The female legend of aviation: who is Amelia Earhart?

Amelia Earhart was born in July 1897. In July 1937, before reaching her fortieth birthday, she mysteriously disappeared.

Childhood of Amelia Earhart

Earhart was born on July 24, 1897, in Atchison, Kansas. Her mother, Amelia “Amy” Otis, married a man who could never break her ties to alcohol. Her father, Edwin Earhart, was on a constant quest to build a career and put her family on a solid financial footing. When the situation deteriorated, Amy took her daughters to her grandparents' home, where Earhart spent her early childhood.

His family was reunited when Earhart was 10, but her father was still struggling constantly to find and maintain a lucrative job. This resulted in the family moving constantly, so Earhart attended several different schools. In 1915, Amy separated from her husband once again, moved to Chicago with her daughters, and Amelia attended Hyde Park High School. Her father's inability to support her family caused Earhart to become independent and not rely on anyone else to "take care of" him.

After graduating from high school, Earhart visited her sister in Toronto, Canada, over the Christmas break. After seeing wounded soldiers returning from World War I there, she volunteered as an assistant nurse. In this way, Earhart recognized many injured pilots. She developed a strong fascination with aviators and spent most of her free time watching the Royal Flying Corps practice at the nearby airport. In 1919, Earhart began training in medical studies at Columbia University. She dropped out of college in 1920, however, when her parents insisted that she live with them in California.

At a Long Beach air show in 1920, Earhart took a life-changing flight. The flight had only lasted 10 minutes, but when she landed she knew she had to learn to fly. Working a variety of jobs from photography to truck driver, she earned enough money to take flying lessons from pioneering female aviator Neta Snook. She read everything he could find while flying and spent most of her time at the airport.

In 1921, Earhart purchased a second-hand Kinner Airster biplane painted bright yellow. On October 22, 1922, she flew her plane to 14,000 feet, the world altitude record for female pilots. In 1923, she became the 16th woman to be granted a pilot's license. In 1924, Earhart had to sell her plane due to her family's financial situation. She enrolled at Columbia University again but again had to drop out due to financial reasons. Earhart found work as a teacher, then as a social worker.

Slowly returning to aviation in 1927, Earhart became a member of the Boston branch of the American Aeronautical Association. She also served as a sales representative for Kinner planes in the Boston area and wrote articles promoting flying in the local newspaper.

Earhart's life changed dramatically in 1928. After Charles Lindbergh's solo flight from New York to Paris in May 1927, the idea of a woman flying across the Atlantic Ocean received a lot of attention. Earhart was selected for the flight in April 1928 but as a passenger. At the time, such a flight was considered too dangerous to be led by a woman.

On June 17, 1928, Earhart left Newfoundland, Canada, on a plane named Friendship. She was accompanied on the flight by pilot Wilmer Stultz and co-pilot/mechanic Louis E. Gordon. After approximately 20 hours and 40 minutes, they landed in Wales, United Kingdom. Although this was the agreed-upon arrangement, Earhart is said to later say, "I just felt like a suitcase, a sack of potatoes, maybe one day I'll try this flight alone."

After her maiden flight across the Atlantic, the press dubbed Amelia Earhart "Lady Lindy", a derivative of Charles Lindbergh's nickname, Lucky Lind. Earhart was tall and thin, with short wavy hair, and looked so strikingly like Charles Lindbergh that she might have been her sister. Some even suggested that Earhart's resemblance to Charles Lindbergh was instrumental in selecting him for this flight.

After this flight, Earhart became a media symbol of what women can achieve and became famous around the world. About 20 Hrs. 40 min. She wrote a book called she and organized a lecture tour in the United States. Much of the publicity was done by publisher George Palmer Putnam, who also helped organize the historic flight. The couple married in 1931, but Earhart continued her career under her maiden name and stated that she saw marriage as an equal partnership.

Determined to justify the fame that the 1928 flight brought him, Earhart crossed the Atlantic alone on May 20-21, 1932. The flight from Newfoundland to Londonderry, Northern Ireland, was completed in a record time of 14 hours 56 minutes despite a series of problems. Experiencing mechanical difficulties and inclement weather, Earhart was unable to land at her planned destination, Paris. In 1932, she published The Fun of It, about her life and interest in flying. Earhart later made a series of flights in the United States.

In addition to her piloting achievements, Earhart was known for encouraging women to reject restrictive social norms and pursue various opportunities, particularly in aviation. In 1929, she helped found an organization of women pilots later known as "Ninety-Nines" and served as its first president. In addition, in 1933 she founded a functional clothing brand designed "for women who live actively".

In 1935, Earhart made history with the first solo flight from Hawaii to California, a dangerous 2,408 miles (3,875 km) route. This flight had a longer distance from the United States than to Europe. It departed Honolulu on January 11 and landed in Oakland the next day after 17 hours and 7 minutes. Later that year, she became the first person to fly solo from Los Angeles to Mexico City.

Amelia Earhart hoped to become the first woman to circumnavigate the world. On June 1, 1937, she began her 29,000-mile (47,000 km) journey in a twin-engine Lockheed Electra, leaving Miami with her navigator Fred Noonan and heading east. In the following weeks, they made several refueling stops before reaching Lae, New Guinea, on June 29. By this point, Earhart and Noonan had traveled about 22,000 miles (35,000 km).

On July 2, they set off again for Howland Island, some 2,600 miles (4,200 km) away. Late in the journey, Earhart said by radio that the plane had run out of fuel, and about an hour later they were "flying north and south." This was the last message received by Earhart. The plane was believed to have descended about 100 miles (160 km) from the island, and an extensive search was undertaken to find Earhart and Noonan. However, on 19 July 1937, the operation was stopped and the couple was declared lost at sea.

Earhart's mysterious disappearance has been the subject of many books and movies, although many theories have been produced on the subject. For example, some believed that Earhart and Noonan, unable to find Howland Island, ended up on a different island. However, conclusive evidence for such claims has never been found. Most experts believe Earhart's plane crashed in the Pacific near Howland after running out of fuel.

Along the way, Earhart sent various materials to her husband, including letters and diaries, which were published in 1937 in the book Last Flight. In a letter to her husband, Amelia said: “Please know that I am quite aware of the dangers. I'm doing this because I want to do it. Women should try to do things as men try. And when they fail, their failure should be nothing more than a challenge to others.”