Let me get this out there, I am TERRIFIED of flying… I’m not talking a little scared, I’m talking “hold my hand through this entire flight while I try not to panic about being 30,000ft in the air” scared. However, one woman that has always intrigued me has been probably the most famous female pilot, Amelia Earhart. Amelia Earhart was first introduced to me when I watched Night at the Museum, weird stretch, I know; but, when I first saw her portrayed in the film, I was so interested in finding out everything I could about her. So, without further ado, let’s find out about the first person to fly solo across the Pacific.

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“heroic courage and skill as a navigator at the risk of her life.”

Vice President Charles Curtis on Amelia being awarded the distinguished flying cross

Born on 24th July 1897, in Atchison, Kansas, to Amelia Otis and Edwin Otis, the young Earhart spent most of her childhood at her grandparents’ house. Some sources say her mother was an alcoholic and her father was always trying to build a business. Earhart had a sister called Muriel and her and her sister would often go on adventures through the neighbourhood. Amelia saw her first plane at age 10 and said about it later in life “It was a thing of rusty wire and wood and looked not at all interesting”. Just after Amelia saw her first plane, her father struggled to find work and the family moved a lot, impacting Earhart’s ability to make friends and focus properly on her studies but she was excellent at chemistry.

A few years after the state fair where she saw the plane, she went to a stunt-flying exhibition, and this fueled her interest in flight. World war I was ongoing during this time in Earhart’s life. Amelia went to visit her sister one year in Toronto and saw the soldiers, this had such an impact on Earhart, that she decided that she would volunteer with the Red Cross. Volunteering for the Red Cross had more educational values for Earhart however, as she got to know wounded pilots. Seeing the pilots and watching the Royal Flying Corps practice in a nearby airfield gave her even more respect for aviation and the men and women who served. When she was 22 years old, Amelia was studying medicine at Columbia University.

Later the next year, on the 28th of December 1920, Frank Hawks flew Amelia in a flight that made Earhart realise her heart belonged to the sky. Amelia worked tirelessly to rack up enough money to pay for aviation lessons and began her dream of flying on January 3rd 1921. Amelia was hit with a few disapproving glances and words because of her “masculine” acts [she was the coolest tomboy I’ve ever heard of] but she never let it put her off.

Six months after her flying lessons started, she had worked hard and managed to save up to buy her first plane [this girl was dedicated! If only I had that determination…]; it was a second-hand two-seater Kinner Airster biplane, that was a lovely shade of bright yellow; the plane’s nickname was “the Canary”. The second-hand plane did Amelia well, and even helped her to set a record of being the first woman to fly to 14,000ft. Amelia kept a little scrapbook full of newspaper clippings about inspirational women, including film directors and mechanical engineers.

After this, Amelia’s parent had divorced and the family inheritance she was living on with her mother and sister had run out. Her and her mother started a trip that spanned from California to Boston, where Amelia attempted to restart her studies, but, she was forced to abandon them after money ran out. At this point, with no money coming in Amelia had to find work, and this she did. She worked as a teacher for a while and also as a social worker.

In 1927, Amelia became a member of the American Aeronautical Society (Boston Chapter) and had racked up enough money to invest in Dennison Airport, Massachusetts. Amelia was a sales representative of Kinner airplanes in the Boston area, writing articles about flying for the newspaper.

Then, Miss Earhart got the golden ticket. In April 1928, at work, Amelia received a phone call in which she was asked if she would like to fly over the Atlantic and be the first woman to do so. She said yes! Herself, pilot Wilmer Stultz and co-pilot mechanic Louis E. Gordon, left Trepassey Harbor on June 17th 1928, Newfoundland and arrived at Burry Port, Wales 20 hours 40 minutes later.
When the 3 of them returned, they were welcomed by a ticker tape parade (a parade where confetti is thrown and makes the street look similar to a snowstorm). The press called Earhart “Lady Lindy” an offshoot nickname from “Lucky Lindy”.

After this, Earhart breathed flying. Everything she did, everything she wanted to do, was fly. Well, she did get married aswell so she was pretty dedicated to George Putman, but she referred to the marriage as a “partnership” with “dual control”, which was pretty brave for the 1930’s. She met George Putnam, while writing her book in 1928, which was named “20 hrs., 40 min.”) .

Earhart gained major fame, through product endorsements and she even became an associate editor at cosmopolitan magazine, and she used this podium to campaign for commercial air travel. So, next time you’re on a plane, remember Amelia helped make this happen!

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On May 22nd 1932, Amelia visited Hanworth Airfield. Us Brits gave her a nice welcome and some even said she was an “international hero”. Amelia got a lot of honors like the cross of the knight of the legion of honor from the French government and a distinguished flying Cross from the U.S Congress.

Over the next few years, Amelia set an altitude record for autogyros of 18,1415ft. On 11th January 1935, she became the first PERSON to fly solo across the Pacific from Honolulu to Oakland! Amelia was setting even more records regardless of her gender. Mrs. Earhart was so unfazed by flying, on a 2,408-mile flight, she took her hot-chocolate and said about it “that was the most interesting cup of chocolate I have ever had, sitting up eight thousand feet over the middle of the Pacific Ocean quite alone.”

Well, Amelia was nearly 40 by 1837 and she was ready to retire her flight jacket and hang up her hat, but, she wanted to do one more record-breaking challenge; to be the first woman to fly around the world [damn, I struggle on an 8-hour flight…]. She did try to fly around the world in March of 1937, but, it damaged her plane and she had to rebuild it.

“I have a feeling that there is just about one more good flight left in my system, and I hope this trip is it,”

Amelia Earhart

So, the trip was going to be 29,000 miles and they set off on June 1st 1937, and by June 29th, they had travelled 7,000 miles and they were already starting to face some challenges, Amelia had been sick for a few days and navigation was going to be difficult as they were heading to Howland Island. The island is so small that celestial navigation was going to be used to track the route, two-ships were positioned along the flight route and they were made to burn every light on board so that Amelia and her navigator friend, Fred Noonan could see them; they even emptied the plane of every non-essential item to give way for additional fuel, but theories say that the plane wasn’t fully fueled. They set out again on in the Electra, on July 2nd, 1937, at 12:30am. This was the last time they were seen alive.

The weather was reported to be good, but, even 90 years ago the weather report was still wrong. The skies were overcast and there were a few showers. Noonan was struggling with celestial navigation as the weather was affecting it. Earhart had been in contact with ground control but she couldn’t hear their responses and ground control couldn’t fully hear her and at 7:42 in the morning, the ITASCA (the navigation assistance) received a transmission from Earhart and Noonan, that said “We must be on you, but we cannot see you. Fuel is running low. Been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000ft.” and an hour later at 8:43, the finally call was made by Earhart “We are running north and south.”

The search began immediately when the navigation crew realized what had happened. Amelia Earhart and her crewmate Fred Noonan were missing, and thus began one of the most extensive air and sea searches in history. 4 million dollars was spent and 250,000 square miles of ocean was searched as authorized by President Roosevelt, but no trace of the Electra or her crew were found. Officially the search ended on the 18th of July 1937, after only 16 days, but, each day towards the last week was costing around $250,000, another reason the search was called off pretty quickly. Earhart’s husband was determined to find her. In October that year, he called off his personal search. Earhart was declared dead on January 5th, two years after she had disappeared by the Superior Court in LA.

“Please know I am quite aware of the hazards,” she said. “I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.”

Amelia Earhart in a letter to her Husband.

Conspiracies surrounding Earhart and Noonan’s disappearance are still rife in the modern world with hundreds of Videos and TV shows made surrounding her disappearance.

Crash down Theory One theory includes that the plane ran out of fuel over the Pacific Ocean and because of the ongoing radio problem, they never heard her mayday call. There have been a few expeditions that have taken place over the years that have tried to locate the exact site of the wreck by using her last co-ordinates and by looking at several possible routes the plane could have taken. None of these searches have turned up anything.

Nikumaroro Castaway
Another theory suggests that she didn’t crash at all and landed on Nikumaroro Island when they couldn’t find Howland. This is based of her last radio transmission which began “KHAQQ [Electra’s call letters] to ITASCA. We are on the line 157 337.” The navigation team were unable however, to get bearings on the signal. As we know from the rest of the transmission she was flying North to South and to the southwest of Howland in Nikumaroro.
Radio operators received 121 messages after the crash from other aircraft, but some think at least 57 could have been from Earhart. Some think that she was a castaway living on Nikumaroro, as in 1937 some British folks explored the island (planning to colonize it, of course). One of the colonial officers, Eric Bevington saw what he thought to be an “overnight bivouac.” and when he took a photo of the shoreline, it shows what looks like plane landing gear.

In 1940, 13 bones were found near the remains of a campfire; shoes (a man and womans) and a box that is believed to have once had a sextant (a navigational device) in it were also found. The bones were measured and experts determined that they could be from Earhart. However, the bones have since mysteriously vanished.

In the 90’s TIGHAR (The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery) sent expeditions to Nikumaroro and there is evidence of several campfires, as well as remains of animals that were clearly eaten by humans and due to the nature of how they were eaten, we can assume they probably weren’t native (the heads were left). Bottles of the era have been found, freckle cream and also some glass that looks like it could have come from the aircraft.

Marshall Islands Conspiracy
Another theory, called “The Marshall Islands Conspiracy” starts out with Earhart and Noonan, not being able to find Howland (however, some conspiracy theorists claim the two didn’t want to find Howland and wanted to disappear). The two headed North to Japanese-controlled Marshall Islands, where they were quite possibly taken hostage and eventually killed for being U.S. spies.

But, inside this theory we have another theory, that the two survived and returned to the U.S.A under new names. One theory says Earhart was called Irene Craigmile Bolan! After a quick google of the name and the only source really being Wikipedia [sigh] apparently she was born October 1st 1904 and died on July 7th 1982. She was a New York banker and the conspiracy of her being Earhart started when she was introduced to Joseph Gervais (an old friend of Earhart’s) by another of Amelia’s friends and then this guy went a little crazy and started researching her, leading to a book to be published about the conspiracy by Joe Klaas. Bolan always denied being Earhart and even filed a lawsuit (apparently) against the publisher.

In a book written by Rollin C. Reineck (a retired U.S. Air force colonel) he writes a scenario that involves Earhart and Noonan leaving the plane in the Marshall Islands and possibly being rescued by the U.S government and then using a different alias for security reasons.

This is where the infamous picture of what is believed to be Earhart sat on a dock in Jaluit Atoll, comes into play. Some say that after this photo had been taken, the Japanese accused them of being spies and they were imprisoned, leaving them to die from dysentery or execution.
However, this theory is often discredited due to our knowledge on how little fuel they had due to one transmission saying “gas is running low.”. They would’ve had to drift to the Marshal Islands and this would not really have been possible.

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“Despite many theories, though, no proof of Earhart’s fate exists. There is no doubt, however, that the world will always remember Amelia Earhart for her courage, vision, and groundbreaking achievements, both in aviation and for women.”

https://www.ameliaearhart.com/biography/

And there you have it. The life and disappearance of Amelia Earhart. An amazing woman, with an amazing amount of bravery and determination. I hope you all enjoyed this blog as much as I enjoyed writing it.