1932 - Amelia Earhart became the first woman to cross the Atlantic non-stop
May 21st 1932 - Amelia Earhart became the first woman to cross the Atlantic non-stop
Amelia Earhart
Pioneering Woman Aviator, Lost on Flight over the Pacific
Youth
Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas. Her grandparents raised her during her early childhood. From the age of ten, she lived with her mother and father. Like Pappy Boyington, her early family circumstances were unsettled, marked by moves and alcoholism in the family. She was a tomboy - climbing trees, sledding in the snow, and hunting She saw her first airplane in 1908, at the Iowa State Fair, but her interest in aviation lay dormant for another ten years. She served as a nurse in World War One, and took her first ride in an airplane in 1920. After her flight with barnstormer Frank Hawks, she said "As soon as we left the ground, I knew I myself had to fly." Indeed, within a few days, she took her first flying lesson, in a Curtiss JN-4 Jenny. Six months later, she bought her own airplane, a yellow Kinner Airster, that she dubbed "The Canary." Like Gabby Gabreski, she was not a naturally gifted pilot, but she persevered, built up her flying time, and even broke the woman's altitude record in 1922.
From 1925, she began flying more seriously.
Across the Atlantic
She became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic on June 18-19, 1928. The flight was the brainchild of Amy Guest, a wealthy, aristocratic American expatriate living in London. Aware of the huge publicity that would accrue to the first woman to fly the Atlantic, the 55 year old Mrs. Guest had purchased a Fokker F7 trimotor from Commander Richard Byrd, to make the flight herself. Her family objected, and she relented, as long as the "right sort" of woman could make the flight. The "right sort" would take a good picture, be well-educated, and not be a publicity-seeking gold-digger. The Guest family hired George Putnam, a New York publicist who had promoted Lindbergh's book We, to look for a suitable women pilot. He selected the little-known Amelia Earhart, and introduced her as "Lady Lindy".
While the flight instantly made her world-famous, she was little more than a passenger in the Fokker tri-motor "Friendship." They took off from Trepassy, Newfoundland, and after a 20 hour and 40 minute flight, landed in Burry Port, Wales. When they went on to London, another huge mob welcomed them. The pilots, Wilmer Stutz and Louis Gordon, were all but forgotten in the media frenzy surrounding the first woman to fly across the Atlantic.
Fame
Putnam next organized a cross-country flight and a speaking tour for Amelia. While Putnam was married at the time, he was attracted to Amelia. He divorced his wife, and he and Amelia married in 1931.
She was a charter member and first president of the "Ninety Nines," an organization of women in aviation, so named for the original number of members.
On May 21, 1932, five years to the day after Lindbergh's flight, she took off in a Lockheed Vega, in an attempt to become the second person after Lindbergh (and first woman) to fly solo across the Atlantic. Starting from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, her flight lasted almost 15 hours, when she touched down in a pasture near Londonderry, Northern Ireland. (The distance from Newfoundland to Ireland being considerably shorter than Lindbergh's route from Long Island to Paris, her flight time was correspondingly shorter than his 33 hours.) Her Vega 5B is on display at the Smithsonian NASM.
Her Aviation Achievements
October 22, 1922 - Set women's altitude record of 14,000 feet
June 17-18, 1928 - First woman to fly across the Atlantic; 20hrs 40min (Fokker F7, Friendship)
August 1929 - Placed third in the First Women's Air Derby, aka the Powder Puff Derby; upgraded from her Avian to a Lockheed Vega
Fall 1929- Elected as an official for National Aeronautic Association and encouraged the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) to establish separate world altitude, speed and endurance records for women June 25, 1930 - Set women's speed record for 100 kilometers with no load, and with a load of 500 kilograms July 5, 1930 - Set speed record for of 181.18mph over a 3K course
April 8, 1931 - Set woman's autogiro altitude record with 18,415 feet (in a Pitcairn autogiro)
May 20-21, 1932 - First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic; 14 hrs 56 min (it was also the 5th anniversary of Lindberg's Atlantic flight; awarded National Geographic Society's gold medal from President Herbert Hoover; Congress awarded her the Distinguished Flying Cross
August 24-25, 1932 - First woman to fly solo nonstop coast to coast; set women's nonstop transcontinental speed record, flying 2,447.8 miles in 19hrs 5min
Fall 1932 - Elected president of the Ninety Nines, a new women's aviation club which she helped to form
July 7-8, 1933 - Broke her previous transcontinental speed record by making the same flight in 17hrs 7min
January 11, 1935 - First person to solo the 2,408-mile distance across the Pacific between Honolulu and Oakland, California; also first flight where a civilian aircraft carried a two-way radio. After an 18 hour flight, she landed at Oakland, with thousands of cheering fans to welcome her.
May 8, 1935 - First person to fly solo nonstop from Mexico City to Newark; 14hrs 19min
Her Last Flight
In 1937 Amelia Earhart 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 abrubtly 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 Earhart has become more famous for disappearing than for her many real aviation achievements. It sparked a whole cottage industry of conspiracy theorists and "researchers." There are two main themes to these ideas. One, her around-the-world flight was a cover for a spy mission, commissioned by President Roosevelt to determine what the Japanese were up to in the Pacific. Two, she and Fred Noonan weren't simply swallowed up by the vast Pacific Ocean, but were captured by the Japanese. Obviously these two main themes work well in combination.
No evidence has ever been found to support either one of these ideas.
Sources:
ameliaearhart.com
Amelia Earhart Biography website - very well done, more detailed than this page
U.S. Navy Historical Center's Amelia Earhart web page - brief biographical sketch
TIGHAR Amelia Earhart site - worth a look, not a conspiracy theory site, but rather a privately funded research effort focused on finding remains on the tiny, uninhabited atoll of Nikumaroro (formerly known as Gardner Island)
East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart, by Susan Butler
Susan Butler offers the most comprehensive account to date of Earhart's remarkable life. From her childhood and her family's great financial hardships, to her successes as a social worker and aviation entrepreneur, to the unique relationship with her husband, the notorious publishing magnate George Palmer Putnam, readers experience Amelia in all her permutations: as fashion plate, as lecturer, as educator, and, of course, as flier.
Butler also dispels much of the myth and speculation that has attached itself to Earhart's disappearance, offering in its place a less romantic but ultimately tragic scenario of a great pilot who died at sea. Ten years in the making, and using many newly available documents, East to the Dawn will prove the definitive life of Amelia Earhart for an entire new generation. "A revealing picture of Amelia Earhart, in all her complexity,"
