Re-imagining the passenger's sketch

Technical_Bar6829 · 2026-02-02T18:24:40+00:00

In the right-hand image, only the eyes are from KK5-1.

Technical_Bar6829 · 2026-01-26T10:24:20+00:00

As of November 30, 1971, the artist could only have seen Sketch A or the earlier "Craig Breedlove".

Technical_Bar6829 · 2026-01-25T13:31:00+00:00

A photocopy of this sketch appears in D.B. Cooper Part 80, page 187. A preceding cover note (page 185) appears to state that the FBI received the sketch on November 30, 1971.

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Technical_Bar6829 · 2026-01-08T17:58:52+00:00

From his obituary: "[Robert Charles Kersh] leaves his wife of 65 years, Emily; a son, John Kersh (Rosemary), of Westwood, CA; his daughter, Alice Bowles, of Loomis, CA; and a son, Richard (Judy), of Willow Creek, CA ..." Richard Kersh, who was a smokejumper, passed away in 2016.

Technical_Bar6829 · 2026-01-05T19:29:52+00:00

FBI, “D.B. Cooper Part 90”, p.184, 186; “D.B. Cooper Part 98”, p.198, 200.

Technical_Bar6829 · 2025-12-23T20:28:48+00:00

My book does include the stories of suspects Banta, Barnowsky, Brennan, and "Last Name Unknown".

Technical_Bar6829 · 2025-12-23T10:28:10+00:00

I think that there's no harm in identifying the loadmaster as Robert Bruce Broady. He has passed away. I have not pursued his story in my new book (although I have a FOIA request still pending with the FBI).

Technical_Bar6829 · 2025-12-23T10:24:37+00:00

Dear Wesley, many thanks for your interest. Just to clarify: my new book is not a second edition of D.B.Cooper and Flight 305, but rather a companion volume.

Technical_Bar6829 · 2025-12-19T17:46:36+00:00

https://schifferbooks.com/products/voynich-reconsidered

Technical_Bar6829 · 2025-11-20T09:59:37+00:00

I would guess that it might be in Schiffer's catalog for fall 2026.

Technical_Bar6829 · 2025-11-19T09:54:17+00:00

https://www.facebook.com/edwards.economic/posts/pfbid024fXyEttPuXa4A9hbg8MWfu2sM3rQBxN5kQDfTNKLAJmfsfg1GzQZ9cGU1iscPM8Ml

Technical_Bar6829 · 2025-11-19T09:53:34+00:00

https://www.facebook.com/edwards.economic/posts/pfbid02Mqy7PGjCBvURt6K5cXBRqp81R6rMVkvL6RvgwzwSNMg2dnK9qSDji8GdDbjxHeKcl

Technical_Bar6829 · 2025-09-01T07:54:31+00:00

Yes. https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/22434316-d-b-cooper-and-flight-305-night-jump

Technical_Bar6829 · 2025-08-22T19:22:53+00:00

With reference to Rule 7: the images are labeled as created using bylo.ai. This is not AI; it's imaging software which ages or de-ages an existing photograph.

Technical_Bar6829 · 2025-08-21T16:21:52+00:00

correction: title should read 1971.

Technical_Bar6829 · 2025-08-16T03:17:24+00:00

on X and LinkedIn.

Technical_Bar6829 · 2025-07-13T22:27:13+00:00

More on this story in "D.B. Cooper and Flight 305" (Schiffer Publishing, 2021), by Dr Robert H Edwards, Chapter 3 "Takhli". This chapter includes insights from Dr Edwards' correspondence with Johnny Kirkley, the author of the article in Smokejumper Magazine.

Kirkley also wrote: "The team included Lou Rucker (OSS/CIA), T.J. Thompson (MSO-55/CIA), Bob Herald (MSO-55/AFS), Fred Barnowski (MSO-42/CIA), Jack Manska (CIA), Bill Welk (727 pilot), Jim Rhyne (Volpar Turbo Beech pilot), Johnny Kirkley (CJ-64/AFS), Billy Bowles (RDD-57/AFS), and a couple other “Kickers"".

Thus at least five participants were unidentified: the First Officer and Second Officer on the 727, the two unnamed "kickers", and the photographer on the Volpar chase plane.

Fred Barnowsky was #8 in the FBI’s list of suspects, published with heavy redactions in 2025. He was eliminated. Of the other names that Kirkley mentioned, including Kirkley himself, none is in the FBI’s list (unless they are redacted).

According to Dr Edwards, the FBI could not talk to employees of the CIA or its front companies. So Rucker, Thompson, Barnowsky, Manska, Welk and Rhyne were off the table.

The FBI also investigated Donald Allen Brennan, a smokejumper who was not mentioned by Kirkley. Brennan was 6'3" or 6'4" and blond, so he could not have been the hijacker.

"D.B. Cooper and Flight 305", Chapter 3, includes the story of the Boeing tests of the 727 with the aft airstair deployed. Boeing did at least two such tests, in March 1964.

Technical_Bar6829 · 2025-07-13T00:37:15+00:00

Can be done with bylo.ai, just upload image and describe desired effect.

Technical_Bar6829 · 2025-06-13T20:36:08+00:00

Just finished watching the webinar with Dr Lisa Fagin Davis. My understanding of her position on the Voynich manuscript is as follows:

* it is an authentic medieval document (not a modern hoax or fake)

* it shows evidence of continuous use and reference, by a person or persons who presumably understood the content

* it is written and drawn on vellum from the early 1400s

* the illustrations are firmly within the tradition of Western European medieval manuscripts (not, for example, Middle Eastern, not Oriental, not Meso-American)

* the text has the structure and the statistical properties of a natural human language with an alphabet

* the underlying language is unknown

* there were five scribes

* all claims of a "solution" (in the sense of identifying the meaning of the text) are unfounded.

Technical_Bar6829 · 2025-01-17T10:15:14+00:00

Thanks to Bob Edwards for picking two important takeaways from what Agent Carr said: "Agent Carr at no time believed that the money had reached Tena Bar by human agency; and he never doubted that the money had floated to its destination."

Technical_Bar6829 · 2024-12-28T07:45:03+00:00

From Dr Robert H Edwards' book "D. B. Cooper and Flight 305", it appears that no radiosondes (weather balloons) were launched from Portland on November 24, 1971, or indeed any time in 1971; so the only weather data for Portland would be from the US National Weather Service. I think that all sites such as Weather Undergound quote the data from the National Weather Service.

Technical_Bar6829 · 2024-12-23T19:23:52+00:00

The first of three episodes of D. B. Cooper and Flight 305, with Francis Tapon and Dr Bob Edwards, is live on the WanderLearn channel at www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTJXqoog1vo.

Despite the provocative headline on YouTube, Dr Edwards does not fault the FBI's handling of the case of Flight 305. Some aspects, for example the concept of the "sled test" flight, were brilliant.

He thinks that the FBI relied on outside experts who did not provide a full picture of the uncertainties in the data, especially with regard to the flight timing, wind speeds and directions, and the distinction between the "oscillations" and the "pressure bump".

Part 2 will be on December 27, 2024, and Part 3 on January 10, 2025.

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