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Amelia Earhart

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Amelia Mary Earhart (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell; born July 24, 1897; disappeared July 2, 1937; declared dead January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer. On July 2, 1937, she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. During her life, Earhart embraced celebrity culture and women's rights, and since her disappearance has become a global cultural figure. She was the first female pilot to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean and set many other records.Template:Sfn She was one of the first aviators to promote commercial air travel, wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences, and was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots.Template:Sfn

Earhart was born and raised in Atchison, Kansas, and developed a passion for adventure at a young age, steadily gaining flying experience from her twenties. In 1928, she became a celebrity after becoming the first female passenger to cross the Atlantic by airplane. In 1932, she became the first woman to make a nonstop solo transatlantic flight, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for her achievement.Template:Sfn In 1935, she became a visiting faculty member of Purdue University as an advisor in aeronautical engineering and a career counselor to female students. She was a member of the National Woman's Party and an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment.<ref>"Timeline: Equal Rights Amendment, Phase One: 1921–1972." Template:Webarchive feminism101.com. accessed: June 4, 2012.</ref><ref>Francis, Roberta W."The History Behind the Equal Rights Amendment." equalrightsamendment.org, July 21, 2011. accessed: June 4, 2012.</ref> She was one of the most inspirational American figures from the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s. Her legacy is often compared to that of the early career of pioneer aviator Charles Lindbergh, as well as First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, for their close friendship and lasting influence on women's causes.

In 1937, during an attempt to become the first woman to complete a circumnavigational flight of the globe, flying a Lockheed Model 10-E Electra airplane, Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared near Howland Island in the central Pacific Ocean. The two were last seen in Lae, New Guinea, their last land stop before Howland Island, a very small location where they were intending to refuel. It is generally believed that they ran out of fuel before they found Howland Island and crashed into the ocean near their destination.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Nearly one year and six months after she and Noonan disappeared, Earhart was officially declared dead.

The mysterious nature of Earhart's disappearance has caused much public interest in her life. Her airplane has never been found, which has led to speculation and conspiracy theories about the outcome of the flight. Decades after her presumed death, Earhart was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1968 and the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1973. Several commemorative memorials in the United States have been named in her honor; these include a commemorative US airmail stamp, an airport, a museum, a bridge, a cargo ship, an earth-fill dam, a playhouse, a library, and multiple roads and schools. She also has a minor planet, planetary corona, and newly discovered lunar crater named after her. Numerous films, documentaries, and books have recounted Earhart's life, and she is ranked ninth on Flying's list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation.<ref name=FlyingMag/> Template:Toclimit

Early life

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Childhood

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File:Amelia Earhart birthplace from NE 1.JPG
Amelia Earhart's birthplace

Amelia Mary Earhart was born on July 24, 1897, in Atchison, Kansas, as the daughter of Samuel "Edwin" Stanton Earhart (1867–1930) and Amelia "Amy" (Template:Née; 1869–1962).<ref>"A/E11/M-129, Earhart, Amy Otis, 1869–1962. Papers, 1944, n.d.: A Finding Aid." Harvard University Library., September 1, 2006. (archived). accessed: June 3, 2012.</ref> Amelia was born in the home of her maternal grandfather Alfred Gideon Otis (1827–1912), who was a former judge in Kansas, the president of Atchison Savings Bank, and a leading resident of the town.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Earhart was the second child of the marriage after a stillbirth in August 1896.Template:Sfn She was of part-German descent; Alfred Otis had not initially favored the marriage and was not satisfied with Edwin's progress as a lawyer.Template:Sfn

According to family custom, Amelia Earhart was named after her two grandmothers Amelia Josephine Harres and Mary Wells Patton.Template:Sfn From an early age, Amelia was the dominant sibling while her sister Grace Muriel Earhart (1899–1998), two years her junior, acted as a dutiful follower.<ref>"Grace Muriel Earhart Morrissey." Template:Webarchive The Ninety-Nines. accessed: June 3, 2012.</ref> Amelia was nicknamed "Meeley" and sometimes "Millie", and Grace was nicknamed "Pidge"; both girls continued to answer to their childhood nicknames well into adulthood.Template:Sfn Their upbringing was unconventional; Amy Earhart did not believe in raising her children to be "nice little girls".Template:Sfn The children's maternal grandmother disapproved of the bloomers they wore, and although Amelia liked the freedom of movement they provided, she was sensitive to the fact the neighborhood's girls wore dresses.

File:Ameliachild.jpg
Amelia Earhart as a child

The Earhart children seemed to have a spirit of adventure and would set off daily to explore their neighborhood.Template:Sfn As a child, Amelia Earhart spent hours playing with sister Pidge, climbing trees, hunting rats with a rifle, and sledding downhill.<ref>"American Experience: Amelia Earhart Program Transcript." americanexperience, April 12, 2012. accessed: September 23, 2017.</ref> Some biographers have characterized the young Amelia as a tomboy.Template:Sfn The girls kept worms, moths, katydids and a tree toad they gathered in a growing collection.Template:Sfn In 1904, with the help of her uncle, Amelia Earhart constructed a home-made ramp that was fashioned after a roller coaster she had seen on a trip to St. Louis, Missouri, and secured it to the roof of the family tool shed. Following Amelia's well-documented first flight, she emerged from the broken wooden box that had served as a sled with a bruised lip, a torn dress and a "sensation of exhilaration", saying: "Oh, Pidge, it's just like flying!"Template:Sfn

In 1907, Edwin Earhart's job as a claims officer for the Rock Island Railroad led to a transfer to Des Moines, Iowa. The next year, at the age of 10,<ref name="Biography">"Biography. Template:Webarchive The Official Website of Amelia Earhart (The Family of Amelia Earhart). accessed: June 4, 2012.</ref> Amelia saw her first aircraft at Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Their father tried to interest his daughters in taking a flight but after looking at the rickety "flivver", Amelia promptly asked if they could go back to the merry-go-round.Template:Sfn She later described the biplane as "a thing of rusty wire and wood and not at all interesting".Template:Sfn

Education

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Sisters Amelia and Grace—who from her teenage years went by her middle name Muriel—Earhart remained with their grandparents in Atchison while their parents moved into new, smaller quarters in Des Moines. During this period, the Earhart girls received homeschooling from their mother and a governess. Amelia later said she was "exceedingly fond of reading"Template:Sfn and spent many hours in the large family library. In 1909, when the family was reunited in Des Moines, the Earhart children were enrolled in public school for the first time and Amelia, 12, entered seventh grade.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

File:Amelia-in-evening-clothes (cropped).jpg
Amelia Earhart in evening clothes

The Earhart family's finances seemingly improved with the acquisition of a new house and the hiring of two servants but it soon became apparent Edwin was an alcoholic. In 1914, he was forced to retire; he attempted to rehabilitate himself through treatment but the Rock Island Railroad never reinstated him. At about this time, Earhart's grandmother Amelia Otis died, leaving a substantial estate that placed her daughter's share in a trust, fearing Edwin's drinking would exhaust the funds. The Otis house was auctioned along with its contents; Amelia later described these events as the end of her childhood.Template:Sfn

In 1915, after a long search, Edwin Earhart found work as a clerk at the Great Northern Railway in St. Paul, Minnesota, where Amelia entered Central High School as a junior. Edwin applied for a transfer to Springfield, Missouri, in 1915, but the current claims officer reconsidered his retirement and demanded his job back, leaving Edwin Earhart unemployed. Amy Earhart took her children to Chicago, where they lived with friends. Amelia canvassed nearby high schools in Chicago to find the best science program; she rejected the high school nearest her home, complaining the chemistry lab was "just like a kitchen sink".Template:Sfn She eventually enrolled in Hyde Park High School but spent a miserable semester for which a yearbook caption noted: "A.E.—the girl in brown who walks alone".Template:Sfn

Amelia Earhart graduated from Hyde Park High School in 1916.Template:Sfn Throughout her childhood, she had continued to aspire to a future career; she kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about successful women in male-dominated careers, including film direction and production, law, advertising, management, and mechanical engineering.<ref name="Biography" /> She began junior college at Ogontz School in Rydal, Pennsylvania, but did not complete her program.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn

Nursing career and illness

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During Christmas vacation in 1917, Earhart visited her sister in Toronto, Canada, where she saw wounded soldiers returning from World War I. After receiving training as a nurse's aide from the Red Cross, Earhart began working with the Voluntary Aid Detachment at Spadina Military Hospital, where her duties included food preparation for patients with special diets and handing out prescribed medication in the hospital's dispensary.<ref name="nurseaide">Popplewell, Brett. "The city Amelia loved". Template:Webarchive Toronto Star, June 29, 2008. accessed: June 30, 2008.</ref><ref>"Portrait of Earhart as a volunteer nurse in Toronto." Template:Webarchive Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. accessed: September 23, 2017.</ref> There, Earhart heard stories from military pilots and developed an interest in flying.<ref name="Gils-2009-PoF-262">Gils, Bieke, "Pioneers of Flight: An Analysis of Gender Issues in United States Civilian (Sport) and Commercial Aviation 1920–1940" (2009). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 262.</ref><ref> Ware, Susan. Still Missing: Amelia Earhart and the Search for Modern Feminism. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1993. Template:ISBN.</ref>

In 1918, when the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic reached Toronto, Earhart was engaged in nursing duties that included night shifts at Spadina Military Hospital.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In early November that year, she became infected and was hospitalized for pneumonia and maxillary sinusitis. She was discharged in December 1918, about two months later.Template:Sfn Her sinus-related symptoms were pain and pressure around one eye, and copious mucus drainage via the nostrils and throat.Template:Sfn While staying in the hospital during the pre-antibiotic era, Earhart had painful minor operations to wash out the affected maxillary sinusTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn but these procedures were not successful and her headaches worsened. Earhart's convalescence lasted nearly a year, which she spent at her sister's home in Northampton, Massachusetts.Template:Sfn Earhart passed the time reading poetry, learning to play the banjo, and studying mechanics.Template:Sfn Chronic sinusitis significantly affected Earhart's flying and other activities in later life,Template:Sfn and sometimes she was forced to wear a bandage on her cheek to cover a small drainage tube.Template:Sfn

By 1919, Earhart prepared to enter Smith College, where her sister was a student,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> but she changed her mind and enrolled in a course of medical studies and other programs at Columbia University.Template:Sfn Earhart quit her studies a year later to be with her parents, who had reunited in California.

Early flying experiences

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Amelia Earhart in her first training plane in 1920
Earhart in her first training plane, 1920

In the early 1920s, Earhart and a young woman friend visited an air fair held in conjunction with the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto; she said: "The interest, aroused in me, in Toronto, led me to all the air circuses in the vicinity."<ref name="forneymuseum/AmeliaEarhart">Template:Cite web</ref> One of the highlights of the day was a flying exhibition put on by a World War I ace.Template:Sfn The pilot saw Earhart and her friend, who were watching from an isolated clearing, and dived at them. "I am sure he said to himself, 'Watch me make them scamper,'Template:Sp" she said. Earhart stood her ground as the aircraft came close. "I did not understand it at the time," she said, "but I believe that little red airplane said something to me as it swished by."Template:Sfn

On December 28, 1920, Earhart and her father attended an "aerial meet"<ref name="latimes/daily-pilot/2008-07-31-pipeline">Template:Cite news</ref> at Daugherty Field in Long Beach, California. She asked her father to ask about passenger flights and flying lessons.<ref name="forneymuseum/AmeliaEarhart"/> Earhart was booked for a passenger flight the following day at Emory Roger's Field, at the corner<ref name="latimes-1990-08-09-me-25">Template:Cite news</ref> of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue.<ref name="forneymuseum/AmeliaEarhart"/> A 10-minute flight with Frank Hawks, who later gained fame as an air racer, cost $10 (Template:Inflation). The ride with Hawkes changed Earhart's life; she said: "By the time I had got two or three hundred feet [60–90 m] off the ground ... I knew I had to fly."Template:Sfn

File:Neta amelia kinner airster s.jpg
L–R: Neta Snook, Earhart's Kinner Airster and Amelia Earhart, Template:Circa<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Snook-Airster-Earhart">Template:Cite web</ref>

The next month, Earhart engaged Neta Snook to be her flying instructor. The initial contract was for 12 hours of instruction for $500 (Template:Inflation).<ref name="forneymuseum/AmeliaEarhart"/> Working at a variety of jobs, including photographer, truck driver, and stenographer at the local telephone company, Earhart saved $1,000 (Template:Inflation) for flying lessons; she had her first lesson on January 3, 1921, at Kinner Field on the west side of Long Beach Boulevard and Tweedy Road,<ref name="latimes/daily-pilot/2008-07-31-pipeline"/> now in the city of South Gate. Snook used a crash-salvaged Curtiss JN-4 "Canuck" airplane she had restored for training. To reach the airfield, Earhart had to take a bus then walk Template:Convert. Earhart's mother provided part of the $1,000 "stake" against her "better judgement".<ref>"Lady Lindy, Amelia Earhart's life history." Template:Webarchive aviationhistory.org. accessed: October 12, 2009.</ref> Earhart cropped her hair short in the style of other female flyers.Template:Sfn Six months later, in mid 1921 and against Snook's advice, Earhart purchased a secondhand, chromium yellow Kinner Airster biplane,<ref name="forneymuseum/AmeliaEarhart"/> which she nicknamed "The Canary". After her first successful solo landing, she bought a new leather flying coat.<ref name="forneymuseum/AmeliaEarhart"/> Due to the newness of the coat, she was subjected to teasing, so she aged it by sleeping in it and staining it with aircraft oil.<ref name="forneymuseum/AmeliaEarhart"/>

On October 22, 1922, Earhart flew the Airster to an altitude of Template:Convert, setting a world record for female pilots.Template:Sfn On May 16, 1923, Earhart became the 16th woman in the United States to be issued a pilot's license (#6017)Template:Sfn by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).<ref name="6017@npg.si.edu">"Amelia Earhart's pilot's license, leather and paper, Issued May 16, 1923 (One Life: Amelia Earhart)." Template:Webarchive National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. accessed: September 23, 2017.</ref> Template:Clear

Financial problems and move to Massachusetts

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Throughout the early 1920s, following a disastrous investment in a failed gypsum mine, Amelia Earhart's inheritance from her grandmother, which her mother was now administering, steadily diminished until it was exhausted. Consequently, with no immediate prospect of recouping her investment in flying, Earhart sold the Canary and a second Kinner and bought a yellow Kissel Gold Bug "Speedster", a two-seat automobile, and named it "Yellow Peril". Simultaneously, pain from Earhart's old sinus problem worsened, and in early 1924, she was hospitalized for another sinus operation, which was again unsuccessful. She tried a number of ventures that included setting up a photography company.Template:Sfn

File:Amelia Earhart on horseback from 20 Hrs 40 Min.jpg
Photo of Earhart from her book 20 Hrs. 40 Min. (1928)

Following her parents' divorce in 1924, Earhart drove her mother in "Yellow Peril" on a transcontinental trip from California with stops throughout the western United States and northward to Banff, Alberta, Canada. Their journey ended in Boston, Massachusetts, where Earhart underwent another, more-successful sinus operation. After recuperation, she returned to Columbia University for several months but was forced to abandon her studies and any further plans for enrolling at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), because her mother could no longer afford the tuition fees and associated costs. In 1925, Earhart found employment first as a teacher, then as a social worker at Denison House, a Boston settlement house.<ref>"Amelia Earhart Biographical Sketch". George Palmer Putnam Collection of Amelia Earhart Papers, Purdue University, April 1, 2008. accessed: September 23, 2017.</ref> At this time, she lived in Medford, Massachusetts.

When Earhart lived in Medford, she maintained her interest in aviation, becoming a member of the American Aeronautical Society's Boston chapter and eventually being elected its vice president.Template:Sfn She flew out of Dennison Airport in Quincy, helped finance the airport's operation by investing a small sum of money,Template:Sfn and in 1927, she flew the first official flight out of Dennison Airport.<ref>Chaisson, Stephanie. "Squantum has a hold on its residents." The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, Massachusetts, July 12, 2007. accessed: September 23, 2017.</ref> Earhart worked as a sales representative for Kinner Aircraft in the Boston area and wrote local-newspaper columns promoting flying; as her local celebrity grew, Earhart made plans to launch an organization for female flyers.Template:Sfn

Aviation career and marriage

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First woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 1928

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File:Amelia Earhart 1928.jpg
Amelia Earhart prior to her transatlantic crossing of June 17, 1928

In 1928, Earhart became the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean in an airplane. The project coordinators included publisher and publicist George P. Putnam, who later became her husband. She was a passenger, with the plane flown by Wilmer Stultz and copilot/mechanic Louis Gordon. On June 17, 1928, the team departed from Trepassey Harbor, Newfoundland, in a Fokker F.VIIb/3m named Friendship and landed at Pwll near Burry Port, South Wales, exactly 20 hours and 40 minutes later.Template:Sfn The flight duration became the title to her book about the expedition 20 Hrs. 40 Min.

Earhart had no training on this type of aircraft and did not pilot the plane. When interviewed after landing, she said: "Stultz did all the flying—had to. I was just baggage, like a sack of potatoes ... maybe someday I'll try it alone."Template:Sfn Despite her feeling, she gained international attention from the press and was greeted like a heroine.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On June 19, 1928, Earhart flew to Woolston, Southampton, England, where she received a rousing welcome.<ref>Southampton: A pictorial peep into the past. Southern Newspapers Ltd, 1980.</ref>Template:Page needed She had changed aircraft and flew an Avro Avian 594 Avian III, SN: R3/AV/101 that was owned by Irish aviator Lady Mary Heath, the first woman to hold a commercial flying licence in Britain. Earhart later acquired the aircraft and had it shipped to the United States.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

When Stultz, Gordon, and Earhart returned to the United States on July 6, they were greeted with a ticker-tape parade along the Canyon of Heroes in Manhattan, followed by a reception with President Calvin Coolidge at the White House.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Celebrity status

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When Earhart became famous, the press dubbed her "Lady Lindy", because of her physical resemblance to the famous male aviator Charles LindberghTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn and "Queen of the Air".Template:Sfn Immediately after her return to the United States, Earhart undertook an exhausting lecture tour in 1928 and 1929. Putnam had undertaken to heavily promote Earhart in a campaign that included publishing a book she wrote, a series of new lecture tours, and using pictures of her in media endorsements for products including luggage. A Lucky Strike cigarettes endorsement caused McCall's magazine to retract their offer.Template:Sfn The money Earhart made from Lucky Strike had been intended to support Richard Evelyn Byrd's imminent expedition to the South Pole.Template:Sfn

The marketing campaign by both Earhart and Putnam was successful in establishing the Earhart mystique in the public psyche.<ref>Crouch, Tom D. "Searching for Amelia Earhart." Invention & Technology, Summer 2007 via americanheritage.com. (archived). accessed: July 2, 2010.</ref> Rather than simply endorsing the products, Earhart became involved in the promotions, especially in women's fashions. The "active living" lines that were sold in stores such as Macy's were an expression of Earhart's new image.<ref>V Morell (1998) Amelia Earhart. National Geographic 193(1), 112–135</ref> Her concept of simple, natural lines matched with wrinkle-proof, washable materials was the embodiment of a sleek, purposeful, but feminine "A.E.", the familiar name she used with family and friends.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Celebrity endorsements helped Earhart finance her flying.<ref>"Biography of Amelia Earhart." Template:Webarchive Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum. accessed: July 2, 2010.</ref>

Promoting aviation

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File:Aa earhart subj e.jpg
Studio portrait of Amelia Earhart, Template:Circa. Putnam instructed Earhart to disguise a "gap-toothed" smile by keeping her mouth closed in formal photographs.

Earhart accepted a position as associate editor at Cosmopolitan and used it to campaign for greater public acceptance of aviation, especially focusing on the role of women entering the field.Template:Sfn In 1929, Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) appointed Earhart and Margaret Bartlett Thornton to promote air travel, particularly for women,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and Earhart helped set up the Ludington Airline, the first regional shuttle service between New York and Washington, D.C. Earhart was appointed Vice President of National Airways, which operated Boston-Maine Airways and several other airlines in the northeastern US, and by 1940 had become Northeast Airlines.<ref>Boston and Maine Railroad Employees Magazine, Volume 8, Number 10, July 1933, copy in Purdue University Special Collections.</ref> In 1934, Earhart interceded on behalf of Isabel Ebel, who had helped Earhart in 1932, to be accepted as the first woman student of aeronautical engineering at New York University (NYU).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Competitive flying

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In August 1928, Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the North American continent and back.<ref name="Mendieta">Mendieta, Carlene. "Amelia Earhart's Flight Across America: Rediscovering a Legend." Template:Webarchive ameliaflight.com. accessed: May 21, 2007.</ref> Her piloting skills and professionalism gradually grew, and she was acknowledged by experienced professional pilots who flew with her. General Leigh Wade, who flew with Earhart in 1929, said: "She was a born flier, with a delicate touch on the stick."Template:Sfn

Earhart made her first attempt at competitive air racing in 1929 during the first Santa Monica-to-Cleveland Women's Air Derby (nicknamed the "Powder Puff Derby" by Will Rogers), which left Santa Monica, California, on August 18 and arrived at Cleveland, Ohio, on August 26. During the race, Earhart settled into fourth place in the "heavy planes" division. At the second-to-last stop at Columbus, Earhart's friend Ruth Nichols, who was in third place, had an accident; her aircraft hit a tractor and flipped over, forcing her out of the race.Template:Sfn At Cleveland, Earhart was placed third in the heavy division.Template:Sfn<ref>San Bernardino County Sun. August 26, 1929.</ref>

In 1930, Earhart became an official of the National Aeronautic Association, and in this role, she promoted the establishment of separate women's records and was instrumental in persuading the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) to accept a similar international standard.Template:Sfn On April 8, 1931,<ref>"Miss Earhart Sets Autogiro Record", The New York Times, April 9, 1931, p. 1</ref><ref>"The Autogiro Flies the Mail!", by W. David Lewis, in Realizing the Dream of Flight, ed. by Virginia P. Dawson (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2005) p. 78</ref> Earhart set a world altitude record of Template:Convert flying a Pitcairn PCA-2<ref>"Model, Static, Pitcairn PCA-2 ("Beech-Nut")." Template:Webarchive National Air and Space Museum. accessed: September 23, 2017.</ref> autogyro she borrowed from the Beech-Nut Chewing Gum company.<ref>Nesbit, Roy Conyers. "Missing: Believed Killed: Amelia Earhart, Amy Johnson, Glenn Miller & The Duke of Kent." Template:Webarchive Pen & Sword Military, 2010. accessed: September 23, 2017.</ref><ref>'Aviators: Amelia Earhart's Autogiro Adventures.' Template:Webarchive HistoryNet. accessed: September 23, 2017.</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Sfn

During this period, Earhart became involved with Ninety-Nines, an organization of female pilots providing moral support and advancing the cause of women in aviation. In 1929, following the Women's Air Derby, Earhart called a meeting of female pilots. She suggested the name based on the number of the charter members, and became the organization's first president in 1930.Template:Sfn Earhart was a vigorous advocate for female pilots; when the 1934 Bendix Trophy Race banned women from competing, Earhart refused to fly screen actor Mary Pickford to Cleveland to open the race.Template:Sfn

Marriage to George Putnam

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File:Amelia Earhart and husband George Putnam 1931.jpg
Earhart and Putnam in 1931

Earhart married her public relations manager George P. Putnam on February 7, 1931, in Putnam's mother's house in Noank, Connecticut, in what has been described as a marriage of convenience.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Earhart had been engaged to Samuel Chapman, a chemical engineer from Boston, but she broke off the engagement on November 23, 1928.Template:Sfn Putnam, who was known as GP, was divorced in 1929 and sought out Earhart, proposing to her six times before she agreed to marry him. Earhart referred to her marriage as a "partnership" with "dual control"; in a letter to Putnam and hand-delivered to him on the day of the wedding, she wrote:

I want you to understand I shall not hold you to any midaevil Template:Sic code of faithfulness to me nor shall I consider myself bound to you similarly ... I may have to keep some place where I can go to be by myself, now and then, for I cannot guarantee to endure at all times the confinement of even an attractive cage.Template:Sfn<ref>"Newly Discovered Amelia Earhart Letter Shows Her Wild Side." Wireless Flash News, February 25, 2003. accessed: September 23, 2017.</ref><ref>Patterson-Neubert, Amy. "Public to get first look at Amelia Earhart's private life." Template:Webarchive Purdue News, 2003. accessed: July 2, 2010.</ref>

Earhart's ideas on marriage were liberal for the time; she believed in equal responsibilities for both breadwinners and kept her own name rather than being referred to as "Mrs. Putnam". When The New York Times referred to her as "Mrs. Putnam", she laughed it off. Putnam also learned he would be called "Mr. Earhart".Template:Sfn There was no honeymoon for the couple because Earhart was involved in a nine-day, cross-country tour promoting autogyros and the tour's sponsor Beech-Nut chewing gum. Earhart and Putnam never had children but Putnam had two sons—the explorer and writer David Binney Putnam (1913–1992), and George Palmer Putnam Jr. (1921–2013)—from his previous marriage to Dorothy Binney (1888–1982),<ref>"Dorothy Binney Putnam Upton Blanding Palmer 1888–1982." St. Lucie Historical Society, Inc. (archived). accessed: September 23, 2017.Template:Better source needed</ref> an heir to her father's chemical company Binney & Smith.<ref>"Edwin Binney 1866–1934." Template:Webarchive St. Lucie Historical Society, Inc. accessed: June 3, 2012.</ref>Template:Sfn

Transatlantic solo flight in 1932

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File:Herbert Hoover and Amelia Earhart.jpg
Earhart walking with President Herbert Hoover in the grounds of the White House on January 2, 1932

On May 20, 1932, 34-year-old Earhart set off from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, with a copy of the Telegraph-Journal, given to her by journalist Stuart Trueman<ref name=telegraph>"Eighty years since famed flight; Anniversary Amelia Earhart's stop in Saint John may have been brief but pivotal in record-breaking feat". The Telegraph-Journal, May 19, 2012.</ref> to confirm the date of the flight.<ref name=telegraph /> She intended to fly to Paris in her single engine Lockheed Vega 5B to emulate Charles Lindbergh's solo flight five years earlier.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Her technical advisor for the flight was the Norwegian-American aviator Bernt Balchen, who helped prepare her aircraft and played the role of "decoy" for the press because he was ostensibly preparing Earhart's Vega for his own Arctic flight.Template:Refn After a flight lasting 14 hours, 56 minutes, during which she contended with strong northerly winds, icy conditions and mechanical problems, Earhart landed in a pasture at Culmore, north of Derry, Northern Ireland. The landing was witnessed by Cecil King and T. Sawyer. When a farm hand asked, "Have you flown far?" Earhart replied, "From America."<ref>Goddard, Seth. "Life Hero of the Week Profile: Amelia Earhart; First Lady of the Sky." Time-Life (life.com), October 5, 2002 (archived). accessed: September 23, 2017.</ref><ref>"Amelia Earhart Centre."| Derry City Council Heritage and Museum Service. accessed: September 23, 2017.</ref>

As the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic, Earhart received the Distinguished Flying Cross from Congress, the Cross of Knight of the Legion of Honor from the French Government, and the Gold Medal of the National Geographic Society<ref>Sherman, Stephen. "The Hall of Fame of the Air; An illustrated newspaper feature from 1935 to 1940." Template:Webarchive acepilots.com, April 11, 2012. accessed: July 9, 2017.</ref> from President Herbert Hoover. As her fame grew, Earhart developed friendships with many people in high office, most notably First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who shared many of Earhart's interests, especially women's causes. After flying with Earhart, Roosevelt obtained a student permit but did not further pursue her plans to learn to fly. Earhart and Roosevelt frequently communicated with each other.Template:Sfn Another flyer, Jacqueline Cochran, who was said to be Earhart's rival, also became her confidante during this period.Template:Sfn

Additional solo flights

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File:Amelia Earhart First Female Aviator Flies Solo Across Pacific in 18 Hours, 1932.webm
Newsreel of Earhart flying from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Oakland, California in 1935

On January 11, 1935, Earhart became the first aviator to fly solo from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Oakland, California.<ref>"11–12 January 1935." Template:Webarchive This Day in Aviation, January 11, 2017. accessed: July 13, 2017,</ref><ref>'Hawaii Aviation; Amelia Earhart." Template:Webarchive aviation.hawaii.gov. accessed: September 23, 2017.</ref><ref>"Earhart, Amelia; Lockheed Model 5C Vega Special (6th Earhart Aircraft, NR-965Y). (photograph)." Template:Webarchive National Air and Space Museum. accessed: July 13, 2017.</ref> This time, Earhart used a Lockheed 5C Vega.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Although many aviators had attempted this flight, including the participants in the 1927 Dole Air Race, which flew the opposite direction, and resulted in three deaths, Earhart'sTemplate:Sfn flight was mainly routine with no mechanical breakdowns. In her final hours, she relaxed and listened to "the broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera from New York".Template:Sfn

On April 19, 1935, using her Lockheed Vega aircraft that she had named "old Bessie, the fire horse",Template:Efn<ref>"Parks Airport Lockheed Vega 5C Special NX/NR/NC965Y." Template:Webarchive parksfield.org. accessed: July 13, 2017.</ref> Earhart flew solo from Los Angeles to Mexico City. Earhart's next record attempt was a nonstop flight from Mexico City to New York. After she set off on May 8, her flight was uneventful, although large crowds that greeted her at Newark, New Jersey, were a concern,Template:Sfn because she had to be careful not to taxi into them.

Earhart again participated in the 1935 Bendix Trophy long-distance air race, finishing fifth, the best result she could manage because her stock Lockheed Vega, whose maximum speed was Template:Convert, was outclassed by purpose-built aircraft that reached more than Template:Convert.Template:Sfn The race had been difficult because a competitor, Cecil Allen, died in a fire at takeoff, and Jacqueline Cochran was forced to pull out due to mechanical problems. In addition, "blinding fog"Template:Sfn and violent thunderstorms plagued the race.

Between 1930 and 1935, Earhart set seven women's speed-and-distance aviation records in a variety of aircraft, including the Kinner Airster, Lockheed Vega, and Pitcairn Autogiro. By 1935, recognizing the limitations of her "lovely red Vega" in long, transoceanic flights, Earhart contemplated a new "prize ... one flight which I most wanted to attempt—a circumnavigation of the globe as near its waistline as could be."Template:Sfn For the new venture, she would need a new aircraft. Template:Clear

Move from New York to California

[edit]
File:Amelia Earhart LOC hec.40747.jpg
Earhart In a Stearman-Hammond Y-1

In late November 1934, while Earhart was away on a speaking tour, a fire broke out at the Putnam residence in Rye, destroying many family treasures and Earhart's personal mementos.Template:Sfn Putnam had already sold his interest in the New York-based publishing company to his cousin Palmer Putnam. Following the fire, the couple decided to move to the west coast, where Putnam took up his new position as head of the editorial board of Paramount Pictures in North Hollywood.Template:Sfn

At Earhart's urging, in June 1935, Putnam purchased a small house in Toluca Lake, a San Fernando Valley celebrity enclave community between the Warner Brothers and Universal Pictures studio complexes, where they had earlier rented a temporary residence.<ref>Altman, Elizabeth. "Amelia Earhart home, Toluca Lake, 2003." Template:Webarchive Oviatt Library Digital Archives, Delmar T. Oviatt Library, Urban Archives Center, California State University, Northridge, California. Photo: Template:As of. accessed: September 23, 2011.</ref><ref name="TLCoChist">"History." TolucaLakeChamber.com, July 17, 2011. accessed: September 15, 2010.</ref>

In September 1935, Earhart and Paul Mantz established a business partnership they had been considering since late 1934, and established the short-lived Earhart-Mantz Flying School, which Mantz controlled and operated through his aviation company United Air Services, which was based at Burbank Airport. Putnam handled publicity for the school, which primarily taught instrument flying using Link Trainers.Template:Sfn Also in 1935, Earhart joined Purdue University as a visiting faculty member to counsel women on careers and as a technical advisor to its Department of Aeronautics.Template:Sfn

World flight in 1937

[edit]
File:Amelia Earhart - GPN-2002-000211.jpg
Amelia Earhart standing in front of the Lockheed Electra in which she disappeared in July 1937

Planning

[edit]

Early in 1936, Earhart started planning to fly around the world; if she succeeded, she would become the first woman to do so. Although others had flown around the world, Earhart's flight would be the longest at 29,000 miles (47,000 km) because it followed a roughly equatorial route. Earhart planned to court publicity along the route to increase interest in a planned book about the expedition.<ref>"Miss Earhart to get 'Flying Laboratory'." Template:Webarchive The New York Times, April 20, 1936, p. 3. accessed: September 23, 2017.</ref>

Purdue University established the Amelia Earhart Fund for Aeronautical Research and gave $50,000 (Template:Inflation) to fund the purchase of a Lockheed Electra 10E airplane.Template:Sfn In July 1936, Lockheed Aircraft Company built the airplane, which was fitted with extra fuel tanks and other extensive modifications.<ref>"Lockheed Model 10E Electra c/n: 1055 Reg: NR16020." Template:Webarchive PacificWrecks.com, January 5, 2011. accessed: September 23, 2017.</ref> Earhart dubbed the twin-engine monoplane her "flying laboratory". The plane was built at Lockheed's plant in Burbank, California, and after delivery, it was hangared at the nearby Mantz's United Air Services.Template:Sfn

Earhart chose Harry Manning as her navigator; he had been the captain of the Template:SS, the ship that had transported Earhart from Europe in 1928.Template:Sfn Manning was also a pilot and a skilled radio operator who knew Morse code.Template:Sfn

File:Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan.jpg
Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan

The original plan was a two-person crew: Earhart would fly and Manning would navigate. During a flight across the US that included Earhart, Manning, and Putnam, Earhart flew using landmarks; she and Putnam knew where they were. Manning did a navigation fix that alarmed Putnam, because Manning made a minor navigational error that put them in the wrong state; they were flying close to the state line, but Putnam was still concerned.<ref>Template:Harvtxt: Manning "passed a note to Amelia in the cockpit giving a position in southern Kansas when they were actually in northern Oklahoma. Amelia realized they were only a few miles south of the Kansas border; in reality, the position wasn't all that far off. G. P. took the worst possible view and expressed concern because Manning didn't even have them in the right state."</ref> Sometime later, Putnam and Mantz arranged a night flight to test Manning's navigational skill.Template:Sfn Under poor navigational conditions, Manning's position was off by Template:Convert. Elgen M. and Marie K. Long considered Manning's performance reasonable, because it was within an acceptable error of Template:Convert, but Mantz and Putnam wanted a better navigator.Template:Sfn

Through contacts in the Los Angeles aviation community, Fred Noonan was chosen as a second navigator, because there were significant additional factors that had to be dealt with while using celestial navigation for aircraft.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Noonan, a licensed ship's captain, was experienced in both marine and flight navigation; he had recently left Pan American World Airways (Pan Am), where he established most of the company's China Clipper seaplane routes across the Pacific. Noonan had also been responsible for training Pan American's navigators to fly the route between San Francisco and Manila.Template:Sfn Under the original plans, Noonan would navigate from Hawaii to Howland Island—a difficult portion of the flight—then Manning would continue with Earhart to Australia, and she would proceed on her own for the remainder of the project.Template:Citation needed

Abandoned first attempt

[edit]

On March 17, 1937, Earhart and her crew set out on the first leg of her round-the-world flight, but they abandoned this attempt after a non-fatal crash that damaged the aircraft. The first leg of this attempt was between Oakland, California, and Honolulu, Hawaii. The crew were Earhart, Noonan, Manning, and Mantz, who was acting as Earhart's technical advisor. The propeller hubs' variable pitch mechanisms had problems, so the aircraft was taken to the U.S. Navy's Luke Field facility at Pearl Harbor for servicing. The flight resumed three days later from Luke Field, with Earhart, Noonan and Manning on board. The next destination was Howland Island, a small island in the Pacific. Manning, the radio operator, had made arrangements to use radio direction finding to home in to the island. The flight never left Luke Field; during the takeoff run, there was an uncontrolled ground-loop, the forward landing gear collapsed, both propellers hit the ground, and the plane skidded on its belly. The cause of the crash is not known; some witnesses at Luke Field, including an Associated Press journalist, said they saw a tire blow.Template:Sfn Earhart earlier thought the Electra's right tire had blown and the right landing gear had collapsed. Some sources, including Mantz, cited an error by Earhart.Template:Sfn With the aircraft severely damaged, the attempt was abandoned and the aircraft was shipped to Lockheed Burbank, California, for repairs.Template:Sfn

Second attempt

[edit]
File:Amelia Earhart flight route.svg
The planned flight route

While the Electra was being repaired, Earhart and Putnam secured additional funds and prepared for a second attempt, in which they would fly west to east. The second attempt began with an unpublicized flight from Oakland to Miami, Florida, and after arriving there, Earhart announced her plans to circumnavigate the globe. The flight's opposite direction was partly the result of changes in global wind-and-weather patterns along the planned route since the earlier attempt.Template:Citation needed

Manning, the only skilled radio operator, had left the crew, which now consisted of Noonan and Earhart. The pair departed Miami on June 1 and after numerous stops in South America, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia, arrived at Lae, New Guinea, on June 29, 1937. At this stage, about 22,000 miles (35,000 km) of the journey had been completed. The remaining 7,000 miles (11,000 km) would be over the Pacific.Template:Citation needed

Flight between Lae and Howland Island

[edit]
File:Earhart locations.png
Earhart's flight was intended to be from Lae Airfield to Howland Island, a trip of Template:Convert.

On at 10:00 am local time (12:00 am GMT), Earhart and Noonan took off from Lae Airfield in the heavily loaded Electra.<ref>Lae Airfield (AYLA) Template:Webarchive at Great Circle Mapper</ref> Their destination was Howland Island, a flat sliver of land 6,500 ft (2,000 m) long and 1,600 ft (500 m) wide, 10 ft (3 m) high and Template:Convert away.<ref>Template:Cite gnis</ref> The expected flying time was about 20 hours; accounting for the two-hour time-zone difference between Lae and Howland, and the crossing of the International Date Line, the aircraft was expected to arrive at Howland the morning of the next day, 2 July. The aircraft departed Lae with about Template:Convert of gasoline.Template:Sfn

In preparation for the trip to Howland Island, the U.S. Coast Guard had sent the cutter Template:USCGC to the island to offer communication and navigation support for the flight.<ref name="auto">Template:Cite web</ref> The cutter was to communicate with Earhart's aircraft via radio, transmit a homing signal to help the aviators locate Howland Island, use radio direction-finding (RDF), and use the cutter's boilers to create a dark column of smoke that could be seen over the horizon.<ref name="auto"/> All of the navigation methods failed to guide Earhart to Howland Island.<ref name="auto"/>

Around , Earhart reported her altitude as Template:Cvt, but that they would reduce altitude due to thick clouds. Around , Earhart reported her altitude as Template:Cvt and speed as Template:Cvt.Template:Sfn During Earhart's and Noonan's approach to Howland Island, Itasca received strong, clear voice transmissions from Earhart identifying as KHAQQ, but she was unable to hear voice transmissions from the ship.<ref name="auto"/>

The first calls received from Earhart were routine reports stating the weather was cloudy and overcast at and just before . These calls were broken up by static, but at this point, the aircraft was a long distance from Howland.Template:Sfn At , another call was received stating that the aircraft was within Template:Convert and requesting that the ship use its direction finder to provide a bearing for the aircraft. Earhart began whistling into the microphone to provide a continuous signal for the ship's crew to use.Template:Sfn At this point, the radio operators on Itasca realized their RDF system could not tune into the aircraft's signal on 3105 kHz; radioman Leo Bellarts later commented he "was sitting there sweating blood because I couldn't do a darn thing about it".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A similar call asking for a bearing was received at , when Earhart estimated they were Template:Convert away.Template:Sfn

An Itasca radio log at 7:30–7:40 am states the aircraft had only a half hour of fuel remaining. A further radio log states they thought they were near Itasca but could not locate it and were flying at Template:Cvt.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In her transmission at , Earhart said she could not hear Itasca and asked them to send voice signals so she could try to take a radio bearing. Itasca reported this signal as the loudest possible signal, indicating Earhart and Noonan were in the immediate area. The ship could not send voice at the frequency she asked for so they sent Morse code signals instead. Earhart acknowledged receiving these but said she was unable to determine their direction.<ref>Jacobson, Randall S., PhD. "The Final Flight. Part 3: At Howland Island." Template:Webarchive tighar.org, 2009. Accessed: July 10, 2010.</ref>

File:USCGC Itasca.jpg
USCGC Itasca was at Howland Island to support the flight.

The last voice transmission received on Howland Island from Earhart indicated she and Noonan were flying along a line of position running north-to-south on 157–337 degrees, which Noonan would have calculated and drawn on a chart as passing through Howland.Template:Sfn After all contact with Howland Island was lost, attempts to reach the flyers with voice and Morse code transmissions were made. Operators across the Pacific and in the United States may have heard signals from the Electra but these were weak or unintelligible.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

A series of misunderstandings, errors or mechanical failures are likely to have occurred on the final approach to Howland Island. Noonan had earlier written about problems affecting the accuracy of RDF in navigation. Another cited cause of possible confusion was that Itasca and Earhart planned their communication schedule using time systems set a half-hour apart; Earhart was using Greenwich Civil Time (GCT) and Itasca was using a Naval time-zone designation system.<ref name="Hoversten">Hoversten 2007, pp. 22–23.</ref>

Sources have noted Earhart's apparent lack of familiarity with her direction-finding system, which had been fitted to the aircraft just prior to the flight. The system was equipped with a new receiver from Bendix Corporation. Earhart's only training on the system was a brief introduction by Joe Gurr at the Lockheed factory. A card displaying the antenna's band settings was mounted so it was not visible.Template:Sfn The Electra expected Itasca to transmit signals the Electra could use as an RDF beacon to find the ship. In theory, the plane could listen for the signal while rotating its loop antenna; a sharp minimum indicates the direction of the RDF beacon. The Electra's RDF equipment had failed due to a blown fuse during an earlier leg flying to Darwin; the fuse was replaced.<ref>Abbott, 1937, Template:Cite web</ref> Near Howland, Earhart could hear the transmission from Itasca on 7500 kHz, but she was unable to determine a minimum so she could not determine a direction to the ship. Earhart was also unable to determine a minimum during an RDF test at Lae.Template:Sfn

Disappearance

[edit]
File:Amelia Earhart Disappears (1937).webm
Pathe newsreel detailing her 1937 disappearance

The U.S. government investigated the aircraft's disappearance and, in its report, concluded Earhart's plane ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> During the 1970s, retired United States Navy (USN) captain Laurance Safford began a lengthy analysis of the flight. His research included the intricate radio-transmission documentation. Safford concluded the flight had suffered from poor planning and worse execution.Template:Sfn

Many researchers believe Earhart and Noonan died during or shortly after the crash. In 1982, retired USN rear admiral Richard R. Black, who was in administrative charge of the Howland Island airstrip and was present in the radio room on Itasca, said: "the Electra went into the sea about 10 am, July 2, 1937, not far from Howland."Template:Sfn Earhart's stepson George Palmer Putnam Jr. has said he believes "the plane just ran out of gas".<ref>Kleinberg, Eliot. "Amelia Earhart's disappearance still haunts her stepson, 83." Template:Webarchive Palm Beach Post, December 27, 2004. accessed: July 1, 2013.</ref> According to Earhart-biography author Susan Butler, the aircraft went into the ocean out of sight of Howland Island and rests on the seafloor at a depth of Template:Convert.<ref>"Amelia Earhart: Susan Butler interview." Template:Webarchive History Detectives, Season 7 video. PBS. accessed: July 26, 2010.</ref> Tom D. Crouch, senior curator of the National Air and Space Museum, has said the Electra is "18,000 ft. down" and compared its archaeological significance to that of RMS Titanic.<ref name="Hoversten" />

British aviation historian Roy Nesbit interpreted evidence in contemporary accounts and Putnam's correspondence and concluded Earhart's Electra was not fully fueled at Lae.Template:Sfn William L. Polhemous, the navigator on Ann Pellegreno's 1967 flight that followed Earhart and Noonan's original flight path, studied navigational tables for July 2, 1937, and thought Noonan may have miscalculated the "single line approach" to Howland.Template:Sfn

Search efforts

[edit]

Beginning approximately one hour after Earhart's last recorded message, Itasca undertook an unsuccessful search north and west of Howland Island based on initial assumptions about transmissions from the aircraft. The U.S. Navy joined the search and over about three days sent available resources to the search area near Howland Island.Template:Sfn Official search efforts lasted until July 19, 1937.Template:Sfn At $4 million (equivalent to $Template:Inflation million in Template:Inflation/year), the air-and-sea search by the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard was the costliest and most intensive in U.S. history up to that time. Despite the unprecedented search, no physical evidence of Earhart, Noonan, or the Electra 10E was found.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

On the mornings of July 3 and July 6, 1937, an Oakland radio amateur was reported to have heard emergency transmissions, seemingly from Earhart.<ref name=radioupi>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Efn In the days after their last confirmed transmissions, further transmissions purporting to be from Earhart were reported, many of which were determined to be hoaxes. The captain of Template:USS later said: "There was no doubt many stations calling the Earhart plane on the plane's frequency, some by voice and others by signals. All of these added to the confusion and doubtfulness of the authenticity of the reports."Template:Sfn

Immediately after the end of the official search, Putnam financed a private search by local authorities of nearby Pacific islands and waters. In late July 1937, Putnam chartered two small boats and, while he remained in the United States, directed a search of other islands.Template:Sfn Putnam acted to become the trustee of Earhart's estate so he could pay for the searches and related bills. In probate court in Los Angeles, Putnam asked to have the "declared death in absentia" seven-year waiting period waived so he could manage Earhart's finances. As a result, Earhart was declared legally dead on January 5, 1939.Template:Sfn

In 2003 and 2006, David Jourdan, through his company Nauticos, extensively searched a Template:Convert area north and west of Howland Island with deep-sea sonar devices. The searches cost $4.5 million but did not find any wreckage. The search locations were derived from the line of position (157–337) broadcast by Earhart on July 2, 1937.<ref name="Hoversten" />

In 2024, Deep Sea Vision, a Charleston, South Carolina, company that operates unmanned underwater vehicles, found via sonar what it said could be the remains of Earhart's airplane on the ocean floor.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The object, which was Template:Cvt deep and about Template:Convert from Howland Island, turned out to be a rock formation.<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Speculation on disappearance

[edit]

Template:Main

File:Nikumaroro Atoll 2014.jpg
Gardner (Nikumaroro) Island in 2014. "Seven Site" is a focus of the search for Earhart's remains.

While most historians believe Earhart crashed and sank in the Pacific Ocean, a number of other possibilities have been proposed, including several conspiracy theories. The Gardner Island hypothesis supposes Earhart and Noonan were unable to find Howland Island and continued south. Gardner island, one of the Phoenix Islands that is now known as Nikumaroro, has been the subject of inquiry as a possible crash-landing site but, despite numerous expeditions, no link between Earhart and the island has ever been found.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The Japanese capture theory assumes Japanese forces captured Earhart and Noonan after they navigated to the Japanese South Seas Mandate. A number of Earhart's relatives have been convinced the Japanese were somehow involved in her disappearance, citing unnamed witnesses including Japanese troops and Saipan natives.Template:Sfn<ref name="NevadaAppeal">Henley, David C. "Cousin: Japanese captured Amelia Earhart". Nevada Appeal, October 31, 2009. accessed: November 7, 2009. Template:Webarchive</ref>

The New Britain theory assumes Earhart turned back mid-flight and tried to reach the airfield at Rabaul, New Britain, northeast of mainland Papua New Guinea, approximately Template:Convert from Howland Island.<ref>"The Enduring Mystery of Amelia Earhart's Disappearance Maybe Finally Coming To an End". The Atlantic Flyer, September 2007, p. 3.</ref> In 1990, Donald Angwin, a veteran of the Australian Army's World War II New Britain campaign, reported that in 1945 he had seen a wrecked aircraft in the jungle that may have been Earhart's Electra.<ref name=Billings>Billings, David. "Aircraft Search Project in Papua New Guinea." Template:Webarchive Wings Over Kansas, 2000. accessed: March 27, 2012.</ref><ref>"Angwin, Donald Arthur." Template:Webarchive Commonwealth of Australia: Military Forces, 2002. accessed: March 27, 2012.</ref> Subsequent searches of the area failed to find any wreckage.<ref name=Billings/>

In November 2006, National Geographic Channel aired an episode of its series Undiscovered History that supposed Earhart survived the world flight, changed her name, remarried, and became Irene Craigmile Bolam. This claim had originally been published in the book Amelia Earhart Lives (1970), which is based on the research of Joseph Gervais.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> Shortly after the book's publication, Bolam filed a lawsuit requesting $1.5 million in damages (equivalent to $Template:Inflation million in Template:Inflation/year) and the book's publisher McGraw-Hill withdrew it from the market; court records indicate the company reached an out-of-court settlement with her.<ref name=":0" />

Legacy

[edit]
File:Folded Wings Shrine portal.jpg
Earhart has a tribute at the Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation.

During her life, Earhart embraced celebrity culture and women's rights, and since her disappearance, she has become a global cultural icon.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Countless tributes and memorials have been made in Amelia Earhart's name, including a 2012 tribute by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said at a State Department event celebrating the ties of Earhart and the United States to its Pacific neighbors: "Earhart ... created a legacy that resonates today for anyone, girls and boys, who dreams of the stars".<ref>"Earhart broke social and aviation barriers, Clinton say.." Template:Webarchive U.S. Department of State, March 20, 2012.</ref> In 2013, Flying magazine ranked Earhart No. 9 on its list of the "51 Heroes of Aviation".<ref name=FlyingMag>"51 Heroes of Aviation: Amelia Earhart." Template:Webarchive Flying, September 2013.</ref>

Earhart was a widely known, international celebrity during her lifetime. Her shyly charismatic appeal, independence, persistence, coolness under pressure, courage and goal-oriented career, along with the circumstances of her disappearance at a comparatively early age, have driven her lasting fame in popular culture. Hundreds of articles and scores of books have been written about her life, which is often cited as a motivational tale, especially for girls. Earhart is generally regarded as a feminist icon.Template:Sfn

Earhart's accomplishments in aviation inspired a generation of female aviators, including more-than 1,000 female pilots of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), who served during World War II.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The home where Earhart was born is now the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum and is maintained by Ninety-Nines, an international group of female pilots of which Earhart was the first elected president.<ref name="Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum—Atchison, KS">"The Yellow Brick Road Trip." Template:Webarchive theyellowbrickroadtrip.blogspot.com. accessed: July 2, 2009.</ref> The Amelia Earhart Festival has taken place in Atchison, Kansas, every year since 1996.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Tributes and memorials

[edit]
File:Amelia Earhart Statue by Mark and George Lundeen.jpg
Amelia Earhart, by Mark and George Lundeen, represents Kansas in the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection

Tributary flights

[edit]

In 1967, Ann Pellegreno flew a similar aircraft to Earhart's, a Lockheed 10A Electra, to complete a round-the-world flight that followed Earhart's flight plan. On the 30th anniversary of her disappearance, Pellegreno dropped a wreath over Howland island in Earhart's honor.<ref>Van Pelt, Lori. Amelia Earhart: The Sky's No Limit (American Heroes). New York: Macmillan, 2005. Template:ISBN, pp. 219–220.</ref>

In 1997, on the 60th anniversary of Earhart's round-the-world flight, San Antonio businesswoman Linda Finch retraced the final flight path, flying a restored 1935 Lockheed Electra 10, the same make and model of aircraft as Earhart's.<ref>"Wings of Dreams – May 28, 1997" (transcript). Template:Webarchive PBS. accessed: June 19, 2008.</ref>

In 2001, another commemorative flight retraced the route Earhart flew in her August 1928 transcontinental record flight; Carlene Mendieta flew an original Avro Avian, the same type of aircraft that was used in 1928.<ref name="Mendieta" />

Buildings and structures

[edit]

In 1942, a United States Liberty ship named Template:SS was launched; it was wrecked in 1948.Template:Citation needed USNS Amelia Earhart was named in her honor in May 2007.Template:Citation needed

In 1964, Purdue University opened Earhart Hall in honor of her legacy and contribution to the university during her time as a career counselor for female students and technical advisor for the aeronautics department. In 2009, Purdue erected a bronze statue of Earhart holding a propeller in front of the residence hall named after her.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The university board recently approved plans to name the new Purdue University Airport terminal the Amelia Earhart Terminal.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

File:Amelia Earhart, 8c airmail, 1963 issue.jpg
1963 U.S. Airmail Postal stamp honoring Earhart, the first woman to appear on an airmail issue.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The Earhart Light, also known as the Amelia Earhart Light, is a navigational day beacon on Howland Island, where she was due to land before she went missing. It is no longer operational.<ref>"Earhart beacon shines from lonely island." Template:Webarchive Eugene Register-Guard, August 17, 1963. accessed: March 20, 2012.</ref> Amelia Earhart Airport in Atchison, Kansas, was named in her honor.<ref>"Kansas City Airport." Template:Webarchive Kansas Government Journal, Volume 44, 1958, p. 20. accessed: June 25, 2010.</ref>

Amelia Earhart Dam on Mystic River in eastern Massachusetts is named in her honor. The "Earhart Tree" on Banyan Drive in Hilo, Hawaii, was planted by Earhart in 1935.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Other tributes

[edit]

The Amelia Earhart Commemorative Stamp (8¢ airmail postage) was issued in 1963 by the United States Postmaster-General.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Earhart was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1992.<ref name=MSHoF>Template:Cite web</ref>

A full-sized bronze statue of Amelia Earhart was placed at the Spirit of Flight Center in Lafayette, Colorado, in 2008.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A statue by Ernest Shelton was erected circa 1971 in Los Angeles, California.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

A small section of Earhart's Lockheed Electra starboard engine nacelle that was recovered following the March 1937 Hawaii crash has been confirmed as authentic and is now regarded as a control piece that will help authenticate possible future discoveries.<ref>"Amelia Earhart's plane." Template:Webarchive History Detectives, 2009. accessed: July 24, 2010.</ref>

The Amelia Earhart Fellowship was established by Zonta International in 1938. It awards US$10,000 annually to up to 30 women pursuing Ph.D. degrees in aerospace engineering and space sciences. Since the program’s inception in 1938, Zonta has awarded 1,764 Amelia Earhart Fellowships, totaling more than US$11.9 million, to 1,335 women from 79 countries.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

[edit]

Amelia Earhart's life has been the subject of many writers; the following collection of examples make no claims of completeness:

Novels and plays

[edit]

Film and television

[edit]

Music

[edit]

Other

[edit]

Records and achievements

[edit]
File:Amelia-dressed-to-fly (cropped).jpg
Photo from Earhart's pilot license #6017 that is permanently housed at the Ninety-Nines Museum of Women Pilots.<ref>"Museum News & Events" Museum of Woman Pilots, Oklahoma City (archived). accessed: September 24, 2017.</ref><ref name="6017@npg.si.edu" />
  • Woman's world altitude record: 14,000 ft (1922)
  • First woman to fly the Atlantic Ocean (1928)
  • Speed records for 100 km (and with Template:Convert cargo) (1931)
  • First woman to fly an autogyro (1931)
  • Altitude record for autogyros: 18,415 ft (1931)
  • First woman to cross the United States in an autogyro (1931)
  • First woman to fly the Atlantic solo (1932)
  • First person to fly the Atlantic twice (1932)
  • First woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross (1932)
  • First woman to fly nonstop, coast-to-coast across the U.S. (1932)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • Women's speed transcontinental record (1933)
  • First person to fly solo between Honolulu, Hawaii, and Oakland, California (1935)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • First person to fly solo from Los Angeles to Mexico City (1935)
  • First person to fly solo nonstop from Mexico City to Newark, New Jersey (1935)
  • Speed record for east-to-west flight from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii (1937)Template:Sfn
  • First person to fly solo from the Red Sea to Karachi (1937)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Books by Earhart

[edit]

Earhart was a successful and heavily promoted writer who served as aviation editor for Cosmopolitan from 1928 to 1930. She wrote magazine articles, newspaper columns, and essays, and published two books based upon her experiences as a flyer during her lifetime:

  • 20 Hrs. 40 Min. (1928) is a journal of her experiences as the first woman passenger on a transatlantic flight.
  • The Fun of It (1932) is a memoir of her flying experiences and an essay on women in aviation.
  • Last Flight (1937) features the periodic journal entries she sent to the United States during her round-the-world flight attempt, and was published in newspapers in the weeks prior to her departure from New Guinea. The journal was compiled by Earhart's husband GP Putnam after her disappearance over the Pacific. Many historians consider this book to be only partially Earhart's original work.

See also

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Notes

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References

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Works cited

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Further reading

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