Editing Howland Island (section)

===Kamakaiwi Field===
{{further|Amelia Earhart#World flight in 1937}}
[[File:Amelia Earhart flight route.svg|right|thumb|The planned flight route of Amelia Earhart across the Pacific]]
[[File:Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan.jpg|thumb|Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan]]
Ground was cleared for a rudimentary aircraft landing area during the mid-1930s in anticipation that the island might eventually become a stopover for commercial trans-Pacific air routes and also to further U.S. territorial claims in the region against rival claims from Great Britain. Howland Island was designated as a scheduled refueling stop for American pilot [[Amelia Earhart]] and navigator [[Fred Noonan]] on their [[Amelia Earhart#World flight in 1937|round-the-world flight]] in 1937. [[Works Progress Administration]] (WPA) funds were used by the [[United States government role in civil aviation|Bureau of Air Commerce]] to construct three graded, unpaved runways meant to accommodate Earhart's twin-engined [[Lockheed Model 10 Electra]].

The facility was named ''Kamakaiwi Field'' after James Kamakaiwi, a young Hawaiian who arrived with the first group of four colonists. He was selected as the group's leader and spent more than three years on Howland, far longer than the average recruit. It has also been referred to as ''WPA Howland Airport'' (the WPA contributed about 20 percent of the $12,000 cost). 

Earhart and Noonan took off from [[Lae]], [[New Guinea]], and their radio transmissions were picked up near the island when their aircraft reached the vicinity, but they failed to arrive. It is known that they must have gotten within the radio range of Howland due to the strength of the final radio communications that morning, despite some problems with radio communication and radio direction finding. In some of the last messages recorded from them on 2 July 1937, 7:42&nbsp;am, Earhart reported, "We must be on you, but cannot see you – but gas is running low. Have been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000 feet."<ref name="sunline">{{cite journal |title=We are on the line 157 337 ... |journal=TIGHAR Tracks |volume=18 |issue=2 |date=March 2002 |url=https://tighar.org/Publications/TTracks/2002Vol_18/line.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170821002848/http://tighar.org/Publications/TTracks/2002Vol_18/line.pdf |archive-date = August 21, 2017 |df=mdy-all}}</ref>{{refn|At an altitude of 1,000 feet, the plane would be able to see about 38 miles in clear weather.<ref>[http://www.ringbell.co.uk/info/hdist.htm Distance to Horizon Calculator]</ref>|group=Note}} At 8:43&nbsp;am, Earhart reported, "We are on the line 157 337. We will repeat this message. We will repeat this on 6210 kilocycles. Wait."<ref name="sunline" /> Between Earhart's low-on-fuel message at 7:42&nbsp;am and her last confirmed message at 8:43, her signal strength remained consistent, indicating that she never left the immediate Howland area as she ran low on fuel. The U.S. Coast Guard determined this by tracking her signal strength as she approached the island, noting signal levels from her reports of 200 and 100 miles out. These reports were roughly 30 minutes apart, providing vital ground-speed clues.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |url=https://catalog.archives.gov/id/305240 |title=U. S. Navy Report of the Search for Amelia Earhart, July 2–18, 1937. |last=Department of the Navy. Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. Intelligence Division. Office of Naval Records and Library. (1922 – 10/10/1945) |date=1937-07-31 |series=Series: World War II Action and Operational Reports, 1875 – 2006 |access-date=December 13, 2019 |archive-date=December 8, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191208214050/https://catalog.archives.gov/id/305240 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

After the largest search and rescue attempt in history up to that time, the U.S. Navy concluded that the Electra had run out of fuel, and Earhart and Noonan ditched at sea and perished. Based on the strength of the transmission signals from Earhart, the Coast Guard concluded that the plane ran out of fuel north of Howland.<ref name=":3" /> Many later studies came to the same conclusion; however, an alternative hypothesis that Earhart and Noonan may have landed the plane on Gardner Island (now called [[Nikumaroro]]) and died as castaways has been considered.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-03-29 |title=What Happened to Amelia Earhart? – Disappearance, Found & New Evidence |url=https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/what-happened-to-amelia-earhart |access-date=2023-11-24 |website=HISTORY |language=en}}</ref>