I was watching the History Channel on TV the other night and there was a program about various \u201cmysteries\u201d that hadn\u2019t been solved over the years. One story that got its fair share of the one hour program was about Amelia Earhart. She kind of became famous by becoming lost and never found, but she really had a pretty interesting life. Most of the stories I\u2019ve read about her over the years indicated she was an outstanding pilot, and at the time, being female made her even more amazing. She did become an inspiration to women everywhere, although just how good a pilot she was is debatable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1928, a friend of the New York publisher George Palmer Putnam approached Amelia Earhart with an idea. Putnam wanted to finance a flight that would make Earhart the first woman to cross the Atlantic in an airplane. After the flight, she\u2019d write a book about it and he\u2019d publish it.\u00a0
Admittedly, she\u2019d only be a passenger, but Putnam thought that, seeing as how it was only 1928, even that would be newsworthy. Earhart, who was 31 at the time, already had some experience as a pilot, but not enough \u2014 so the job of flying the plane, a trimotor Fokker called \u201cFriendship,\u201d was given to Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon. Amelia was given the title \u201ccommander,\u201d but there wasn\u2019t really anything to command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On June 18, the Friendship took off from Nova Scotia, heading for Ireland. On the other side of the ocean, bad weather forced them to land in South Wales \u2014 the fog had gotten bad and there wasn\u2019t much fuel left, but they landed safely in Europe. Amelia had made a name for herself. She had also made a friend in Putnam \u2014 actually, more than a friend. And since Putnam was married, people started talking. In 1929, Putnam\u2019s wife went to Reno to get a divorce. Putnam and Earhart were married in 1931. Soon afterwards, her book, 20 Hours, 40 Minutes<\/em>, was published. Amelia\u2019s new husband worked hard to keep her name in front of the public. At his urging, she flew solo from the East coast to the West coast where she attended the National Air Races in California, then returned to do a lecture tour to promote her book.\u00a0 Five years to the day after Lindberg\u2019s flight, on May 20, 1932, Earhart flew solo across the atlantic. When she landed in Londonderry in Northern Ireland she\u2019d broken two records: not only was she the first woman to fly across the Atlantic solo, at the time she also was the only person to have crossed the Atlantic by plane twice. On her first attempt at an around the world flight, as she and her navigator, Frederick Noonan, were taking off, Amelia made an error in judgement, and overcompensated for a dipping wing. The plane crashed, but Earhart and Noonan survived. They tried again two months later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After 22,000 miles \u2014 with only 7.000 miles to go \u2014 they\u00a0 landed at Lae, New Guinea. When they took off again, it was the last time anyone ever saw them.\u00a0 The Coast Guard began the search. President Franklin Roosevelt ordered nine Navy ships and 66 aircraft to join the effort, but no trace of the flyers or their plane was found. After the official search was called off, George Putnam instigated a further search, but no luck. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are lots of theories \u2014 some of them wacky \u2014 about Earhart\u2019s intimate fate. The most reasonable, but unlikely, is that she was on a spy mission for the U.S. Another just as unlikely scenario is that she purposely committed suicide. One popular rumor even claimed that Earhart was the voice of the infamous \u201cTokyo Rose,\u201d The tabloids still report the uncovered \u201ctruth\u201d of Earhart\u2019s fate. Until the real truth comes to light, I imagine they\u2019ll go on claiming that she was on a secret mission or is still alive on a remote Pacific Island \u2014 probably living with Elvis. I was watching the History Channel on TV the other night and there was a program about various \u201cmysteries\u201d that hadn\u2019t been solved over the years. One story that got its fair share of the one hour program was about … Continue reading
Amelia organized the first air race for women pilots, which the papers dubbed a \u201cpowder puff derby.\u201d That same year, Earhart and 98 other women pilots founded \u201cthe Ninety-Nines,\u201d an organization of woman pilots.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the Atlantic under her belt, she turned to the west. Her next solo flight crossed the Pacific, flying from Hawaii to California. After that, she wanted to be the first woman to fly around the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nineteen hours and 30 minutes after leaving Lae, broadcasting on a strong signal, Amelia radioed, \u201cWe must be on you but cannot see you\u2026 gas is running low.\u201d One final voice transmission followed, the last position report. Then nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some physical evidence recovered on an uninhabited Pacific reef points to a possible landing there, but even if true, it doesn\u2019t account for the remains of the pilot and her navigator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"