Amelia
Earhart
1889–1937
Amelia Aerhart was the first child born to Edwin Stanton and Amy Otis Aerhart in
Atchison, Kansas. Amelia and her sister, Muriel, who both had a difficult
childhood. Their Father was an alcoholic and because of this he often lost
jobs, as a result the family traveled
a lot
in search of work. The Girls frequently missed school but excelled
academically. They enjoyed being active and loved sport. Their
parents encouraged them to try new thing.
After graduating from high school, Amelia planned to attend college, but her plans were put on hold after she met 4 wounded WW1 veterans on the street. After hearing of their plight, Amelia decided to study nursing. During the war, Amelia worked as a military nurse in Canada. At the war's end, she became a social worker at the Denison House in Boston and taught English to immigrant children.
Amelia enjoyed watching airplane stunt shows, which were quite popular during the 1920s. One day, after taking a 10-minute plane ride, Amelia knew she must learn to fly. By working several odd jobs, Amelia earned the $1,000 fee to take flying lessons. Her first instructor was nicknamed "Snooky." Ten hours of instruction and several crashes later, Amelia was ready to fly solo. She made her first solo flight in 1921. Except for a poor landing, the flight was uneventful. By the next year, Amelia had saved enough money to buy a plane of her own.
During the 1920s, Amelia continued teaching at Denison House. Flying was merely
a hobby for her at that time. However, in 1928, Amelia received a call from
Captain Hilton H. Railey asking her to join pilots Wilmer Stultz and Louis
Gordon on a flight from America to England. Although she was only a passenger,
Amelia became the first woman to cross the Atlantic on a plane called the
Friendship on June 17-18, 1928. A publisher named George Putnam covered the
story, and in 1931, the two married.
Amelia's 1928 flight brought her tremendous publicity, and she subsequently
endeavored to justify this renown. On May 20-21,1932, Amelia crossed the
Atlantic on her own, establishing a new transatlantic crossing record of 13
hours, 30 minutes. Amelia was celebrated throughout Europe and the United States
and received a medal from President Herbert Hoover. Several years later, Amelia
became the first woman to successfully complete the hazardous flight from Hawaii
to California.
In 1937 Amelia Aerhart attempted an around-the-world flight. Flying a
custom-built Lockheed Model 10E Electra, equipped with extra-large gas tanks,
she would follow a 'close to the Equator' route, thus going one better than
Wiley Post's northern, mid-latitude route. In her first effort, in March of
1937, she flew west, but a crash in Hawaii abruptly ended that trip.
Starting on May 21, from Oakland, California, in the repaired Lockheed Electra,
she and her navigator, Fed Noonan, stayed over land as much as possible. Their
route took them to Miami, then to Natal, Brazil, for the shortest possible hop
over the Atlantic. They touched down in Senegal, West Africa; then eastward
across the Sahara to Khartoum, following the Arabian peninsula to Karachi, (then
part of India). From India they flew to Rangoon, Bangkok, and the Dutch East
Indies. After a stop in Darwin, Australia, they continued eastward to Lae, New
Guinea, arriving there on June 29.
Her next destination was Howland Island, 2200 miles away, the longest over-water
leg of the trip. To aid in radio communications, the U.S. Coat Guard cutter
Itasca was stationed off Howland Island. The Lockheed Electra took off from Lae
at 0:00 Greenwich Mean Time. 8 hours later she called in to Lae for the last
time. At 19:30, Itasca received the following:
"KHAQQ calling Itasca. We must be on you but cannot see you...gas is
running low..."
An hour later, the last message came in: "We are in a line position of
157'- 337. Will report on 6210 kilocycles. Wait, listen on 6210 kilocycles. We
are running North and South." Disappearance Speculation
Ironically
Amelia Aerhart has become more famous for disappearing than for her many real
aviation achievements..
The United States Navy searched extensively but never found a trace of the
aviators or the plane. The mysterious disappearance of Earhart and her plane has
raised considerable speculation throughout the years. The world's most famous
female aviator disappeared in 1937, as she attempted to become the first woman
to fly around the world. With her navigator, Fred Noonan, her Lockheed Electra
was last heard from about 100 miles from the tiny Pacific atoll, Howland Island
on July 2, 1937. President Roosevelt authorized an immediate search; no trace
was ever found.
1. She
achieved a number of aviation records:
a. The second person to fly solo across the Atlantic, in 1932
b. The first person to solo from Hawaii to California, in 1935
2. Guided by her publicist and husband, George Putnam, she made headlines in the
era when aviation gripped the public's imagination.