Amelia Earhart is a world renowned American aviator, and the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic ocean. (Spoiler!) Earhart’s disappearance during a flight with the intention of circumnavigating the world is still an enduring mystery to this day, with little accurate information on the site and cause of her crash over the Central Pacific.
Amelia Earhart first made history when she was selected as the first woman to fly across the Atlantic ocean, speculators believe she was party chosen due to her resemblance to Charles Lindbergh, who was first to fly nonstop solo across the Atlantic. She later married Charles Palmer Putnam, a man who helped organize her first historic flight. Earhart made history with many other flights as well during her lifetime, with the most prominent being her solo flight across the Atlantic ocean for a record time of 14 hours and 56 minutes from Harbour Grace, in Newfoundland, to Londonderry in Northern Ireland. She crossed the ocean in her Lockheed Vega on the 5th anniversary of Lindberg’s historic flight, and was awarded the National Geographic Society's gold medal by President Hoover. Besides being an exceptional pilot, Amelia Earhart advocated for women to reject conservative thought and break social barriers to pursue their personal dreams. She formed an aviation organization for female pilots, who were to be known as the Ninety-Nines. She also became involved in fashion, creating her own line of clothing in 1933 for “the woman who lives actively”.
In 1937, Earhart set out with her navigator Fred Noonan in her twin-engine Lockheed Electra to circumnavigate the globe. On June first, they began their 29,000 mile journey from Miami, Florida, refueling several times to fly 22,000 miles by the time they land in New Guinea. From there they departed on July 2 and headed for Howland Islands, with American ships stationed to help locate the small atolls. When approaching the islands, Earhart radioed in that the plane was running out of fuel to Itasca, a Coast Guard cutter. She radioed: “We are running north and south”. That was her last known transmission sent to the Itasca. The plane is believed to have gone down approximately 100 miles from the islands, with all search efforts to find Earhart and Noonan being in vain. Her crash sparked the imagination of the public, with several theories created about her crash, believing she landed at a different island and survived, or was captured by the Japanese. Official sources believe her plane went down into the Pacific after running out of fuel. No one knows for sure exactly what happened to Earhart ill-fated Lockheed Electra, and to this day, her mysterious disappearance remains unsolved.
I found this post regarding the story of Earhart very inter sting considering she is a pioneer on women's rights in a field few consider. Other things I found out about her was that she was often refereed to as "Lady Lindy", relating to the first pilot to cross the Atlantic, Charles Lindbergh. Furthermore, even during her childhood, Earhart expressed norm-breaking features by practicing with guns and engaging in rougher activities. These acts transitioned into her adult life in activism by establishing and pushing for tighter aircraft regulations and serving on the board for an airline.
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I never knew that Amelia Earhart participated in several lines of work before becoming a rather successful pilot. I find Earhart to be a very fascinating person because of how she set new precedents for the capabilities of women during a time where they were greatly underestimated and often stuck to rather traditional roles. Upon doing further research, I also found out that Earhart even designed her own line of clothing intended to accommodate to "the woman who lives actively". This was even advertised by Vogue Magazine and interested me because she not only set new standard for women's abilities, but contributed to a new standard of practical women's attire that broke away from rather strict guidelines of appearance.
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I liked this post because it gave me a better understanding of some of the previous accomplishments of Amelia Earhart. The post also gave information about her upbringing which was really intriguing as Amelia was actually a medic that aided soldiers in World War I. It was also very interesting how Amelia Earhart was able to defy the stereotypes that were usually associated with woman at the time. I decided to further investigate some theories on where and how Amelia Earhart disappeared. Jantz, a professor of anthropology at the University of Forensic Anthropology Center, looked at data from bones gathered in 1940 at Nikumaroro and found that they had been misidentified early as that of a white male. The bones were actually from a female, and there was a 99% match to Amelia Earhart's bones. This made Jantz believed the the plane had crashed in Nikumaroro.
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It is very interesting that Earhart was not only a world-renowned pilot, but also advocated for women's rights while doing so. In an industry filled with men, Earhart made aviation a dream for her and for all the women in the United States, to show them that women can achieve their goals too. She was only the 16th woman in the US to get a pilot's license, and was the first to fly across the Atlantic. She dreamt big and wanted to do what no one had ever done before, fly across the world on the equator, but disappeared and was never found to this day. It is a tragedy, but it is one that we learn from and look up to because of her courageous character.
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Super thorough article! When I was younger in school I remember learning about the different theories people had about her disappearance. One of the theories centered Gardner Island. Basically, people thought that Amelia missed her intended refueling site in the Pacific and instead landed at Gardner Island, an uninhabited atoll nearby. People think she landed safely but was unable to survive in time for rescue. The reason why this theory has been gaining popularity is because they found items related to Earhart like an empty jar of freckle cream that she preferred and a piece of plexiglas similar to the one used in her plane. The world may never know the real location she and Noonan rest in.
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