AMELIA EARHART
G'day guys,
Welcome to a feature on a famous woman who was well ahead of her time - AMELIA EARHART.
Who Was Amelia
Earhart?
As a pilot, Amelia Earhart set many world flying records. She became the
first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean and the first person to make a
solo flight across both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. She also set
several height and speed records in an airplane. Amelia Earhart’s fate has
become one of the enduring mysteries of the 20th century after she disappeared
in 1937 while trying to become the first woman to fly around the world.
Dates: July 24, 1897 -- July 2, 1937(?)
Also
Known As: Amelia
Mary Earhart, Lady Lindy
Amelia
Earhart’s Childhood
Amelia
Mary Earhart was born in her maternal grandparents’ home in Atchison, Kansas,
on July 24, 1897 to Amy and Edwin Earhart. Although Edwin was a lawyer, he
never earned the approval of Amy’s parents, Judge Alfred Otis and his wife,
Amelia. In 1899, two-and-a-half years after Amelia’s birth, Edwin and Amy
welcomed another daughter, Grace Muriel, into the world.
Amelia
Earhart spent much of her early childhood living with her Otis' grandparents in
Atchison during the school months and then spending her summers with her
parents. Earhart’s early life was filled with outdoor adventures combined with
the etiquette lessons expected of upper-middle-class girls of her day.
Amelia
(known as “Millie” in her youth) and her sister Grace Muriel (known as “Pidge”)
loved to play together, especially outdoors. After visiting the World’s Fair in
St. Louis in 1904, Amelia decided she wanted to build her own mini roller
coaster in her backyard. Enlisting Pidge to help, the two built a homemade
roller coaster on the roof of the tool shed, using planks, a wooden box, and
lard for grease. Amelia took the first ride, which ended with a crash and some
bruises – but she loved it.
By 1908,
Edwin Earhart had closed his private law firm and was working as a lawyer for a
railroad in Des Moines, Iowa; thus, it was time for Amelia to move back in with
her parents. That same year, her parents took her to the Iowa State Fair where 10-year-old
Amelia saw an airplane for the very first time. Surprisingly, the airplane
didn’t interest her.
At first,
life in Des Moines seemed to be going well for the Earhart family; however, it
soon became obvious that Edwin had started to heavily drink alcohol. When his
alcoholism got worse, Edwin eventually lost his job in Iowa and had trouble
finding another.
In 1915,
with the promise of a job with the Great Northern Railway in St. Paul,
Minnesota, the Earhart family packed up their belongings and moved. However,
the job fell through once they got there. Tired of her husband’s alcoholism and
the family’s increasing money troubles, Amy Earhart moved herself and her
daughters to Chicago, leaving their father behind in Minnesota. Edwin and Amy
eventually divorced in 1924.
Due to
her family’s frequent moves, Amelia Earhart switched high schools six times,
making it hard for her to make or keep friends during her teen years. She did
well in her classes, but preferred sports. She graduated from Chicago’s Hyde
Park High School in 1916 and is listed in the school’s yearbook as “the girl in
brown who walks alone.” Later in life, however, she was known for her friendly
and outgoing nature.
After
high school, Earhart went to the Ogontz School in Philadelphia, but she soon
dropped out to become a nurse for returning World War I soldiers and for victims of the influenza epidemic of 1918.
First Flights
It wasn’t
until 1920, when Earhart was 23 years old, that she developed an interest in
airplanes. While visiting her father in California, she attended an air show
and the stunt-flying feats she watched convinced her that she had to try flying
for herself.
Earhart
took her first flying lesson on January 3, 1921. According to her instructors,
Earhart wasn’t a “natural” at piloting an airplane; instead, she made up for a
lack of talent with plenty of hard work and a passion for flying. Earhart
received her “Aviator Pilot” certification from the Federation Aeronautique
Internationale on May 16, 1921 -- a major step for any pilot at the time.
Since her
parents could not afford to pay for her lessons, Earhart worked several jobs to
raise the money herself. She also saved up the money to buy her own airplane, a
small Kinner Airster she called the Canary. In the Canary, she
broke the women’s altitude record on October 22, 1922 by becoming the first
woman to reach 14,000 feet in an airplane.
Earhart
Becomes the First Woman to Fly Over the Atlantic
In 1927,
aviator Charles Lindbergh made history by becoming the
first person to fly non-stop across the Atlantic, from the U.S. to England. A
year later, Amelia Earhart was asked to make a non-stop flight across the same
ocean. She had been discovered by publisher George Putnam, who had been asked
to look for a suitable female pilot to complete this feat. Since this was not
to be a solo flight, Earhart joined a crew of two other aviators, both men.
On June
17, 1928, the journey began when the Friendship, a Fokker F7 specially
outfitted for the trip, took off from Newfoundland bound for England. Ice and
fog made the trip difficult and Earhart spent much of the flight scribbling
notes in a journal while her co-pilots, Bill Stultz and Louis Gordon, handled
the plane.
On June
18, 1928, after 20 hours and 40 minutes in the air, the Friendship
landed in South Wales. Although Earhart said she did not contribute any more to
the flight than “a sack of potatoes” would have, the press saw her
accomplishment differently. They started calling Earhart “Lady Lindy,” after
Charles Lindbergh. Shortly after this trip, Earhart published a book about her
experiences, titled 20 Hours 40 Minutes.
Solo Across
the Ocean
Having
won multiple competitions, flown in air shows, and set new altitude records,
Amelia Earhart began looking for a bigger challenge. In 1932, she decided to
become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. On May 20, 1932, she
took off again from Newfoundland, piloting a small Lockheed Vega.
It was a
dangerous trip: clouds and fog made it difficult to navigate, her plane’s wings
became covered with ice, and the plane developed a fuel leak about two-thirds
of the way across the ocean. Worse, the altimeter stopped working, so Earhart
had no idea how far above the ocean’s surface her plane was -- a situation that
nearly resulted in her crashing into the Atlantic Ocean.
In serious
danger, Earhart abandoned her plans to land at Southampton, England, and made
for the first bit of land she saw. She touched down in a sheep pasture in
Ireland on May 21, 1932, becoming the first woman to fly solo across the
Atlantic and the first-ever person to fly across the Atlantic twice.
The solo
Atlantic crossing was followed by more book deals, meetings with heads of
state, and a lecture tour, as well as more flying competitions. In 1935,
Earhart also made a solo flight from Hawaii to Oakland, California, becoming
the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland. This trip also
made Earhart the first person to fly solo across both the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans.
Amelia
Earhart’s Last Flight
Not long
after making her Pacific flight in 1935, Amelia Earhart decided she wanted to
try flying around the entire world. A U.S. Army Air Force crew had made the
trip in 1924 and male aviator Wiley Post flew around the world by himself in
1931 and 1933.
But
Earhart had two new goals. First, she wanted to be the first woman to fly solo
around the world. Second, she wanted to fly around the world at or near the
equator, the planet’s widest point. The previous flights had both circled the
world much closer to the North Pole, where the distance was shortest. Earhart
wanted to make the longest possible flight around the globe.
Planning
and preparation for the trip was difficult, time-consuming, and expensive. Her
plane, a Lockheed Electra, had to be completely re-fitted with additional fuel
tanks, survival gear, scientific instruments, and a state-of-the-art radio. A
1936 test flight ended in a crash that destroyed the plane’s landing gear.
Several months passed while the plane was fixed.
Meanwhile,
Earhart and her navigator, Frank Noonan, plotted their course around the world.
The most difficult point in the trip would be the flight from Papua New Guinea
to Hawaii because it required a fuel stop at Howland’s Island, a small coral
island about 1,700 miles west of Hawaii. Aviation maps were poor at the time
and the island would be difficult to find from the air.
However,
the stop at Howland’s Island was unavoidable because the plane could only carry
about half the fuel needed to fly from Papua New Guinea to Hawaii, making a
fuel stop essential if Earhart and Noonan were to make it across the South
Pacific. As difficult as it might be to find, Howland’s Island seemed like the
best choice for a stop since it is positioned approximately half way between
Papua New Guinea and Hawaii.
Once
their course had been plotted and their plane readied, it was time for the
final details. It was during this last minute preparation that Earhart decided
not to take the full-sized radio antenna that Lockheed recommended, instead
opting for a smaller antenna. The new antenna was lighter, but it also could
not transmit or receive signals as well, especially in bad weather.
On May
21, 1937, Amelia Earhart and Frank Noonan took off from Oakland, California, on
the first leg of their trip. The plane landed first in Puerto Rico and then in
several other locations in the Caribbean before heading to Senegal. They
crossed Africa, stopping several times for fuel and supplies, then went on to
Eritrea, India, Burma, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. There, Earhart and
Noonan prepared for the toughest stretch of the trip -- the landing at
Howland’s Island.
On July
2, 1937, Earhart’s plane left Papua New Guinea heading toward Howland’s Island.
For the first seven hours, Earhart and Noonan stayed in radio contact with the
airstrip in Papua New Guinea. After that, they made intermittent radio contact
with the U.S.S. Itsaca, a Coast Guard ship patrolling the waters below.
However, reception was poor and messages between the plane and the Itsaca
were frequently lost or garbled.
Two hours
after Earhart’s scheduled arrival at Howland’s Island, at about 10:30 a.m.
local time on July 2, 1937, the Itsaca received a last static-filled
message that indicated Earhart and Noonan could not see the ship or the island
and they were almost out of fuel. The crew of the Itsaca tried to signal
the ship’s location by sending up black smoke, but the plane did not appear.
Neither the plane, Earhart, nor Noonan were ever seen or heard from again.
The Mystery
Continues
The mystery of what happened to Earhart, Noonan, and the plane has not
yet been solved. In 1999, British archaeologists claimed to have found
artifacts on a small island in the South Pacific that contained Earhart’s DNA,
but the evidence is not conclusive. Near the plane’s last known location, the
ocean reaches depths of 16,000 feet, well below the range of today’s deep-sea
diving equipment. If the plane sank into those depths, it may never be
recovered.
Clancy's comment: Wow. What a legend. I recall the fuss made here in Australia when the first woman wanted to be a pilot for a major airline. The woman had to take it to court ... but won the right to fly.
I'm ...
Rest in peace.
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