Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart

Amelia Mary Earhart was an American aviation pioneer and writer. She was born on July 24, 1897 and disappeared on July 2, 1937, and was declared dead on January 5, 1939. She was the first female pilot to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean. She also made several other records, such as being one of the first aviators to promote commercial air travel, being the second person overall to fly solo across the Atlantic, and the first person to fly solo from Mexico City to Newark, along with many others. Earhart wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences, and was of great importance in the formation of The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots. 

Amelia Earhart was born and raised in Atchison, Kansas, and later raised in Des Moines, Iowa. Earhart developed a passion for adventure at a young age, and started acquiring flying experience during her twenties. In 1928, Earhart became the first female passenger to cross the Atlantic by airplane, accompanying the pilot Wilmer Stultz, which earned her popularity and a high reputation. In 1932, piloting a Lockheed Vega 5B (a five-seven seat monoplane), Earhart made a nonstop solo transatlantic flight, becoming the first woman to complete such an achievement. In 1935, Earhart became a visiting faculty member at Purdue University as an advisor for aeronautical engineering and a career counselor to female students. She was also a member of the National Woman's Party (an American women's political organization formed in 1916 to fight for women's say) and an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment.

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Facts:

During World War I, Amelia became a nurse's aid in Toronto, Canada, to tend to wounded soldiers.

In 1923, Amelia became the sixteenth woman to receive a pilot’s license.

Earhart saw her first airplane when she was 10 years old at a fair, but didn’t fly one until she was 27 years old.

Her first airplane was a Kinner Airster coloured bright yellow, which she called Garry.

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During an attempt at becoming the first woman to complete a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937, Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean in a Purdue-funded Lockheed Model 10-E Electra near Howland Island. The duo were last seen in Lae, New Guinea, on July 2, 1937, on the last land stop before Howland Island and one of their final flights of the circumnavigation. They presumably died in the Pacific during the circumnavigation, just three weeks prior to her fortieth birthday. Nearly one year and six months after she and Noonan disappeared, Earhart was officially declared dead. Investigations and significant public interest in their disappearance still continue over 80 years later. In a letter to her husband, Amelia wrote, "Please know I am quite aware of the hazards." She said, "I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others."

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 now has several commemorative memorials named in her honor around the United States, including an urban park, an airport, a residence hall, a museum, a research foundation, a bridge, a cargo ship, an earth-fill dam, four schools, a hotel, a playhouse, a library, multiple roads, and more. She also has a minor planet, planetary corona, and newly-discovered lunar crater named after her. She is ranked ninth on Flying's list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation.