Editing Amelia Earhart (section)

=== Planning ===

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&nbsp;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>[https://www.nytimes.com/1936/04/20/archives/miss-earhart-to-get-flying-laboratory-purdue-announces-50000-fund.html "Miss Earhart to get 'Flying Laboratory'."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130520205402/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20A1FF83C5E167B93C2AB178FD85F428385F9 |date=May 20, 2013 }} ''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 ({{Inflation|US|50000|1936|fmt=eq|r=-4}}) to fund the purchase of a Lockheed Electra 10E airplane.{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=150}} In July 1936, [[Lockheed Aircraft Company]] built the airplane, which was fitted with extra fuel tanks and other extensive modifications.<ref>[http://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/electra/1055.html "Lockheed Model 10E Electra c/n: 1055 Reg: NR16020."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120710172423/http://pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/electra/1055.html |date=July 10, 2012 }} ''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.{{sfn|Long|Long|1999|p=59}}

Earhart chose [[Harry Manning]] as her navigator; he had been the captain of the {{SS|President Roosevelt|1921|2}}, the ship that had transported Earhart from Europe in 1928.{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=150}} Manning was also a pilot and a skilled radio operator who knew [[Morse code]].{{sfn|Long|Long|1999|p=62}}

[[File:Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|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>{{harvtxt|Long|Long|1999|pp=60–61}}: 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.{{sfn|Long|Long|1999|p=64}} Under poor navigational conditions, Manning's position was off by {{convert|20|miles|km|abbr=out}}. [[Elgen Long|Elgen M.]] and Marie K. Long considered Manning's performance reasonable, because it was within an acceptable error of {{convert|30|miles|km|abbr=out}}, but Mantz and Putnam wanted a better navigator.{{sfn|Long|Long|1999|p=65}}

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.{{sfn|Long|Long|1999|p=65}}{{sfn|Post|Gatty|1931|pp=45–56}} Noonan, a licensed ship's captain, was experienced in both marine and [[air navigation|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]].{{sfn|Grooch|1936|pp=177, 189}} 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.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}