Amelia Earhart - Biography, Facts, and Pictures Amelia Earhart By Stephen Sherman , Sept. 26, 2012. The world's most famous female aviator disappeared in 1937, as she attempted to become the first woman to fly around the world. With her navigator, Fred Noonan, her Lockheed Electra was last heard from about 100 miles from the tiny Pacific atoll, Howland Island, on July 2, 1937. President Roosevelt authorized an immediate search; no trace was ever found; notwithstanding the endless efforts by conspiracy theorists to find evidence that she landed on an island. Over the years, the disappearance of Amelia Earhart has spawned almost as many conspiracy theories as the Lindbergh Kidnapping and the Kennedy Assassination. She achieved a number of aviation records: the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, in 1928 the second person to fly solo across the Atlantic, in 1932 the first person to solo from Hawaii to California, in 1935 Guided by her publicist and husband, George Putnam, she made headlines in the era when aviation gripped the public's imagination.

Childhood and Education Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897 in Kansas, the daughter of Edwin and Amy Earhart. At the age of three, she was sent to live with her grandmother (her namesake), mainly because the old woman needed company and a distraction from the deaths of her mother, her son, and her daughter-in-law, as well as the poor mental condition of her husband Alfred. The grandparents (or grandmother) raised Amelia during her early childhood. She liked their home in Atchison, Kansas, especially her large bedroom with views of the nearby river, now a museum open to the public. She enjoyed her life with her grandparents: learning to read at five, and secure in a place where it seemed that almost everyone was family. But her grandmother was timid, and a worrier, and did not approve of Amelia's tomboy tendencies, so Amelia kept her pony-riding, tree-climbing, snow-sledding, and hunting activities to herself. Her parents were only 50 miles away, and she summered with them, so she remained close to them during these years. Education When she was seven, her father Edwin took the family to the St.

Louis World's Fair, where, on riding the Ferris wheel, she learned that she rather enjoyed heights. She learned to build and make things with her own hands, once making a crude roller coaster out of two-by-fours, a packing box, and roller-skate wheels. She was an avid reader, and even as a child read Harper's Magazine for Young People, and the novels of Dickens and Thackeray. One of her favorite poems was "Atalanta in Calydon" by Algernon Charles Swinburne; it's a poem about a warrior maiden, who hunts and kills a boar with Meleager. From the first grade, she attended the College Preparatory School in Atchison. It was a tiny place, with only about 30 students, housed in a building that used to be a stable. Amelia was bright, but her independent spirit and lack of interest in recitation did not endear her to the teachers. In high school, cheerleading was not enough for her, she wanted to play on the basketball team. Like Pappy Boyington , her family circumstances were unsettled, marked by moves and alcoholism in the family.

The odd family arrangement (Amelia living with her grandparents in Atchison, her younger sister Muriel with the girls' parents in Kansas City) lasted until Amelia was ten, when she rejoined with her mother and father. Her father Edwin, was well-educated, but tended to the impractical; money just slipped through his fingers. His in-laws, the Otises, helped him out a lot (including taking care of Amelia), but Edwin's extravagance remained a problem. In 1908, he got a new job, with the Rock Island railroad, which required him to move to Des Moines. Now, the arrangement with the Atchison grandparents was no longer feasible, so Amelia joined them in Iowa, and saw her first airplane, at the 1908 Iowa State Fair. For a few years, Edwin did well, moving into a newer, larger houses almost every year, as his income grew. But his spendthrift nature won out, and he kept living beyond his means, and increasingly turning to alcohol. He moved out for a time, but Amy (Amelia's mother) implored him to return. The death of Amelia's grandparents, the Otises, was the final blow.

The Otises were quite wealthy, with an estate worth over $170,000 (a huge sum in those days). While the will sought to provide for the grandchildren, it excluded Edwin and Amy. A lengthy, messy struggle ensued. During this time, Edwin had lost his job, and was forced to accept a menial position in St. Paul, which required another family move, to Minnesota. In the 1913-14 school year, at St. Paul Central High School, where Amelia was more in control of her own destiny, she did very well, keeping a grade point average in the high eighties, with a curriculum including Latin, German, and Physics. In 1916, she matriculated at Ogontz, a highly-regarded women's college, what used to be called a "finishing school," outside of Philadelphia. In her three semesters there, Amelia played field hockey, studied Shakespeare & Latin, and attended concerts of the Philadelphia Symphony. When the United States entered World War One in 1917, Amelia was drawn in and served as a nurse with the Volunteer Aid Detachment (VAD) of St. John Ambulance Brigade.

Flight She took her first ride in an airplane in 1920. After her flight with barnstormer Frank Hawks, she said "As soon as we left the ground, I knew I myself had to fly." Indeed, within a few days, she took her first flying lesson, in a Curtiss JN-4 Jenny. Six months later, she bought her own airplane, a yellow Kinner Airster, that she dubbed "The Canary." Like Gabby Gabreski , she was not a naturally gifted pilot, but she persevered, built up her flying time, and even broke the woman's altitude record in 1922. The mid-Twenties were difficult years for Amelia. Her mother finally divorced Edwin, thus ending that part of Amelia's family life. She studied at Columbia for a time, but lack of money compelled her to withdraw. She had a long-term engagement to one Sam Chapmen, but they never married. She was active in aviation and social work, living in Medford, Massachusetts for a time. She flew whenever she could, distributing free passes to a carnival on one occasion, and was active in Boston aviation circles.

Across the Atlantic She became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic on June 18-19, 1928. The flight was the brainchild of Amy Guest, a wealthy, aristocratic American expatriate living in London. Aware of the huge publicity that would accrue to the first woman to fly the Atlantic, the 55 year old Mrs. Guest had purchased a Fokker F7 trimotor from Commander Richard Byrd, to make the flight herself. Her family objected, and she relented, as long as the "right sort" of woman could make the flight. The "right sort" would take a good picture, be well-educated, and not be a publicity-seeking gold-digger. The Guest family hired George Putnam, a New York publicist who had promoted Lindbergh's book We, to look for a suitable women pilot. He selected the little-known Amelia Earhart, and introduced her as "Lady Lindy".

While the flight instantly made her world-famous, she was little more than a passenger in the Fokker tri-motor "Friendship." They took off from Trepassy, Newfoundland, and after a 20 hour and 40 minute flight, landed in Burry Port, Wales. When they went on to London, another huge mob welcomed them. The pilots, Wilmer Stutz and Louis Gordon, were all but forgotten in the media frenzy surrounding the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. Pictures and Comments Amelia Earhart was a photographer and publicist's dream. Not only did she fly airplanes and break aviation records, she looked good doing so. She seemed to be both beautiful and down-to-earth, the type of good looks that might let her be called "America's Sweetheart." Shown on the left are a small sample of the countless photographs taken of Amelia Earhart in the 1920s and 1930s. Apparently she posed willingly for all of them: studio portraits, glamour shots. head shots, full-length pictures, in and around various airplanes, with numerous celebrities and politicians, etc.

The first photo, taken about 1930, is a classic glamour shot of the era: a three-quarter view, dressed with a fur collar, soft focus, and complimentary lighting. You can see a faint inscription in the lower part of the picture. By comparison, the second one is less contrived, and probably a more accurate picture of Amelia, as you might see her on the street. I love the one of her (holding a bouquet of flowers) and New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker, the third photo. He was a character himself, and he looks every bit the part of the glad-handling, smooth-talking, but corrupt, Irish politician that he was. Fourth and fifth are two more formal portraits. Note the desk and vase that she is standing next to in the fifth one. The sixth picture shows Amelia Earhart checking the airplane's equipment before her first flight across the Atlantic in 1928. Continue reading about Amelia the Aviator © 1999- Amelia Earhart Amelia Earhart Amelia Earhart Famous Female Aviator Studio headshot portrait of American aviator Amelia Earhart, the first woman to complete a solo transatlantic flight, wearing a leather jacket. (circa 1932).

(Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) By Dani Alexis Ryskamp, Contributing Writer Updated November 02, 2015. Who Was Amelia Earhart? As a pilot, Amelia Earhart set many world flying records. She became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean and the first person to make a solo flight across both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. Earhart also set several height and speed records in an airplane. Despite all these records, Amelia Earhart is perhaps best remembered for her mysterious disappearance, which has become one of the enduring mysteries of the 20th century. While attempting to become the first woman to fly around the world, she disappeared on July 2, 1937 while heading toward Howland's Island. Dates: July 24, 1897 -- July 2, 1937(?) Also Known As: Amelia Mary Earhart, Lady Lindy Amelia Earhart’s Childhood Amelia Mary Earhart was born in her maternal grandparents’ home in Atchison, Kansas, on July 24, 1897 to Amy and Edwin Earhart.

Although Edwin was a lawyer, he never earned the approval of Amy’s parents, Judge Alfred Otis and his wife, Amelia. continue reading below our video What are the Seven Wonders of the World In 1899, two-and-a-half years after Amelia’s birth, Edwin and Amy welcomed another daughter, Grace Muriel, into the world. Amelia Earhart spent much of her early childhood living with her Otis grandparents in Atchison during the school months and then spending her summers with her parents. Earhart’s early life was filled with outdoor adventures combined with the etiquette lessons expected of upper-middle-class girls of her day. Amelia (known as “Millie” in her youth) and her sister Grace Muriel (known as “Pidge”) loved to play together, especially outdoors. After visiting the World’s Fair in St. Louis in 1904 , Amelia decided she wanted to build her own mini roller coaster in her backyard. Enlisting Pidge to help, the two built a homemade roller coaster on the roof of the tool shed, using planks, a wooden box, and lard for grease. Amelia took the first ride, which ended with a crash and some bruises – but she loved it.

By 1908, Edwin Earhart had closed his private law firm and was working as a lawyer for a railroad in Des Moines, Iowa; thus, it was time for Amelia to move back in with her parents. That same year, her parents took her to the Iowa State Fair where 10-year-old Amelia saw an airplane for the very first time. Surprisingly, the airplane didn’t interest her. Problems at Home At first, life in Des Moines seemed to be going well for the Earhart family; however, it soon became obvious that Edwin had started to heavily drink alcohol. When his alcoholism got worse, Edwin eventually lost his job in Iowa and had trouble finding another. In 1915, with the promise of a job with the Great Northern Railway in St. Paul, Minnesota, the Earhart family packed up their belongings and moved. However, the job fell through once they got there. Tired of her husband’s alcoholism and the family’s increasing money troubles, Amy Earhart moved herself and her daughters to Chicago, leaving their father behind in Minnesota. Edwin and Amy eventually divorced in 1924.

Due to her family’s frequent moves, Amelia Earhart switched high schools six times, making it hard for her to make or keep friends during her teen years. She did well in her classes, but preferred sports. She graduated from Chicago’s Hyde Park High School in 1916 and is listed in the school’s yearbook as “the girl in brown who walks alone.” Later in life, however, she was known for her friendly and outgoing nature. After high school, Earhart went to the Ogontz School in Philadelphia, but she soon dropped out to become a nurse for returning World War I soldiers and for victims of the influenza epidemic of 1918 . First Flights It wasn’t until 1920, when Earhart was 23 years old, that she developed an interest in airplanes. While visiting her father in California, she attended an air show and the stunt-flying feats she watched convinced her that she had to try flying for herself. Earhart took her first flying lesson on January 3, 1921.

According to her instructors, Earhart wasn’t a “natural” at piloting an airplane; instead, she made up for a lack of talent with plenty of hard work and a passion for flying. Earhart received her “Aviator Pilot” certification from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale on May 16, 1921 -- a major step for any pilot at the time. Since her parents could not afford to pay for her lessons, Earhart worked several jobs to raise the money herself. She also saved up the money to buy her own airplane, a small Kinner Airster she called the Canary. In the Canary, she broke the women’s altitude record on October 22, 1922 by becoming the first woman to reach 14,000 feet in an airplane. Earhart Becomes the First Woman to Fly Over the Atlantic In 1927, aviator Charles Lindbergh made history by becoming the first person to fly non-stop across the Atlantic, from the U.S. to England. A year later, Amelia Earhart was asked to make a non-stop flight across the same ocean.

She had been discovered by publisher George Putnam, who had been asked to look for a suitable female pilot to complete this feat. Since this was not to be a solo flight, Earhart joined a crew of two other aviators, both men. On June 17, 1928, the journey began when the Friendship, a Fokker F7 specially outfitted for the trip, took off from Newfoundland bound for England. Ice and fog made the trip difficult and Earhart spent much of the flight scribbling notes in a journal while her co-pilots, Bill Stultz and Louis Gordon, handled the plane. On June 18, 1928, after 20 hours and 40 minutes in the air, the Friendship landed in South Wales. Although Earhart said she did not contribute any more to the flight than “a sack of potatoes” would have, the press saw her accomplishment differently. They started calling Earhart “Lady Lindy,” after Charles Lindbergh. Shortly after this trip, Earhart published a book about her experiences, titled 20 Hours 40 Minutes. Before long, Amelia Earhart was looking for new records to break in her own airplane.

A few months after publishing 20 Hours 40 Minutes, she flew solo across the United States and back -- the first time a female pilot had made the journey alone. In 1929, she founded and participated in the Woman’s Air Derby, an airplane race from Santa Monica, California to Cleveland, Ohio with a substantial cash prize. Flying a more powerful Lockheed Vega, Earhart finished third, behind noted pilots Louise Thaden and Gladys O’Donnell. On February 7, 1931, Earhart married publisher George Putnam, the man who had discovered her. Also in 1931, Earhart and several other female aviators banded together to start a professional international organization for female pilots, of which Earhart became the first president. The Ninety-Niners, named because it originally had 99 members, still represents and supports female pilots today. Earhart published a second book about her accomplishments, The Fun of It, in 1932. Solo Across the Ocean Having won multiple competitions, flown in air shows, and set new altitude records, Amelia Earhart began looking for a bigger challenge.

In 1932, she decided to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. On May 20, 1932, she took off again from Newfoundland, piloting a small Lockheed Vega. It was a dangerous trip: clouds and fog made it difficult to navigate, her plane’s wings became covered with ice, and the plane developed a fuel leak about two-thirds of the way across the ocean. Worse, the altimeter stopped working, so Earhart had no idea how far above the ocean’s surface her plane was -- a situation that nearly resulted in her crashing into the Atlantic Ocean. In serious danger, Earhart abandoned her plans to land at Southampton, England, and made for the first bit of land she saw. She touched down in a sheep pasture in Ireland on May 21, 1932, becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and the first-ever person to fly across the Atlantic twice. The solo Atlantic crossing was followed by more book deals, meetings with heads of state, and a lecture tour, as well as more flying competitions.

In 1935, Earhart also made a solo flight from Hawaii to Oakland, California, becoming the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland. This trip also made Earhart the first person to fly solo across both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Amelia Earhart’s Last Flight Not long after making her Pacific flight in 1935, Amelia Earhart decided she wanted to try flying around the entire world. A U.S. Army Air Force crew had made the trip in 1924 and male aviator Wiley Post flew around the world by himself in 1931 and 1933. But Earhart had two new goals. First, she wanted to be the first woman to fly solo around the world. Second, she wanted to fly around the world at or near the equator, the planet’s widest point. The previous flights had both circled the world much closer to the North Pole , where the distance was shortest. Earhart wanted to make the longest possible flight around the globe. Planning and preparation for the trip was difficult, time-consuming, and expensive.

Her plane, a Lockheed Electra, had to be completely re-fitted with additional fuel tanks, survival gear, scientific instruments, and a state-of-the-art radio. A 1936 test flight ended in a crash that destroyed the plane’s landing gear. Several months passed while the plane was fixed. Meanwhile, Earhart and her navigator, Frank Noonan, plotted their course around the world. The most difficult point in the trip would be the flight from Papua New Guinea to Hawaii because it required a fuel stop at Howland’s Island, a small coral island about 1,700 miles west of Hawaii. Aviation maps were poor at the time and the island would be difficult to find from the air. However, the stop at Howland’s Island was unavoidable because the plane could only carry about half the fuel needed to fly from Papua New Guinea to Hawaii, making a fuel stop essential if Earhart and Noonan were to make it across the South Pacific. As difficult as it might be to find, Howland’s Island seemed like the best choice for a stop since it is positioned approximately half way between Papua New Guinea and Hawaii. Once their course had been plotted and their plane readied, it was time for the final details.

It was during this last minute preparation that Earhart decided not to take the full-sized radio antenna that Lockheed recommended, instead opting for a smaller antenna. The new antenna was lighter, but it also could not transmit or receive signals as well, especially in bad weather. On May 21, 1937, Amelia Earhart and Frank Noonan took off from Oakland, California, on the first leg of their trip. The plane landed first in Puerto Rico and then in several other locations in the Caribbean before heading to Senegal. They crossed Africa, stopping several times for fuel and supplies, then went on to Eritrea, India, Burma, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. There, Earhart and Noonan prepared for the toughest stretch of the trip -- the landing at Howland’s Island. Since every pound in the plane meant more fuel used, Earhart removed every non-essential item -- even the parachutes. The plane was checked and re-checked by mechanics to ensure it was in top condition. However, Earhart and Noonan had been flying for over a month straight by this time and both were tired. On July 2, 1937, Earhart’s plane left Papua New Guinea heading toward Howland’s Island.

For the first seven hours, Earhart and Noonan stayed in radio contact with the airstrip in Papua New Guinea. After that, they made intermittent radio contact with the U.S.S. Itsaca, a Coast Guard ship patrolling the waters below. However, reception was poor and messages between the plane and the Itsaca were frequently lost or garbled. Two hours after Earhart’s scheduled arrival at Howland’s Island, at about 10:30 a.m. local time on July 2, 1937, the Itsaca received a last static-filled message that indicated Earhart and Noonan could not see the ship or the island and they were almost out of fuel. The crew of the Itsaca tried to signal the ship’s location by sending up black smoke, but the plane did not appear. Neither the plane, Earhart, nor Noonan were ever seen or heard from again. The Mystery Continues The mystery of what happened to Earhart, Noonan, and the plane has not yet been solved. In 1999, British archaeologists claimed to have found artifacts on a small island in the South Pacific that contained Earhart’s DNA, but the evidence is not conclusive.

Near the plane’s last known location, the ocean reaches depths of 16,000 feet, well below the range of today’s deep-sea diving equipment. If the plane sank into those depths, it may never be recovered. First Woman to Fly ... First Woman to Fly ... a Plane, around the World, across the Atlantic, etc. By Stephen Sherman , Mar. 2011. Updated July 23, 2011. Many of these early records are clouded by conflicting claims and ambiguous circumstances. Read on, or search further, but beware that some of these early "female firsts" in aviation are uncertain. Who was the first woman to fly a plane? Therese Peltier is generally credited as being the first female passenger, during a flight in France in July 8, 1906. In 1908 she also became the first woman to fly and first to solo with several flights in a Voisin. Also in 1908 she was a passenger with her friend Leon Delagrange for a duration record setting flight of 30 minutes.

In 1908 Delagrange offered a prize of 1000 francs to the first woman who could fly 1 kilometer. Peltier started training for it but Delagrange was killed in a plane crash, and Peltier quit flying after that. There are also claims that Henri Farman flew an woman passenger, Mlle P. Van Pottelsberghe, in Ghent Belgium, in late May 1908, (per Le Patriote Illustre, 7 June 1908). 1910 - Blanche Stuart "Betty" Scott, was an early American automobile enthusiast, and was the second American woman to drive a car from coast to coast. Betty Stuart came to the attention of Glenn Curtiss, the aviation pioneer based in Hammondsport, NY, and he began teaching her to fly. On September 2, without permission or knowledge of Glenn Curtiss, the airplane's owner and builder, she removed the throttle-limiter (a small wood wedge intended to keep the aircraft from taking off) and got the airplane airborne -- without any flying lessons -- thus becoming the first American woman to pilot an airplane.

While she certainly did get aloft, there remains some doubt as to whether or not it was intentional. Thus, Bessica Medlar Raiche's flight on September 16 was accredited as first by the Aeronautical Society of America at the time. Who was the first licensed female pilot? 1910 - Baroness Elise Raymonde de Laroche obtained a license from the Aero Club of France, the first woman licensed in the world. De Laroche was already an experienced balloonist when, in October 1909, aviator Charles Voisin suggested she could learn to fly a fixed-wing aircraft. On 22 October 1909, de Laroche flew 300 yards (270 m) at Chalons, east of Paris, where the Voisin brothers based their operations. De Laroche's flight is sometime cited as the first by a woman in a powered heavier-than-air craft. However it seems probable that Thérèse Peltier had flown the previous year (see above).

On 8 March 1910, de Laroche became the first woman in the world to receive a pilot licence when the Aero-Club of France issued her license #36 of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (F.A.I.). De Laroche participated in aviation meetings at Heliopolis in Egypt as well as Saint Petersburg, Budapest and Rouen. 1911 - August 11 - Harriet Quimby became the first American woman licensed pilot. Who was the first African-American woman pilot? 1921 - Bessie Coleman became the first African American, male or female, to earn a pilot's license. Born in 1893, she was one of 12 children of a poor Texas cotton-farming family. At a time when African Americans were regularly denied even a basic education, Coleman managed to graduate from high school and then moved to Chicago. Unfortunately, even the urban North offered only limited opportunities to women of color. Coleman worked as a manicurist, but airmen returning from World War I sparked her determination to fly, even when she could find no one in the United States who would give her lessons.

In November 1920, Coleman headed to France. Seven months later, she became the first African American woman to earn an international pilot's license from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale. She returned to the United States and became an immediate sensation. "Brave Bessie" traveled the country in a barnstorming tour, wowing crowds and inspiring African American men and women alike. For the next five years, Coleman used her notoriety to encourage African Americans to take up flying, reminding them nothing was impossible. She even refused to perform at venues that didn't allow blacks. Who was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic? Amelia Earhart : June 17-18, 1928 - First woman to fly across the Atlantic (as a passenger); May 20-21, 1932 - First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Who was the first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound? 1953 - Jacqueline (Jackie) Cochran became first woman to break the sound barrier. Known by her friends as "Jackie," she flew her first major race in 1934.

In 1937, she was the only woman to compete in the Bendix race. That year, she also set a new woman's national speed record. By 1938, she was considered the best female pilot in the United States. During World War Two, she was helped to form the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs). After the war, Cochran joined the U.S. Air Force Reserve where she eventually rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. She began flying the new jet aircraft, going on to set numerous records. Encouraged by Chuck Yeager, with whom she shared a lifelong friendship, on May 18, 1953, at Rogers Dry Lake, California, Cochran flew a Canadair F-86 Sabre jet borrowed from the Royal Canadian Air Force at an average speed of 652.337 mph, becoming the first woman to break the sound barrier. Who was the first woman to fly around the world? 1964 - March 19 - Geraldine (Jerrie) Mock was the first woman to pilot a plane around the world.

© 1999- Amelia Earhart: First Woman to Fly Across the Atlantic Alone Amelia Earhart: First Woman to Fly Across the Atlantic Alone January 24, 2012 Amelia Earhart with her Lockheed Vega airplane Share Download this story as a PDF MARY TILLOTSON: This is Mary Tillotson. STEVE EMBER: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about Amelia Earhart. She was one of America’s first female pilots. (MUSIC) MARY TILLOTSON: Amelia Earhart was born in eighteen ninety-seven in the middle western state of Kansas. She was not a child of her times. Most American girls at the beginning of the twentieth century were taught to sit quietly and speak softly. They were not permitted to play ball or climb trees. Those activities were considered fun for boys. They were considered wrong for girls. Amelia and her younger sister Muriel were lucky. Their parents believed all children needed physical activity to grow healthy and strong. So Amelia and Muriel were very active girls. They rode horses. They played baseball and basketball. They went fishing with their father.

Other parents would not let their daughters play with Amelia and Muriel. STEVE EMBER: The Earharts lived in a number of places in America’s Middle West when the girls were growing up. The family was living in Chicago, Illinois when Amelia completed high school in nineteen sixteen. Amelia then prepared to enter a university. During a holiday, she visited her sister in Toronto, Canada. World War One had begun by then. And Amelia was shocked by the number of wounded soldiers sent home from the fighting in France. She decided she would be more useful as a nurse than as a student. So she joined the Red Cross. MARY TILLOTSON: Amelia Earhart first became interested in flying while living in Toronto. She talked with many pilots who were treated at the soldiers’ hospital. She also spent time watching planes at a nearby military airfield. Flying seemed exciting. But the machinery – the plane itself – was exciting, too. After World War One ended, Amelia spent a year recovering from the disease pneumonia. She read poetry and went on long walks. She learned to play the banjo. And she went to school to learn about engines. When she was healthy again, she entered Columbia University in New York City. She studied medicine.

After a year she went to California to visit her parents. During that trip, she took her first ride in an airplane. And when the plane landed, Amelia Earhart had a new goal in life. She would learn to fly. (MUSIC) STEVE EMBER: One of the world’s first female pilots, Neta Snook, taught Amelia to fly. It did not take long for Amelia to make her first flight by herself. She received her official pilot’s license in nineteen twenty. Then she wanted a plane of her own. She earned most of the money to buy it by working for a telephone company. Her first plane had two sets of wings, a bi-plane. On June seventeenth, nineteen twenty-eight, the plane left the eastern province of Newfoundland, Canada. The pilot and engine expert were men. The passenger was Amelia Earhart. The planed landed in Wales twenty hours and forty minutes later. For the first time, a woman had crossed the Atlantic Ocean by air. MARY TILLOTSON: Amelia did not feel very important, because she had not flown the plane. Yet the public did not care. People on both sides of the Atlantic were excited by the tall brave girl with short hair and gray eyes.

They organized parties and parades in her honor. Suddenly, she was famous. Amelia Earhart had become the first lady of the air. She wrote a book about the flight. She made speeches about flying. And she continued to fly by herself across the United States and back. STEVE EMBER: Flying was a new and exciting activity in the early nineteen twenties. Pilots tested and demonstrated their skills in air shows. Amelia soon began taking part in these shows. She crashed one time in a field of cabbage plants. The accident did not stop her from flying. But she said it did decrease her desire to eat cabbages. Flying was fun, but costly. Amelia could not continue. She sold her bi-plane, bought a car and left California. She moved across the country to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. She taught English to immigrants and then became a social worker. MARY TILLOTSON: In the last years of the nineteen twenties, hundreds of record flights were made. A few were made by women. But no woman had flown across the Atlantic Ocean. A wealthy American woman, Amy Guest, bought a plane to do this. However, her family opposed the idea. So she looked for another woman to take her place.

Friends proposed Amelia Earhart. STEVE EMBER: American publisher George Putnam had helped organize the Atlantic Ocean flight that made Amelia famous. Afterwards, he continued to support her flying activities. In nineteen thirty-one, George and Amelia were married. He helped provide financial support for her record flights. On May twentieth, nineteen thirty-two, Amelia took off from Newfoundland. She headed east in a small red and gold plane. Amelia had problems with ice on the wings, fog from the ocean and instruments that failed. At one point, her plane dropped suddenly nine hundred meters. She regained control. And after fifteen hours she landed in Ireland. She had become the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean alone. (MUSIC) MARY TILLOTSON: In the next few years, Amelia Earhart set more records and received more honors. She was the first to fly from Hawaii to California, alone. She was the first to fly from Mexico City to New York City, without stopping. Amelia hoped her flights would prove that flying was safe for everyone. She hoped women would have jobs at every level of the industry when flying became a common form of transportation.

STEVE EMBER: In nineteen thirty-five, the president of Purdue University in Indiana asked Amelia to do some work there. He wanted her to be an adviser on aircraft design and navigation. He also wanted her to be a special adviser to female students. Purdue University provided Amelia with a new all-metal, two-engine plane. It had so many instruments she called it the “Flying Laboratory.” It was the best airplane in the world at that time. Amelia decided to use this plane to fly around the world. She wanted to go around the equator. It was a distance of forty-three thousand kilometers. No one had attempted to fly that way before. MARY TILLOTSON: Amelia’s trip was planned carefully. The goal was not to set a speed record. The goal was to gather information. Crew members would study the effects of height and temperature on themselves and the plane. They would gather small amounts of air from the upper atmosphere. And they would examine the condition of airfields throughout the world. Amelia knew the trip would be dangerous. A few days before she left, she gave a small American flag to her friend Jacqueline Cochran, another female pilot. Amelia had carried the flag on all her major flights.

Jacqueline did not want to take it until Amelia returned from her flight around the world. “No,” Amelia told her, “you had better take it now.” (MUSIC) STEVE EMBER: Amelia and three male crew members were to make the flight. However, a minor accident and weather conditions forced a change in plans. So on June first, nineteen thirty-seven, a silver Lockheed Electra plane left Miami, Florida. It carried pilot Amelia Earhart and just one male crew member, navigator Fred Noonan. Amelia Earhart in front of a map of her proposed trip around he world Amelia and Fred headed south toward the equator. They stopped in Puerto Rico, Surinam and Brazil. They crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Africa, where they stopped in Senegal, Chad, Sudan and Ethiopia. Then they continued on to India, Burma, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Australia. MARY TILLOTSON: When they reached New Guinea, they were about to begin the most difficult part of the trip. They would fly four thousand kilometers to tiny Howland Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Three hours after leaving New Guinea, Amelia sent back a radio message. She said she was on a direct path to Howland Island.

Later, Amelia’s radio signals were received by a United States Coast Guard ship near the island. The messages began to warn of trouble. Fuel was getting low. They could not find Howland Island. They could not see any land at all. STEVE EMBER: The radio signals got weaker and weaker. A message on the morning of July second was incomplete. Then there was silence. American Navy ships and planes searched the area for fifteen days. They found nothing. Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan were officially declared “lost at sea.” (MUSIC) MARY TILLOTSON: This Special English Program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. It was produced by Paul Thompson. This is Mary Tillotson. STEVE EMBER: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. Correction: This story incorrectly refers to Newfoundland as a Canadian province at a time when it was, in fact, still a self-governing dominion. It became a province in 1949.

Amelia Earhart - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com Google Earhart symbolizes the fascination that aviation held for Americans in the 1920s and 1930s. Like Charles Lindbergh, she became a national celebrity because of her exploits in the air. Her modest demeanor and short, tousled hair made her a perfect heroine for a media-conscious age. Earhart’s entire life had a certain restless quality. By 1928, she had found a calling of sorts as a social worker in Boston who flew in her spare time. When New York publisher George Palmer Putnam asked if she wanted to be the first woman to fly the Atlantic, she readily agreed. The June 1928 flight from Newfoundland to Burry Port, Wales, made her an instant celebrity, although she was quick to note that she had been merely a passenger, ‘a sack of potatoes,’ who kept the log. When she soloed the Atlantic in 1932, another first for women, she proved to the world and, more important, to herself that 1928 had not been a fluke. After the 1928 flight, Earhart turned her hobby of flying into a paying career.

As a lecturer, author, and airline industry vice president, she preached her message that flying would soon be an accepted part of everyday life. Many of her widely publicized flights-the 1932 transatlantic crossing, her 1935 solo from Hawaii to California , the 1937 round-the-world attempt-hastened the introduction of commercial air routes. Her career was managed by Putnam, whom she married in 1931 in what was as much a business relationship as a love match. Earhart kept her own name professionally and made no plans to have children. She continued to identify herself publicly with feminism and served as the first president of the Ninety-Nines, an organization of women pilots. Amelia Earhart had a poet’s appreciation of flight, and she flew because she wanted to, which to her individualistic mind-set was the best reason of all. She was delighted when Purdue University, where she had served as aviation consultant and counselor on careers for women since 1935, presented her with a Lockheed Electra so advanced she dubbed it ‘the flying laboratory.’ Now she could fulfill her ambition to fly around the world.

The first attempt in March 1937 ended prematurely when her plane crashed on takeoff in Hawaii. A second attempt began two months later, now following a west-to-east direction. On July 2, 1937, during the hardest leg, a 2,556-mile segment from New Guinea to a tiny speck in the mid-Pacific called Howland Island, Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared. The circumstances of Earhart’s ‘popping off’ (her matter-of-fact phrase) have been a source of speculation ever since. Was she on a spy mission for Franklin Roosevelt? Did she land on a desert island and become a Japanese prisoner? The weight of evidence suggests that her plane ran out of fuel somewhere near Howland Island and sank quickly. But given the aviator’s hold on the popular imagination, the search for Amelia Earhart continues. The Reader’s Companion to American History. Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, Editors. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Tags The Official Website of Amelia Earhart POSTERS Biography When 10-year-old Amelia Mary Earhart saw her first plane at a state fair, she was not impressed. "It was a thing of rusty wire and wood and looked not at all interesting," she dismissively said. It wasn't until she attended a stunt-flying exhibition, almost a decade later, that she became seriously interested in aviation. A pilot spotted Earhart and her friend, who were watching from an isolated clearing, and dove at them. "I am sure he said to himself, 'Watch me make them scamper,'" she exclaimed. Earhart, who felt a mixture of fear and pleasure, stood her ground. As the plane swooped by, something inside her awakened. "I did not understand it at the time," she admitted, "but I believe that little red airplane said something to me as it swished by." On December 28, 1920, pilot Frank Hawks gave her a ride that would forever change her life.

"By the time I had got two or three hundred feet off the ground, I knew I had to fly." Although Earhart's convictions were strong, challenging, prejudicial, and financial obstacles awaited her, but the former tomboy was no stranger to disapproval or doubt. Defying conventional feminine behavior, a young Earhart climbed trees, "belly slammed" her sled to start it downhill, and hunted rats with a .22 rifle. She also kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about successful women in predominantly male-oriented fields, including film direction and production, law, advertising, management, and mechanical engineering. After graduating from Hyde Park High School in 1915, Earhart attended Ogontz, a girl's finishing school in the suburbs of Philadelphia. She left in the middle of her second year to work as a nurse's aide in a military hospital in Canada during WWI, attended college, and later became a social worker at Denison House, a settlement house in Boston. Earhart took her first flying lesson on January 3, 1921 and, in six months, managed to save enough money to buy her first plane.

The second-hand Kinner Airster was a two-seater biplane painted bright yellow—Earhart named her newest obsession "The Canary" and used it to set her first women's record by rising to an altitude of 14,000 feet. One afternoon in April 1928, a phone call came for Earhart at work. "I'm too busy to answer just now," she said. After hearing that it was important, Earhart relented, though she thought it was a prank. It wasn't until the caller supplied excellent references that she realized the man was serious. "How would you like to be the first woman to fly the Atlantic?" he asked, to which Earhart promptly replied, "Yes!" After an interview in New York with the project coordinators, including book publisher and publicist George P. Putnam, she was asked to join pilot Wilmer "Bill" Stultz and co-pilot/mechanic Louis E. "Slim" Gordon. The team left Trepassey Harbor, Newfoundland, in a Fokker F7 named Friendship (on June 17, 1928), and arrived at Burry Port, Wales approximately 21 hours later.

Their landmark flight made headlines worldwide because three pilots had died within the year trying to be that first women to fly across the Atlantic. When the crew returned to the United States, they were greeted with a ticker-tape parade in New York and a reception held by President Calvin Coolidge at the White House. From then on, Earhart's life revolved around flying—to start, she placed third at the Cleveland Women's Air Derby, later nicknamed the "Powder Puff Derby" by Will Rogers. As fate would have it, George Putnam entered her life, too. The two developed a friendship during preparation for the Atlantic crossing and were married February 7th, 1931. Intent on retaining her independence, she referred to the marriage as a "partnership" with "dual control." Together, they worked on secret plans for Earhart to become the first woman and the second person to fly solo the Atlantic. On May 20th, 1932, five years to the day after Lindbergh, she took off from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, to Paris. Strong north winds, icy conditions, and mechanical problems plagued the flight and forced her to land in a pasture near Londonderry, Ireland.

"After scaring most of the cows in the neighborhood," she said, "I pulled up in a farmer's back yard." As word of her flight spread, the media surrounded her, both overseas and in the United States. President Herbert Hoover presented Earhart with a gold medal from the National Geographic Society. Congress awarded her the Distinguished Flying Cross-the first ever given to a woman. At the ceremony, Vice President Charles Curtis praised her courage, saying she displayed "heroic courage and skill as a navigator at the risk of her life." Earhart felt the flight proved that men and women were equal in "jobs requiring intelligence, coordination, speed, coolness, and willpower." Amelia Earhart Flies Atlantic, First Woman To Do It; Tells Her Own Story of Perilous 21-Hour Trip to Wales; Radio Quit and They Flew Blind Over Invisible Ocean Read the full text of The Times article or other headlines from the day.

Amelia Earhart Flies Atlantic, First Woman To Do It; Tells Her Own Story of Perilous 21-Hour Trip to Wales; Radio Quit and They Flew Blind Over Invisible Ocean Eager Crowds Imperil Miss Earhart As They Welcome Fliers at Burry Port Police Aid Weary Trio to Battle Way to Refuge in Zinc Works--Friends Fly From Southampton to Greet Them and Hear Story of Their Adventures By ALLEN RAYMOND Special Cable to The New York Times RELATED HEADLINES Fought Rain, Fog and Snow All the Way: Miss Earhart Says Motors Spat and Gas Ran Low, But She Had Neither Fear Nor Doubt of Success: Passed Over Ireland Without Even Seeing It: Wind Aided Plane--Girl Credits Feat to Stultz and Gordon--She Flew Because It Would Have Been 'Too Inartistic to Refuse' OTHER HEADLINES Ritchie Withdraws in Favor of Smith, Urging Party Unity: New Yorker's Nomination Will Assure Democratic Victory, He Asserts: Directs Appeal to South: Smith as President Would Restore Popular Government, Maryland Executive Says: Turns Over His Delegates: Sees Struggle of 1924 Avoided at Houston--Reed Still in Race

, Backer Declares Nobile Vainly Hails Fliers Circling Over But Not Seeing Him: General Radios Base Ship That Rescue Planes Were Over Stranded Men an Hour: Second Flight Also Fails: This Time Italia Castaways Sight One of Planes Piloted by Riiser-Larsen and Holm: Savoia Reaches Kings Bay: Big Italian Seaplane Ready for Dash North--French and Swedish Craft on Way President of Porto Rican Senate Stabbed and Badly Hurt by a Maniac Anarchist Smith Supporters See a Quick Victory: Hope Ritchie's Withdrawal in Favor of Governor Will Be Followed by Others: Aides Start for Houston: Van Namee, Sure of Success, Says "Steam-Roller" Methods Will Not Be Used 12 Injured by Bomb 'Planted' in Detroit: County Building Shaken, Windows Shattered and Hundreds Panic-Stricken: 'Purple' Gang Suspected: Darrow Attending Court Case Is Jarred--Jokes With Judge About Blast Keel Laid for Biggest Ship, 1,000 Feet Long; 60,000-Ton 'Oceanic' to Cost $30,000,000 Burry

 Port, Carmarthenshire, South Wales, June 18.--The first woman to cross the Atlantic successfully by air, Miss Amelia Earhart, Boston settlement worker, alighted in the seaplane Friendship here this morning on the broad expanse of Loughor estuary, after a flight of 20 hours and 40 minutes elapsed time from Trepassey.

Few persons saw the gilt-winged Fokker monoplane descend on the Welsh coast, but this evening, when friends rushing from Southampton brought Miss Earhart ashore, she was the recipient of so enthusiastic a reception by the 2,000 inhabitants of this town that it seemed for a few minutes as if she would not outlive her triumph. Eager Crowds Imperil Aviatrix The arrival of the Friendship was the greatest event this remote district has had since the end of the World War when the town's boys came home. Miss Earhart was nearly crushed by the anxiety of the crowd of men, women and children to touch the hem of her flying suit, get her autograph on a slip of paper, wring her hand and congratulate her upon her triumphant passage over the Atlantic. The High Sheriff of Carmarthenshire, who had rowed out to greet her; the town's three policemen and a couple of friends had to form a ring with locked arms about the latest popular heroine and literally to fight their way a hundred yards from the shore to the office of the local zinc works, where they found shelter back of locked doors.

"You must remember," the local Police Chief said apologetically, "that our people never saw anything to compare with this. I advise you to remain here until we get extra police." The Friendship's crew were marooned within the walls of the Frickers Metal Company an hour and a half before police reinforcements arrived and cleared a way to the two motor cars to take them to a distant hotel where rest, food and sleep could be obtained after their arduous journey. Poor Visibility Forced Landing Poor visibility forced the plane to come down on the Welsh coast after the first tentative objective--Valentia, Ireland--had been left far behind, but the possible goal of Southampton not yet reached. Except for the first hour over the Atlantic after leaving the rugged shores of Newfoundland, the fliers never saw sea or land until they had winged their way to the Eastern Irish coast. They flew through fog, rain and snow most of the time, fighting for altitude and clearer weather, but they came fast with the wind behind of twenty to thirty miles per hour speeding them on.

They probably had plenty of gasoline left, when they descended, to reach Southampton-- seventy-five gallons--but were struggling in the midst of dense fog and knew they were somewhere off the southern coast of Britain. With their object attained--that of making Miss Earhart the first woman to complete a transatlantic crossing--they decided to take no further risks. They will go on to Southampton tomorrow. Stultz and Gordon Elated The full story of the flight has yet to be told. The two airmen, Stultz and Gordon, who had the major responsibility and labor of getting the Friendship safely across the ocean, were soon fast asleep after battling their way to the hotel. Both ejaculated their joy at their success and chuckled together over the moments in mid-ocean when they seemed dubious of the outcome. Miss Earhart, who came through her experience in fine condition and spirits, struggled against weariness to narrate her experience before she, too, sought sleep. The adventurers, after five false starts in the Harbor of Trepassey, succeeded in lifting the plane only after dropping fifty gallons of gasoline and cutting down the supply to 700 gallons as against 1,000 they had meant originally to carry.

Even with the lightened load they barely lifted the plane skyward with two motors cut out because dashed with spray, but soon they were lifting its weight gradually along the Newfoundland coast till Stultz felt sure the engines were running smoothly. Weather Good Only at Start They headed for the open sea in excellent weather only to run into continuous fog after an hour's flight. As gasoline was used, lightening the plane, they were enabled to soar 5,000 to 11,000 feet; where most of the way above the clouds they traveled amid a sea of blazing stars, heading, it seemed, into a series of rainbow rings. They received bearings twice from a ship before the radio was out of commission, and encountered bad weather until over Queenstown, Ireland. There they saw ships and tried to drop notes to find their exact location, but failed to obtain an answer. Stultz turned correctly southward, however, and headed toward Southampton. Meanwhile, headed by the Hon. Mrs. Frederick E.

Guest, backer of the flight, with her husband, Captain Guest, a member of Parliament and international polo player, and Raymond Guest, former captain of the Yale polo team, there was a large gathering at Southampton awaiting the fliers' arrival. A plane bearing Captain Guest cruised intermittently from noon till 3 P.M. on the lookout. A fast motor launch owned by Hubert Scott Pain, Director of the Imperial Airways, and a noted British sportsman, scudded at a 40-mile an hour gait over the lower harbor awaiting to escort the crew of the Friendship to land. After hours of anxiety, during which the plane was believed overdue, the watcher at Southampton received the welcome word at 2:45 P.M. that the Friendship was down on the Welsh coast. Race to Coast by Plane and Auto A race to reach her by plane and high-powered automobile began instantly. A seaplane carrying Captain H.H. Railey, European director of the flight, and The New York Times correspondent, was the first to drop alongside the ocean fliers in Loughor estuary after a three-hour jaunt cutting across Southern England.

There were still traces of fog which cut the ocean journey short, but flying low the occupants of the seaplane descried the gilt wings of the Friendship bobbing at a buoy offshore here. A final run by motor boat brought the fliers in sight. As Miss Earhart looked from the open doorway of the fuselage and recognized one of her visitors as Captain Railey, he, ending a two weeks' vigil to welcome her, cast his hat skyward with a shout of jubilation and let it float off down the tide. There was an exultant reunion. After a consultation it was decided by Stultz to taxi the plane into the shelter of the Burry Port quays and there the hospitable attack of the Welsh throng began. Before it was ended Miss Earhart had appeared thrice, in the manner of royalty, at a window of the zinc factory to acknowledge the cheers of the dense crowd below; had been served with tea by the wife of the factory foreman and finally battled and tricked her way to a roadside inn near the village as darkness was nearing and the clock struck 9. She had been thirty hours en route to her first comfortable resting place.

"Tired and hungry, but cheerful," she commented, lounging in her wooly coat and breeches and stout leather boots. "And we got here all right. There wasn't any race with Miss Boll, but, of course, I'm glad to be the first woman across." Stultz Tells of Difficulties Captain Wilmer Stultz was the first to come ashore after the Friendship had alighted at Burry Port. He declared he was dead tired and explained that he had only enough gasoline left to enable the Friendship to taxi another ten miles. "No one was more thankful than I was," he admitted, "to see the Welsh coast. We had a very bad trip right through and most of the way I was flying blind. I was at the joystick throughout the whole trip and had considerable difficulty in keeping on my course because of the fog and rain. After realizing that we were getting short of gasoline I resolved to come down as soon as a favorable opportunity offered. "Then I saw the estuary, which I now know to be Burry Port, and after circling to make sure everything was clear I landed on the strip of water and fastened up to a buoy. "We are all well, but very, very tired.

Miss Earhart is resting on the seaplane, but I came ashore to see about gasoline. At the moment I have not enough to allow us to rise again. "The trip? Well, I don't want to discuss it at the moment. It wasn't a pleasant experience, although everything went perfectly. I had to steer solely by the instruments, and luckily none of them went wrong. We flew at a fair height, but flew blind. When we approached the Welsh coast I had to come down to the ground to see where we were." "Tremendous Triumph," Says the Hon. Mrs. Guest Captain Guest, who was formerly Minister of Air, and the Hon. Mrs. Guest, who partially financed the Friendship's flight and originally intended to participate in it, were at Southampton when the news arrived that the plane was down at Burry Point. "I regard the flight as a tremendous triumph." Mrs. Guest said, "and ---- Timeline . Amelia Earhart . American Experience . WGBH | PBS Other Timelines July 24, 1897: A 20th Century Childhood Amelia Mary Earhart is born in Atchison, Kansas, to parents Amy Otis and Edwin Stanton Earhart.

Her sister, Muriel, is born two years later. Amelia lives primarily with her maternal grandparents in Atchison during the school year and spends summers with her parents in Kansas City. Despite her grandmother?s disapproval, Amelia spends her free time roaming the outdoors — riding imaginary horses, climbing trees, sledding, and hunting. 1908 Amelia rejoins her parents in Des Moines, Iowa. She sees an airplane for the first time at the Iowa State Fair and later recalls being unimpressed — “It was a thing of rusty wire and wood and looked not at all interesting.” It was not until a decade later, at a stunt-flying exhibition, that Amelia's passion for flight is awakened. 1910-1915 These are turbulent, difficult years for Amelia and her family. Amelia's grandmother, who raised her, dies in 1911. Her father struggles with alcoholism, losing his job and checking into a sanatorium for a month to rehabilitate himself. The family moves to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1913. When Edwin is again unable to recover and find a job, Amy leaves him and moves with Amelia and Muriel to Chicago.

June 1916: Amelia's Education Amelia graduates from Hyde Park High School in Chicago. She excels in science, only enrolling at Hyde Park after determining that it had the best science program in the area. However, she has trouble making friends — her yearbook caption reads, “A.E. — the girl in brown who walks alone.” Fall 1916-1918 Amelia attends the Ogontz School, an exclusive finishing school outside of Philadelphia. She again excels in her studies and becomes Vice President of her class. She does not graduate, however, choosing instead to volunteer at Toronto's Spadina Military Hospital as a nurse for wounded World War I soldiers. While in Toronto, she attends a flying exposition with a friend. A stunt pilot dives at Amelia and her friend — “I am sure he said to himself, “watch me make them scamper,"“ Amelia later recalled — but Amelia stands her ground.

She points to this incident as a personal awakening — “I did not understand it at the time, but I believe that little red airplane said something to me as it swished by.” Fall 1919-1920 Amelia enters the pre-med program at Columbia University but after a year decides to leave to join her parents, who have reunited in Los Angeles. December 28, 1920: Hooked on Flying Amelia attends an air show on Long Beach with her father. With pilot Frank Hawk, she takes her first ride in an airplane. “By the time I had got two or three hundred feet off the ground, I knew I had to fly,” she later recalled. Library of Congress Amelia Earhart as a young aviatrix in the 1920s. January 3, 1921 Amelia has her first flying lesson with pilot Neta Snook. She works a variety of jobs — truck driver, photographer, stenographer — to save money for these lessons, and six months later is able to purchase her first airplane, a yellow Kinner Airster biplane she names the Canary .

December 15, 1921 Amelia passes her flying license tests given by the National Aeronautic Association. She flies in the Pacific Coast Ladies' Derby in Pasadena two days later. October 22, 1922 Amelia sets an unofficial altitude record for female pilots after flying the Canary to 14,000 feet. May 16, 1923 Amelia is issued an international pilot's license by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI ), becoming the 16th woman ever to achieve this. 1924: Hiatus from Aviation Amelia's parents divorce, and Amelia drives with her mother from California to Massachusetts where they move in with sister Muriel. Amelia goes to New York briefly to reenroll at Columbia, but she soon moves back to Boston where she works first as a teacher and then as a social worker at Denison House, teaching English to Syrian and Chinese immigrants. 1927 Amelia joins the Boston chapter of the National Aeronautic Association, and is occasionally featured in newspapers as an advocate for aviation and female pilots. Library of Congress Amelia Earhart, c.

1928 June 17-18, 1928: Overnight Stardom Amelia Earhart, pilot Wilmer Stultz, and co-pilot and mechanic Louis Gordon depart from Newfoundland in the Friendship , a tri-motor seaplane. They arrive in Wales over 20 hours later and are greeted by cheering crowds. Amelia does not think she deserves any acclaim for being the first woman passenger on a trans-Atlantic flight — “Stultz did all the flying — had to. I was just baggage, like a sack of potatoes.” She adds, “Maybe someday I'll try it alone.” Summer 1928 Amelia's book about the Friendship flight, 20 Hrs. 40 Min. , is published. Amelia teams up with publicist George Putnam to write it, and he quickly promotes her to celebrity status. Amelia goes on a national book tour, endorses products like Lucky Strike cigarettes and Modernaire Earhart Luggage, and becomes known as “Lady Lindy” because of her resemblance to Charles Lindbergh. She also becomes Aviation Editor for Cosmopolitan magazine. August 1929: Taking the Initiative Amelia buys another airplane, a single engine Lockheed Vega.

In the Vega, she participates in the Women's Air Derby race from Santa Monica to Cleveland, coming in third place. November 2, 1929 Amelia helps found The Ninety-Nines, Inc., the first organization for women aviators. She will become its first president in 1931 and holds that position for two years, during which time she also uses her celebrity status to promote the growth of American commercial airlines. July 5, 1930 Amelia sets the women's world flying speed record of 181.18 miles per hour. Between 1930 and 1935, Amelia will set seven women's speed and distance records. February 7, 1931 Amelia Earhart marries George Palmer Putnam. Wary of the institution of marriage, Amelia refused George's proposals six times before she agrees. She will emphasize that her marriage is a “partnership” with “dual control.” 1932 Amelia with New York City mayor James Walker May 20-21, 1932: The Record Setter Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

She departs from Newfoundland and lands in a pasture in Northern Ireland. This act earns her 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 Hoover, becoming the first woman to ever receive this prestigious award. The site of her landing in Ireland now has a small museum, the Amelia Earhart Centre. August 24-25, 1932 Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the North American continent and back. 1933 Amelia visits the White House. From this visit she develops a friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt . Amelia flies across North America for the second time, breaking her own record with a faster flight time. 1934 Amelia receives the Harmon Trophy for America's Outstanding Airwoman for the third year in a row. January 11, 1935 Amelia is the first person to fly solo from Honolulu, Hawaii to Oakland, California. This year she will also fly solo from Los Angeles to Mexico City (April 19-20) and later from Mexico City to New York (May 8).

In between flights she works as a career counselor to women at Purdue University. July 1936: The Round-the-World Flight Purdue University finances a new plane for Amelia, a Lockhead Electra 10E which she calls the “Flying Laboratory,” though the plane was purchase less for scientific research and more for Amelia's new dream: a “prize - one flight which I most wanted to attempt - a circumnavigation of the globe as near its waistline as could be.” Amelia and her husband George Putnam plan for her world flight, raising money and consulting with advisers, mechanics, and navigators. March 17, 1937 Amelia and her navigator, Fred Noonan, along with Captain Harry Manning and stunt pilot Paul Mantz, fly the first leg of the trip from Oakland, California to Honolulu, Hawaii in 15 hours and 47 minutes. When they try to continue from Honolulu three days later, the plane ground-loops during take-off and they have to call off the flight. June 1, 1937 Amelia departs on a second attempt, this time departing from Miami, Florida with the plan of traveling from west to east.

Fred Noonan is her only crew member on this second flight. They complete nearly 22,000 miles of the flight, stopping in South America, Africa, India, and Lae, New Guinea. Courtesy of Seaver Center for Western History Research Amelia Earhart July 2, 1937 Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan depart from Lae. Their destination is Howland Island, a tiny island in the Pacific only 13,200 feet long and 2,650 feet wide. Amelia and Noonan cannot find the island, however, and they lose radio contact with the Coast Guard cutter Itasca , who can hear that they are lost but cannot return communication. They disappear over the Pacific Ocean. President Roosevelt issues a massive search for Amelia and Noonan, and George Putnam finances his own search until October 1937, but their efforts are unsuccessful. January 5, 1939

Question: Who was the first woman to fly the Atlantic?
Answer: Amelia Earhart