[Richard T. Eger]

Dear Nick, Ed, and Srecko,

All good points. From, Nick:

"If a profile was based on perfect, colour-calibrated photos from all angles, why would you need the profile at all? The only point of including one is to bridge a gap."

In this extreme case, a good color profile could be quite useful. Besides various causes of color photo degradation, there is the problem of sun and shadow. The upper fuselage may be "blown out" due to reflection, while the underside is very dark in shadow. The angle of the camera to the fuselage can also lead to distortions of true color. A good color profile would eliminate these effects.

As far as when to write, I don't have an answer. In the case of the Me 262, I've been quite interested in the various assembly sites, with a list of the usual suspects. But, a couple of flyers began to surface - Brandenburg-Briest and Erding. In his book, Steinhoff noted the use of Brandenburg-Briest for reassembly of major components shipped in from assembly site(s). Jurleit, quoting Steinhoff, elaborated more on the subject. But, what about the airfield at Erding? There were fuselages and wings found alongside a rail line at Berglern, a few miles north of Erding. At Erding, proper, were also found fuselages and wings scattered along a taxiway. Was this accidental? What was going on? Only recently were Manfred Boehme and I supplied the answer, a table from our friend Tomáš Poruba showing that these 2 places, along with 2 others, were being used or planned to be used for reassembly of major Me 262 components. Up until that point we only had Brandenburg-Briest so identified and didn't know that it was part of a larger plan. Jurliet provided a rationale, which was extremely important.

The point is that, publishing too soon, you may be missing a very important part of the puzzle. The analogy I've used from day 1 still holds: Imagine that you have a jigsaw puzzle. There are no edge pieces. A lot of the other pieces are missing. And, you've lost the boxtop art to help guide you. That's what it is all about.

Regards,
Richard