posted 05-14-2007 12:17 PM               

First, I noticed that the John Young signature looks like the pen was wobbling or quivering, as sometimes happens with an Autopen. (You are usually not going to be lucky enough to have such a huge scan of the signature.) So I checked Mr. Beck's excellent autopen resource at http://www.geocities.com/~sbeck/astroap.htm
and it sure looks like a match to one of the patterns.

That web page didn't have any Crippens, but I didn't bother to look at other web pages because the ends of several letters had a dot of ink where the pen was picked straight up by a machine, unlike the trailing edge a person leaves.

The lack of an inscription is also a bit of a warning sign, but obviously not as much as the details above.

Sounds good?

posted 05-14-2007 05:39 PM               

Check out :
http://www.edgeofdarkness.com/astroautopens/

Look at pattern 1 for Bob Crippen.

This is a great web site with lots of STS autopen sigs.

Woody