Fly, I moved your comment here. I don't really want to start anymore threads at this time. we have enough topics to post any questions in. no biggie........

Shutter 

It's hard to say whether he had the rest of the jewelry that came with the tie "clip". I'm not sure if this was sold as one piece during the time period. it's possible he never had the set, or it's still unknown if the tie was his, or purchased somewhere prior to the crime.

I spent a lot of time trying to track down leads on it. I concluded it was manufactured in New Jersey (I think) I made a video, don't know if you ever seen it?

I made the video a while back. I've found about a dozen more companies selling the product. it basically came from one manufacture who sold/shipped it all over the country, and they put the product in there boxes. have you found any from
Canada?

The same clip in the 50s had a different type of clip. Probably not older than the 60s.

They work by gravity. once the stairs are down, you have to lock them from the ground. when the light came on with the stairs they were only partially open until Cooper went down them.

Here they are partially open...

here it is,, 20 deg ,, so after Cooper left the stairs returned to 20 deg

"Once in the test area the plane was flown with flaps at 15 degrees, wheels down, approximately 150 KIAS. When the aft airstairs were released, they dropped 20 degrees (Photo here.). There was a slight change in cabin pressure indicated by gauges, but not felt by the flight crew.
Air Force Captain Wilson and M/Sgt Saiz individually walked down the airstairs (wearing parachutes) and stood at the bottom. Each reported that the stairs lowered to almost a level position, they were stable, no drag from the wind and they could stand fully upright.
When at the bottom of the stairs the cabin pressure gauge showed significant changes.
They then performed a test by dropping each of the two sleds and in both tests the sleds dropped directly down (dispelling a theory that Cooper would have been slammed up against the tail when he jumped). The moment the sleds cleared the stairs the flight crew felt a popping in their ears and the cabin pressure gauge reacted violently. It was discovered from chase plane photo's, video and reports from Wilson and Saiz that the pressure change was caused by the stairs being forced upward by the airstream after the weight was removed.
Flight Engineer Harold E. Anderson, who was present for the test and served on the flight crew of Flight 305 the night of the hijacking, stated that the pressure bump felt during the test was identical to what was experienced the night of the hijacking."

The problem is they believe they got the jump wrong due to oscillation felt at 8:10/11. this was believed to be when Cooper was at the bottom of the stairs. then a pressure bump was felt (actual jump) according to Rataczak that occurred 5-10 minutes after the last contact with Cooper at 8:05.

oscillations and bump, distinct events (phenomena).

delay in reporting 'bump' according to Anderson of up to five minutes, which explains Rczak's estimate 'that occurred 5-10 minutes after the last contact with Cooper at 8:05.' And, if Anderson is correct 8:05 was not the crew's last contact with Cooper. There was one additional contact of Cooper calling forward after 8:05, to ask the plane be slowed and stabilised' before the 'bump/jump'.

   

Robert99, here is what 377 is looking for. it's the Cooper Vane...

Shutter, I don't know what it is in the picture, but it looks it is a rigid tab of some kind that cannot fold over as the Cooper vane allegedly does.

Also, the article from Wikipedia that 377 quotes, says the Cooper vane was on a ex-SAS DC-9-21 which means that it operated in Europe.

In the good old USA, I do not remember ever boarding an early model DC-9 through the aft stairs.  I have boarded early model MD-80s, and MAYBE late model DC-9-??s, through the aft stairs and never saw a Cooper vane (but I wasn't really looking for one either).

But for the most part, my DC-9/MD-80 flights involved large airports that had enclosed moveable ramps and didn't use either the front or aft stairs.