Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart was an American aviator who set many flying records and championed the advancement of women in aviation. She became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, and the first person ever to fly solo from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland. During a flight to circumnavigate the globe, Earhart disappeared somewhere over the Pacific in July 1937. Her plane wreckage was never found, and she was officially declared lost at sea. Her disappearance remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the twentieth century. Decades after her presumed death, Earhart was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1968 and the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1973. She is ranked ninth on Flying's list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation.
== Early life ==
Earhart’s father was a railroad lawyer, and her mother came from an affluent family. While still a child, Earhart displayed an adventurous and independent nature for which she would later become known. After the death of her grandparents, the family struggled financially amid her father’s alcoholism. The Earharts moved often, and she completed high school in Chicago in 1916. After her mother received her inheritance, Earhart was able to attend the Ogontz School in Rydal, Pennsylvania. However, during a visit to her sister in Canada, Amelia developed an interest in caring for soldiers wounded in World War I. In 1918 she left junior college to become a nurse’s aide in Toronto. 
=== Early influence ===
A spirit of adventure seemed to abide in the Earhart children, with the pair setting off daily to explore their neighborhood. As a child, Earhart spent long hours playing with sister Pidge, climbing trees, hunting rats with a rifle, and "belly-slamming" her sled downhill. Although the love of the outdoors and "rough-and-tumble" play was common to many youngsters, some biographers have characterized the young Earhart as a tomboy. The girls kept "worms, moths, katydids and a tree toad" in a growing collection gathered in their outings. In 1904, with the help of her uncle, Earhart cobbled together a home-made ramp, fashioned after a roller coaster she had seen on a trip to St. Louis, and secured the ramp to the roof of the family toolshed. Earhart's well-documented first flight ended dramatically. She emerged from the broken wooden box that had served as a sled with a bruised lip, torn dress and a "sensation of exhilaration". She exclaimed, "Oh, Pidge, it's just like flying!"
Although there had been some missteps in Edwin Earhart's career up to that point, in 1907 his job as a claims officer for the Rock Island Railroad led to a transfer to Des Moines, Iowa. The next year, at the age of 10, Earhart saw her first aircraft at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. Her father tried to interest his daughters in taking a flight. One look at the rickety "flivver" was enough for Earhart, who promptly asked if they could go back to the merry-go-round. She later described the biplane as "a thing of rusty wire and wood and not at all interesting".
== Early flying experiences ==
Sometime in the early 1920s, Earhart and a young woman friend visited an air fair held in conjunction with the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto. "The interest, aroused in me, in Toronto, led me to all the air circuses in the vicinity." One of the highlights of the day was a flying exhibition put on by a World War I ace. The pilot overhead spotted Earhart and her friend, who were watching from an isolated clearing, and dived at them. "I am sure he said to himself, 'Watch me make them scamper,'" she said. Earhart stood her ground as the aircraft came close. "I did not understand it at the time," she said, "but I believe that little red airplane said something to me as it swished by." By 1919, Earhart prepared to enter Smith College, where her sister was a student. However, she changed her mind and enrolled in a course in medical studies and other programs at Columbia University. Earhart quit a year later to be with her parents, who had reunited in California.
On December 28, 1920, Earhart and her father attended an "aerial meet" at Daugherty Field in Long Beach, California. She asked her father, Edwin, to ask about passenger flights and flying lessons. She was booked for a passenger flight the following day at Emory Roger's Field, at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue. The cost was $10 for a 10 minute flight with Frank Hawks (who later gained fame as an air racer). Hawks gave her a ride that would forever change Earhart's life. "By the time I had got two or three hundred feet [60–90 m] off the ground," she said, "I knew I had to fly."
The next month Earhart recruited Neta Snook to be her flying instructor. The initial contract was for 12 hours of instruction, for $500. Working at a variety of jobs including photographer, truck driver, and stenographer at the local telephone company, she managed to save $1,000 for flying lessons. Earhart had her first lesson on January 3, 1921, at Kinner Field on the west side of Long Beach Boulevard and Tweedy Road, now in the city of South Gate. Snook used a crash-salvaged Curtiss JN-4 "Canuck", that Snook had restored, for training. In order to reach the airfield, Earhart had to take a bus to the end of the line, then walk four miles (6 km). Earhart's mother provided part of the $1,000 "stake" against her "better judgement". Earhart cropped her hair short in the style of other female flyers. Six months later in the summer of 1921, Earhart purchased a secondhand bright chromium yellow Kinner Airster biplane, against Snook's advice, which she nicknamed "The Canary". After her first successful solo landing, she bought a new leather flying coat. Due to the newness of the coat, she was subjected to teasing, so she aged her coat by sleeping in it and staining it with aircraft oil.
On October 22, 1922, Earhart flew the Airster to an altitude of 14,000 feet (4,300 m), setting a world record for female pilots. On May 16, 1923, Earhart became the 16th woman in the United States to be issued a pilot's license (#6017) by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).
== Historic flights ==
After the war, Earhart entered the premed program at Columbia University in New York City but left in 1920 after her parents insisted that she live with them in California. There she went on her first airplane ride in 1920, an experience that prompted her to take flying lessons. In 1921 she bought her first plane, a Kinner Airster, and two years later she earned her pilot’s license. In the mid-1920s Earhart moved to Massachusetts, where she became a social worker at the Denison House, a settlement home for immigrants in Boston. She also continued to pursue her interest in aviation.
During this time promoters sought to have a woman fly across the Atlantic Ocean, and in April 1928 Earhart was selected for the flight. Some speculated that the decision was partly based on her resemblance to Charles Lindbergh, who had become the first man to fly nonstop solo across the Atlantic the previous year. On June 17, 1928, Earhart departed Trepassey, Newfoundland, Canada, as a passenger aboard a seaplane piloted by Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon. After landing at Burry Port, Wales, on June 18, Earhart became an international celebrity. She wrote about the flight in 20 Hrs. 40 Min. (1928) and undertook a lecture tour across the United States. Much of the publicity was handled by publisher George Palmer Putnam, who had helped organize the historic flight. The couple married in 1931, but Earhart continued her career under her maiden name. That year she also piloted an autogiro to a record-setting altitude of 18,415 feet (5,613 metres). Determined to justify the renown that her 1928 crossing had brought her, Earhart crossed the Atlantic alone on May 20–21, 1932. Her flight in her Lockheed Vega from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, to Londonderry, Northern Ireland, was completed in a record time of 14 hours 56 minutes despite a number of problems. She notably experienced mechanical difficulties and inclement weather and was unable to land in her scheduled destination of Paris. Afterward she published The Fun of It (1932), in which she wrote about her life and interest in flying. Earhart then undertook a series of flights across the United States.
In addition to her piloting feats, Earhart was known for encouraging women to reject constrictive social norms and to pursue various opportunities, especially in the field of aviation. In 1929 she helped found an organization of female pilots that later became known as the Ninety-Nines. Earhart served as its first president. In addition, she debuted a functional clothing line in 1933, which was designed “for the woman who lives actively.” In 1935 Earhart made history with the first solo flight from Hawaii to California, a hazardous route 2,408 miles (3,875 km) long, a longer distance than that from the United States to Europe. She departed from Honolulu on January 11 and, after 17 hours and 7 minutes, landed in Oakland the following day. Later that year she became the first person to fly solo from Los Angeles to Mexico City.
=== Celebrity image ===
Trading on her physical resemblance to Lindbergh, whom the press had dubbed "Lucky Lindy", some newspapers and magazines began referring to Earhart as "Lady Lindy". The United Press was more grandiloquent; to them, Earhart was the reigning "Queen of the Air". Immediately after her return to the United States, she undertook an exhausting lecture tour in 1928 and 1929. Meanwhile, Putnam had undertaken to heavily promote her in a campaign that included publishing a book she authored, a series of new lecture tours and using pictures of her in mass-market endorsements for products including luggage, Lucky Strike cigarettes (this caused image problems for her, with McCall's magazine retracting an offer) and women's clothing and sportswear. The money that she made from Lucky Strike had been earmarked for a $1,500 donation to Commander Richard Byrd's imminent South Pole expedition.
The marketing campaign by both Earhart and Putnam was successful in establishing the Earhart mystique in the public psyche. Rather than simply endorsing the products, Earhart actively became involved in the promotions, especially in women's fashions. For a number of years she had sewn her own clothes, but the "active living" lines that were sold in 50 stores such as Macy's in metropolitan areas were an expression of a new Earhart image. Her concept of simple, natural lines matched with wrinkle-proof, washable materials was the embodiment of a sleek, purposeful, but feminine "A.E." (the familiar name she went by with family and friends). The luggage line that she promoted (marketed as Modernaire Earhart Luggage) also bore her unmistakable stamp. A wide range of promotional items bearing the Earhart name appeared.
=== Promoting aviation ===
Celebrity endorsements helped Earhart finance her flying. Accepting a position as associate editor at Cosmopolitan magazine, she turned this forum into an opportunity to campaign for greater public acceptance of aviation, especially focusing on the role of women entering the field. In 1929, Earhart (along with Margaret Bartlett Thornton) was appointed by Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT, later TWA) to promote air travel, particularly for women; and invested time and money in setting up the first regional shuttle service between New York and Washington, D.C., the Ludington Airline. She was a Vice President of National Airways, which conducted the flying operations of the Boston-Maine Airways and several other airlines in the northeast. By 1940, the company had become Northeast Airlines. In 1934 she interceded on behalf of Isabel Ebel (who had helped her in 1932) to get her accepted as the first woman student of Aeronatical Engineering at NYU.
== Transatlantic solo flight in 1932 ==
On May 20, 1932, 34-year-old Earhart set off from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, with a copy of the Telegraph-Journal, given to her by journalist Stuart Trueman to confirm the date of the flight. She intended to fly to Paris in her single engine Lockheed Vega 5B to emulate Charles Lindbergh's solo flight five years earlier. Her technical advisor for the flight was famed Norwegian American aviator Bernt Balchen, who helped prepare her aircraft. He also played the role of "decoy" for the press as he was ostensibly preparing Earhart's Vega for his own Arctic flight. After a flight lasting 14 hours, 56 minutes, during which she contended with strong northerly winds, icy conditions and mechanical problems, Earhart landed in a pasture at Culmore, north of Derry, Northern Ireland. The landing was witnessed by Cecil King and T. Sawyer. When a farm hand asked, "Have you flown far?" Earhart replied, "From America".
As the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic, Earhart received the Distinguished Flying Cross from Congress, the Cross of Knight of the Legion of Honor from the French Government and the Gold Medal of the National Geographic Society from President Herbert Hoover. As her fame grew, she developed friendships with many people in high offices, most notably First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Roosevelt shared many of Earhart's interests and passions, especially women's causes. After flying with Earhart, Roosevelt obtained a student permit but did not further pursue her plans to learn to fly. The two friends communicated frequently throughout their lives. Another flyer, Jacqueline Cochran, who was said to be Earhart's rival, also became her confidante during this period. 
=== Additional solo flights ===
On January 11, 1935, Earhart became the first aviator to fly solo from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Oakland, California. This time, she used a Lockheed 5C Vega. Although this transoceanic flight had been attempted by many others, notably by the unfortunate participants in the 1927 Dole Air Race that had reversed the route, her trailblazing flight had been mainly routine, with no mechanical breakdowns. In her final hours, she even relaxed and listened to "the broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera from New York". That year, once more flying her Lockheed Vega airliner that Earhart had tagged "old Bessie, the fire horse", she flew solo from Los Angeles to Mexico City on April 19. The next record attempt was a nonstop flight from Mexico City to New York. Setting off on May 8, her flight was uneventful, although the large crowds that greeted her at Newark, New Jersey, were a concern, because she had to be careful not to taxi into the throng.
Earhart again participated in long-distance air racing, placing fifth in the 1935 Bendix Trophy Race, the best result she could manage, because her stock Lockheed Vega, which topped out at 195 mph (314 km/h), was outclassed by purpose-built air racers that reached more than 300 mph (480 km/h). The race had been a particularly difficult one, as a competitor, Cecil Allen, died in a fiery takeoff mishap, and rival Jacqueline Cochran was forced to pull out due to mechanical problems. In addition, "blinding fog" and violent thunderstorms plagued the race. Between 1930 and 1935, Earhart had set seven women's speed and distance aviation records in a variety of aircraft, including the Kinner Airster, Lockheed Vega, and Pitcairn Autogiro. By 1935, recognizing the limitations of her "lovely red Vega" in long, transoceanic flights, Earhart contemplated, in her own words, a new "prize ... one flight which I most wanted to attempt – a circumnavigation of the globe as near its waistline as could be". For the new venture, she would need a new aircraft.
== World flight in 1937 ==
=== Planning ===
Early in 1936, Earhart started planning a round-the-world flight. Although others had flown around the world, her flight would be the longest at 29,000 miles (47,000 km) because it followed a roughly equatorial route. With financing from Purdue, in July 1936, a Lockheed Electra 10E (reg. NR16020) was built at Lockheed Aircraft Company to her specifications, which included extensive modifications to the fuselage to incorporate many additional fuel tanks. Earhart dubbed the twin engine monoplane her "flying laboratory". The plane was built at Lockheed's Burbank, California, plant, and after delivery it was hangared at Mantz's United Air Services, which was just across the airfield from the Lockheed plant.
Although the Electra was publicized as a "flying laboratory", little useful science was planned and the flight was arranged around Earhart's intention to circumnavigate the globe along with gathering raw material and public attention for her next book. Earhart chose Captain Harry Manning as her navigator; he had been the captain of the President Roosevelt, the ship that had brought Earhart back from Europe in 1928. Manning was not only a navigator, but he was also a pilot and a skilled radio operator who knew Morse code.
The original plan was a two-person crew. Earhart would fly and Manning would navigate. During a flight across the country that included Earhart, Manning, and Putnam, Earhart flew using landmarks. She and Putnam knew where they were. Manning did a navigation fix, but that fix alarmed Putnam, because Manning's position put them in the wrong state. They were flying close to the state line, so the navigation error was minor, but Putnam was still concerned. Sometime later, Putnam and Mantz arranged a night flight to test Manning's navigational skill. Under poor navigational conditions, Manning's position was off by 20 miles. Elgen M. and Marie K. Long consider Manning's performance reasonable because it was within an acceptable error of 30 miles, but Mantz and Putnam wanted a better navigator.
Through contacts in the Los Angeles aviation community, Fred Noonan was subsequently chosen as a second navigator because there were significant additional factors that had to be dealt with while using celestial navigation for aircraft. Noonan was experienced in both marine (he was a licensed ship's captain) and flight navigation. Noonan had recently left 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 for the route between San Francisco and Manila. The original plans were for Noonan to navigate from Hawaii to Howland Island, a particularly 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.
=== Radio equipment ===
The plane had a modified Western Electric model 13C transmitter. The 50-watt transmitter was crystal controlled and capable of transmitting on 500 kHz, 3105 kHz, and 6210 kHz. Crystal control means that the transmitter cannot be tuned to other frequencies; the plane could transmit only on those three frequencies. The transmitter had been modified at the factory to provide the 500 kHz capability.
The plane had a modified Western Electric model 20B receiver. Ordinarily, the receiver covered four frequency bands: 188–420 kHz, 550–1500 kHz, 1500–4000 kHz, and 4000–10000 kHz. The receiver was modified to lower the frequencies in the second band to 485–1200 kHz. That modification allowed the reception of 500 kHz signals; such signals were used for marine distress calls and radio navigation. The model 20B receiver has two antenna inputs: a low-frequency antenna input and a high-frequency antenna input. The receiver's band selector also selects which antenna input is used; the first two bands use the low-frequency antenna, and the last two bands select the high-frequency antenna.
There are pictures of Earhart's radio direction finder loop antenna and its 5-band Bendix coupling unit. There were problems with the radio direction finder equipment during the world flight. During the transatlantic leg of the flight (Brazil to Africa), the RDF equipment did not work. The radio direction finding station at Darwin expected to be in contact with Earhart when she arrived there, but Earhart stated that the RDF was not functioning; the problem was a blown fuse. During a test flight at Lae, Earhart could hear radio signals, but she failed to obtain an RDF bearing.
The antennas and their connections on the Electra are not certain. A dorsal Vee antenna was added by Bell Telephone Laboratories. There had been a trailing wire antenna for 500 kHz, but the Luke Field accident collapsed both landing gear and wiped off the ventral antennas. After the accident, the trailing wire antenna was removed, the dorsal antenna was modified, and a ventral antenna was installed.
=== First attempt ===
On March 17, 1937, Earhart and her crew set out on the first leg of her round the world flight, this attempt was abandoned after a non-fatal crash that meant the aircraft needed repairs. The first leg of this attempt was between Oakland, California, and Honolulu, Hawaii. The crew were Earhart, Noonan, Manning and Mantz, who was acting as Earhart's technical advisor. Due to problems with the propeller hubs' variable pitch mechanisms, the aircraft needed servicing and ended up at the United States Navy's Luke Field at Pearl Harbor. The flight resumed three days later from Luke Field with Earhart, Noonan and Manning on board. The next destination was Howland Island, a small island in the Pacific. Manning, the radio operator, had made arrangements to use radio direction finding to home in to the island. The flight never left Luke Field. During the takeoff run, there was an uncontrolled ground-loop, the forward landing gear collapsed, both propellers hit the ground and the plane skidded on its belly. The cause of the crash is not known with certainty. Some witnesses at Luke Field, including the Associated Press journalist, said they saw a tire blow. Earhart thought either the Electra's right tire had blown and/or the right landing gear had collapsed. Some sources, including Mantz, cited error by Earhart. With the aircraft severely damaged, the attempt was called off and the aircraft was shipped by sea to Lockheed Burbank in California for repairs.
=== Second attempt ===
While the Electra was being repaired, Earhart and Putnam secured additional funds and prepared for a second attempt. This time flying west to east, the second attempt began with an unpublicized flight from Oakland to Miami, Florida, and after arriving there Earhart publicly announced her plans to circumnavigate the globe. The flight's opposite direction was partly the result of changes in global wind and weather patterns along the planned route since the earlier attempt.
On this second attempt Manning, the only skilled radio operator, had left the crew, leaving only Noonan and Earhart. The pair departed Miami on June 1 and after numerous stops in South America, Africa, the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, arrived at Lae, New Guinea, on June 29, 1937. At this stage, about 22,000 miles (35,000 km) of the journey had been completed. The remaining 7,000 miles (11,000 km) would be over the Pacific.
=== Flight between Lae and Howland Island ===
On July 2, 1937 at 10:00 in the morning (midnight GMT), Earhart and Noonan took off from Lae Airfield in the heavily loaded Electra. Their intended destination was Howland Island, a flat sliver of land 6,500 ft (2,000 m) long and 1,600 ft (500 m) wide, 10 ft (3 m) high and 2,556 miles (2,221 nmi; 4,113 km) away. The expected flying time was about 20 hours, so, accounting for the 2-hour time-zone difference between Lae and Howland and crossing of the International Date Line, the aircraft was expected to arrive at Howland the morning of the next day, 2 July. The aircraft departed Lae with about 1100 gallons of gasoline. This leg was the longest of circumnavigation, the length was close to the maximum range of the plane, and the destination was a small island in a large ocean.
In preparation for the trip to Howland Island, the U.S. Coast Guard had sent the cutter USCGC Itasca (1929) to the island to offer communication and navigation support for the flight. The plan was for the cutter to: communicate with Earhart's aircraft via radio; transmit a radio homing signal to make it easy to find Howland Island without precise celestial navigation; do radio direction finding (RDF) if Earhart used her 500 kHz transmitter; use an experimental high-frequency direction finder for Earhart's voice transmissions; and use the cutter's boilers to create a dark column of smoke that could be seen over the horizon. All of the navigation methods would fail to guide Earhart to Howland Island.
Around 3 pm Lae time, Earhart reported her altitude as 10,000 ft but that they would reduce altitude due to thick clouds. Around 5 pm, Earhart reported her altitude as 7,000 ft and speed as 150 knots. During Earhart and Noonan's approach to Howland Island, the Itasca received strong and clear voice transmissions from Earhart identifying as KHAQQ, but she apparently was unable to hear voice transmissions from the ship. Signals from the ship would be used for direction finding, implying that the aircraft's direction finder was not functional.
The first calls received from Earhart were routine reports stating the weather as cloudy and overcast at 2:45 am and just before 5 am on July 2. These calls were broken up by static, but at this point the aircraft would still be a long distance from Howland. At 6:14 am another call was received stating the aircraft was within 200 miles (320 km), and requested that the ship use its direction finder to provide a bearing for the aircraft. Earhart began whistling into the microphone to provide a continual signal for them to home in on. It was at this point that the radio operators on the Itasca realized that their RDF system could not tune in the aircraft's 3105 kHz frequency; radioman Leo Bellarts later commented that he "was sitting there sweating blood because I couldn't do a darn thing about it." A similar call asking for a bearing was received at 6:45 am, when Earhart estimated they were 100 miles (160 km) out.
An Itasca radio log at 7:30–7:40 am states that they only had a half hour of fuel remaining. A further radio log states they thought they were near Itasca but could not locate it and were flying at 1000 feet. Earhart's 7:58 am transmission said she could not hear the Itasca and asked them to send voice signals so she could try to take a radio bearing. This transmission was reported by the Itasca as the loudest possible signal, indicating Earhart and Noonan were in the immediate area. They could not send voice at the frequency she asked for, so Morse code signals were sent instead. Earhart acknowledged receiving these but said she was unable to determine their direction.
The last voice transmission received on Howland Island from Earhart indicated she and Noonan were flying along a line of position (running North to South on 157–337 degrees) which Noonan would have calculated and drawn on a chart as passing through Howland. After all contact was lost with Howland Island, attempts were made to reach the flyers with both voice and Morse code transmissions. Operators across the Pacific and the United States may have heard signals from the downed Electra but these were unintelligible or weak. The cause of the flight's failure is not known, however a series of misunderstandings, errors or mechanical failures, are likely on the final approach to Howland Island. Noonan had earlier written about problems affecting the accuracy of radio direction finding in navigation. Another cited cause of possible confusion was that the Itasca and Earhart planned their communication schedule using time systems set a half-hour apart, with Earhart using Greenwich Civil Time (GCT) and the Itasca under a Naval time zone designation system. Motion picture evidence from Lae suggests that an antenna mounted underneath the fuselage may have been torn off from the fuel-heavy Electra during taxi or takeoff from Lae's turf runway.
Sources have noted Earhart's apparent lack of understanding of her direction-finding system, which had been fitted to the aircraft just prior to the flight. The system was equipped with a new receiver from Bendix Corporation. Earhart's only training on the system was a brief introduction by Joe Gurr at the Lockheed factory. A card displaying the band settings of the antenna was mounted so it was not visible. The Electra expected Itasca to transmit signals that the Electra could use as an RDF beacon to find the Itasca. In theory, the plane could listen for the signal while rotating its loop antenna. A sharp minimum indicates the direction of the RDF beacon. The Electra's RDF equipment had failed due to a blown fuse during an earlier leg flying to Darwin; the fuse was replaced. Near Howland, Earhart could hear the transmission from Itasca on 7500 kHz, but she was unable to determine a minimum, so she could not determine a direction to Itasca. Earhart was also unable to determine a minimum during an RDF test at Lae.
In the days after their last confirmed transmissions there were further transmissions purporting to be from Earhart, many determined to be hoaxes. The captain of USS Colorado later said: "There was no doubt many stations calling the Earhart plane on the plane's frequency, some by voice and others by signals. All of these added to the confusion and doubtfulness of the authenticity of the reports."
=== Disappearance ===
The U.S. government investigated the disappearance and in its report concluded that Earhart's plane ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean. During the 1970s, retired United States Navy (USN) captain Laurance Safford began a lengthy analysis of the flight. His research included the intricate radio transmission documentation. Safford concluded that the flight had suffered from poor planning and worse execution.
Many researchers believe Earhart and Noonan died during or shortly after the crash. In 1982, retired USN rear admiral Richard R. Black, who was in administrative charge of the Howland Island airstrip and was present in the radio room on the Itasca, asserted that "the Electra went into the sea about 10 am, July 2, 1937, not far from Howland". Earhart's stepson George Palmer Putnam Jr. has been quoted as saying he believes "the plane just ran out of gas". Earhart biography author Susan Butler posits that the aircraft went into the ocean out of sight of Howland Island and rests on the seafloor at a depth of 17,000 ft (5 km). Tom D. Crouch, senior curator of the National Air and Space Museum, has said the Electra is "18,000 ft. down" and compares its archaeological significance to the Titanic, saying, "the mystery is part of what keeps us interested. In part, we remember her because she's our favorite missing person."
British aviation historian Roy Nesbit interpreted evidence in contemporary accounts and Putnam's correspondence and concluded that Earhart's Electra was not fully fueled at Lae. William L. Polhemous, the navigator on Ann Pellegreno's 1967 flight that followed Earhart and Noonan's original flight path, studied navigational tables for July 2, 1937, and thought Noonan may have miscalculated the "single line approach" intended to "hit" Howland. David Jourdan, through his company Nauticos, extensively searched a 1,200-square-mile (3,100 km2) quadrant north and west of Howland Island during two deep-sea sonar expeditions (2002 and 2006, total cost $4.5 million) and found nothing. The search locations were derived from the line of position (157–337) broadcast by Earhart on July 2, 1937. Nevertheless, Elgen Long's interpretations have led Jourdan to conclude, "The analysis of all the data we have – the fuel analysis, the radio calls, other things – tells me she went into the water off Howland."
=== Contemporaneous search efforts ===
Beginning approximately one hour after Earhart's last recorded message, Itasca undertook an ultimately unsuccessful search north and west of Howland Island based on initial assumptions about transmissions from the aircraft. The U.S. Navy soon joined the search and over a period of about three days sent available resources to the search area in the vicinity of Howland Island. On the mornings of July 3 and July 6, 1937, an Oakland radio amateur was reputed to have heard emergency transmissions, seemingly from Earhart. On July 6, the captain of the battleship Colorado received orders from the Commandant, Fourteenth Naval District to take over all naval and coast guard units to coordinate search efforts.
Later search efforts were directed to the Phoenix Islands south of Howland Island. A week after the disappearance, naval aircraft from the Colorado flew over several islands in the group including Gardner Island (now called Nikumaroro), which had been uninhabited for over 40 years. The subsequent report on Gardner said that there had been recent signs of habitation but nobody had been found. Other Navy search efforts were again directed north, west and southwest of Howland Island, based on a possibility the Electra had ditched in the ocean, was afloat, or that the aviators were in an emergency raft.
The official search efforts lasted until July 19, 1937. At $4 million, the air and sea search by the Navy and Coast Guard was the most costly and intensive in U.S. history up to that time, but search and rescue techniques during the era were ineffective and some of the search was based on erroneous assumptions and flawed information. Despite an unprecedented search by the United States Navy and Coast Guard, no physical evidence of Earhart, Noonan or the Electra 10E was found. The aircraft carrier USS Lexington, the battleship USS Colorado, the Itasca, the Japanese oceanographic survey vessel Koshu, and the Japanese seaplane tender Kamoi searched for six–seven days each, covering 150,000 square miles (390,000 km2). Immediately after the end of the official search, Putnam financed a private search by local authorities of nearby Pacific islands and waters, concentrating on the Gilberts. In late July 1937, Putnam chartered two small boats, and, while he remained in the United States, directed a search of the Phoenix Islands, Christmas (Kiritimati) Island, Fanning (Tabuaeran) Island, the Gilbert Islands, and the Marshall Islands. Back in the United States, Putnam acted to become the trustee of Earhart's estate so that he could pay for the searches and related bills. In probate court in Los Angeles, Putnam requested to have the "declared death in absentia" seven-year waiting period waived so that he could manage Earhart's finances. As a result, Earhart was declared legally dead on January 5, 1939.
=== Possible discovery of Electra ===
In 2024, Deep Sea Vision, a Charleston, South Carolina, company that operates unmanned underwater vehicles, found via sonar what appears to be the remains of an airplane on the ocean floor. The object, shaped like the Electra, was detected by the Hugin submersible 16,000 ft (4.9 km) underwater and within 100 mi (160 km) of Howland Island. More exploration is necessary to confirm whether this is Earhart's missing aircraft.
== Legacy ==
Countless tributes and memorials have been made in Amelia Earhart's name, including a 2012 tribute by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking at a State Department event celebrating the ties of Earhart and the United States to its Pacific neighbors, noting: "Earhart ... created a legacy that resonates today for anyone, girls and boys, who dreams of the stars." In 2013, Flying magazine ranked Earhart No. 9 on its 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 girls. Earhart is generally regarded as a feminist icon.
Earhart's accomplishments in aviation inspired a generation of female aviators, including the more than 1,000 women pilots of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) who ferried military aircraft, towed gliders, flew target practice aircraft, and served as transport pilots during World War II. The home where Earhart was born is now the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum and is maintained by The Ninety-Nines, an international group of female pilots of whom Earhart was the first elected president. The Amelia Earhart Festival has taken place in the town of her birth, every year since 1996.
In 1964, Purdue University opened the Earhart Hall in honor of her legacy and contribution to the University during her time as a career counselor for female student 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 recently approved plans to name the new Purdue University Airport terminal the Amelia Earhart Terminal. An Amelia Earhart full size bronze statue was placed at the Spirit of Flight Center located in Lafayette, Colorado, in 2008. A statue by Ernest Shelton was erected circa 1971 in Los Angeles, California. In 1942, a United States Liberty ship named SS Amelia Earhart was launched, it was wrecked in 1948. USNS Amelia Earhart was named in her honor in May 2007. A small section of Earhart's Lockheed Electra starboard engine nacelle recovered in the aftermath of the March 1937 Hawaii crash has been confirmed as authentic and is now regarded as a control piece that will help to authenticate possible future discoveries.
The Earhart Light, also known as the Amelia Earhart Light, is a navigational day beacon on Howland Island, where she was due to land before she went missing. It is no longer operational. Amelia Earhart Airport, located in Atchison, Kansas, was named in her honor. The Amelia Earhart Commemorative Stamp (8¢ airmail postage) was issued in 1963 by the United States Postmaster-General. She was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1992. Amelia Earhart Dam on the Mystic River in eastern Massachusetts is named in her honor. The "Earhart Tree" on Banyan Drive in Hilo, Hawaii, was planted by Earhart in 1935. In 1967, Ann Dearing Holtgren Pellegreno flew a similar aircraft (a Lockheed 10A Electra) to complete a world flight that mirrored Earhart's flight plan. On the 30th anniversary of her disappearance, Pellegreno dropped a wreath in Earhart's honor over Howland Island. In 1997, on the 60th anniversary of Earhart's world flight, San Antonio businesswoman Linda Finch retraced the final flight path flying the same make and model of aircraft as Earhart, a restored 1935 Lockheed Electra 10E. In 2001, another commemorative flight retraced the route undertaken by Earhart in her August 1928 transcontinental record flight. Dr. Carlene Mendieta flew an original Avro Avian, the same type that was used in 1928.
Category:Aviator
Category:Female
Category:Caucasian-American