engineering school became the school of technology. they financed my doctor's degree. >> good dna. good bloodline. military career and the segue to nasa. talk about how you morphed into getting into nasa. we will of course get to apollo 11. >> there was a west point friend of mine. he was one year behind me. ed white -- he was quite instrumental in my getting into the space program. we were in the same squadron in germany. we rotated back a lot earlier. life magazine came out

and aunt vivian was christened with a picture in the basement by amelia earhart.my father grew up in a crowd of aviation pioneers. i think one of his professors, when he got his doctorate from mit, was still there when i got there. >> what did your dad deutsch? >> well, he was a military person. you got me going on long answers. he went to massachusetts. he attended clark university. his physics professor was rob gardiner -- i didn't hear much about that. [laughter] robert goddard needed funding. and my father knew that robert guggenheim had a lot of money. but he knew that harry guggenheim didn't know eddy aldrin, so she went to charles and guggenheim did know who charles lindbergh was. so goddard got some of his funding to do that. later my father because of his degree was the head of the air corps engineering school from 21 to 25 or 26. that later became wright field, wright patterson air field base, school of technology and they found it my doctor's degree. the school that my father was at ended up financing by dr. its degree. >> good dna, good bloodline. so y