In Honor of Women's History Month
.. we remember Ameila Earhart ..
Amelia Earhart
American Aviator
(1897-1937)
Amelia Mary Earhart was an American aviation pioneer. On July 2, 1937 she disappeared with her navigator, Fred Noonan over the Pacific Ocean en route to Howland Island from Lae, New Guinea while attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the globe. During her life, Earhart embraced celebrity culture and women's rights. Since her disappearance she 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. 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 international group of female pilots of which Earhart was the first elected president.
Amelia Earhart stands in the cockpit of her unfinished Lockheed airplane at the Lockheed Aircraft Company in Burbank, California.
Circa 1936
$80,000 to buy the Electra was provided by the Purdue Research Foundation from donations made by several individuals. George Palmer Putnam, Amelia's husband, made the arrangemens to order the plane and in March 1936 gave Lockheed the authorization to proceed with delivery requested in June prior to the pending July flight the following year. The modifications included four auxiliary fuel tanks in the passenger compartment, a navigator's station to the rear, elimination of passenger windows, installation of a Sperry Gyropilot or autopilot, various radio and navigation equipment plus additional batteries. The Electra would not be ready until mid-July, a year before her fateful flight.
Amelia Earhart with her Electra 10E, NR16020 at Lockheed Aircraft
Circa December 1936
Parked near Earhart's plane is her tan 1936 Cord 812 Phaeton.
Earhart's plane was powered by two air-cooled, super-charged Pratt & Whitney engines.
Amelia was born and raised in Atchison, Kansas. She developed a passion for adventure at a young age, steadily gaining flying experience beginning in 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. In 1935, she became a visiting faculty member of Purdue University as an advisor in aeronautical engineering and a career counselor to female students. In 1964, Purdue University opened Earhart Hall in honor of her legacy and contribution to the university during her time on campus 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. The university board approved plans to name the new Purdue University Airport Terminal the Amelia Earhart Terminal. The Amelia Earhart Airport in her hometown was named in her honor.
She was a member of the National Woman's Party and an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment.
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.
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 musuem, a bridge, a cargo ship, a playhouse, a library and multiple roads and schools. Numerous films, documentaries and books have recounted Earhart's life. She is ranked No. 9 on Flying Magazine's list of the "51 Heroes of Aviation".
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 women. Earhart is generally regarded as a feminist icon.
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 WWII.
The home where Earhart was born is where the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum is located. It is maintained by Ninety-Nines. The Amelia Earhart Festival has taken place in Atchison, Kansas every year since 1996.
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.
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 plane.
In 2001, another commemorative flight retraced the route Earhart flew on her August 2018 transcontinental record flight. Carlene Mendieta flew an original Avro Avian, the same type of aircraft that was used in 1928.
The Amelia Earhart Commemorative Stamp was issued in 1963 by the United States Postmaster-General.
Sidenote: Amelia Earhart met Charles and Anne Lindbergh in Winslow, Arizona in 1929 while participating in the first two-day cross-country service by train and Ford Tri-Motor from New York to Los Angeles.
The Ford Tri-Motor, nicknamed the "Tin Goose", was a large, all-metal, three-engine aircraft tht pioneered US coast-to-coast airline serviced in 1929. Designed by Henry Ford and built from 1926-1933, the Tri-Motor was the biggest civil aircraft in the United States when it first flew. It was popular with passengers and airlines due to its corrugated aluminum construction, enclosed cabin and Ford name.
Dr. Arthur Bestor, President of Chautauqua Institution greeted Earhart upon landing on the 14th Fairway at the Chautauqua Golf Course.
Circa July 20, 1929
After Earhart arrived she gave a lecture to a full house at the amphitheater. This was part of a lecture circuit that followed her famous transatlantic flight in June 1928.
"All eyes were upon the young conqueror of the ocean"
Chautauquan Daily reported in 1929
"Stepping from the comfortably appointed plane as it came to rest on the fourteenth fairway, Miss Earhart, by her infectious smile, won her way immediately to the hearts of the crowd which had come to greet her", the Daily reported on July 22, 1929. "Taken by auto to the home of President and Mrs. Bestor, she was cheered by the people along the route. She, with Lieutenant Stevens, the pilot and Mr. Hutchison, mechanic, was entertained at a luncheon at the President's home."
From her being greeted by Dr. Arthur Bestor, Earhart proceeded to the amphitheater where she spoke about her 20-hour and 40-minute, June 1928 flight as a passenger across the Atlantic in the tri-motored Fokker plane, Friendship. Amelia Earhart, along with pilots Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon, flew across the Atlantic in the Friendship. Their successful flight took them from Trepassey Harbour, New Foundland to Burry Port, Wales.
The Friendship was originally ordered by Richard E. Byrd for his Antarctic expedition, but was later sold to Donald Woodward, who leased it to Mrs. Frederick Guest. Guest chose the name Friendship for the airplane.
"As the flight of Friendship recedes into the past, I find that I must explain exactly who I am. Recently, I have been congratulated several times for swimming the English Channel and once for swimming the Atlantic Ocean."
"I hope that every one of you will have the privilege of flying across the Atlantic. I myself hope to be able to it again, not as I did, but in one of the large flying boats which will soon be making regular trips with landing stations at convenient intervals along the route."
Amelia Earhart
Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater
July 20, 1929
Perhaps most interesting about Earhart's lecture at the Chautauqua Institution was her characterization of gender disparities in aviation.
"Considering the question of why more women do not fly, Earhart attributed the difference between men and women in aviation to the influence of the educational system, where all girls are taught domestic sciences and all boys manual training, without regard to individual aptitudes," the Daily reported.
Earhart's speculations on the future of air travel ended her Chautauqua speech and heralded her departure from the Insititution. After Earhart's disappearance in the Pacific eight years later, the Daily lamented the loss of its "First Lady of the Air."
July 20, 1929
Amelia Earhart addresses the audience gathered.
"We cannot believe the world is ready to move on without its most prominent, most popular birdwoman. We cannot believe her permanent disappearance could be fair or just."
On July 23, 1929 pioneering aviator, Amelia Earhart landed at the Chautauqua Golf Club en route to her lecture at Chautauqua Institution's Amphitheater using this fairway as the runway. One year earlier, George Wilkins and Carl Eielson, first to fly over the North Pole also landed here.
Sir George Hubert Wilkins and Carl Ben Eielson were a pioneering team of polar explorers and aviators who made history by undertaking the first transpolar flight across the Arctic by airplane and the first airplane flight over a portion of Antarctica in December 1928. Wilkins and Eielson took off from Deception Island, one of the Antarctic's most remote islands and made the first successful airplane flight over the continent. Wilkins was financed by William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper publisher and politician. Hearst developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications.
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