Inspiration from Amelia Earhart
The First Female Aviator to Solo Across the Pacific Ocean
Amelia Earhart was one of the most inspirational women in history. A female pilot, aviation editor for Cosmo magazine, and truck driver, Earhart disappeared in 1937.
Ten year old Amelia Earhart described the first airplane she ever as as "…a thing of rusty wire and wood and not at all interesting." Earhart's opinion changed dramatically, and she later became one of the first few women pilots in the world. She was a true inspirational woman in history.
Amelia Earhart's solo flight
Amelia Earhart wasn't flying a rusty wire and wood thing when she soared solo across the Atlantic and became the first woman to fly non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean. Earhart wasn't flying it when she soloed across the Pacific from Hawaii to California, becoming the first person to accomplish that flight alone. Nor was Earhart in it when she set a new speed record and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
And Amelia Earhart certainly wasn't flying that rust wire and wood thing when she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean.
The disappearance of Amelia Earhart
In the largest naval search ever, the U.S. government spent four million dollars looking for Earhart and copilot Fred Noonan. They were flying towards Howland Island on the last leg of their flight around the world – her goal was to be the first woman to fly the equatorial route. Did Earhart and Noonan sink into the cold gray depths of the Pacific because they ran out of fuel? Maybe. Some say Amelia and Noonan were interned and executed by the Japanese because she was spying on them – as requested by Franklin Roosevelt's administration. Others say she was forced to broadcast as Tokyo Rose. Still others claim Amelia moved to New Jersey, changed her name, and remarried.
Before Amelia Earhart earned her pilot's license
Before Amelia earned her pilot's license she worked as a nurse's aid in Toronto, Canada in WW1. After the war she dropped out of the pre-med program at Columbia University to live with her parents, who were recently reunited, in California. A 10-minute flight at in a stunt-flying exhibition gave Amelia a taste of flying – and it became her passion. "…I believe that little red airplane said something to me as it swished by," she said.
To pay for her flight lessons, Earhart drove a truck, hauled gravel, worked at the telephone company. After she bought her first plane and in between flights, Earhart taught English to immigrant factory workers and became a social worker.
Amelia Earhart became the first woman transatlantic plane passenger in the Friendship aircraft after she was invited by George Putnam's group to keep the logbook for the flight from Newfoundland to Wales. This was when Earhart described herself as a "sack of potatoes" – because she didn't actually fly the plane or earn her sudden fame. Regardless, the event solidified her career as an aviator.
Amelia Earhart was more than a female aviator
Earhart lectured about flying and wrote many articles and essays for magazines, as well as two books: 20 Hrs., 40 Min. in 1928 and For the Fun of It in 1932. She was the aviation editor for Cosmo magazine and a career counselor for women students.
Though she was engaged to Boston lawyer Samuel Chapman, Earhart eventually married publisher George Putnam in 1931. She referred to it as a "partnership" with "dual control" – and stressed that she wouldn't hold him to a "medieval code of faithfulness." She stated that she wasn't bound to this code, either.
Amelia was a couple weeks shy of her 40th birthday when she disappeared. "When they fail, their failure must be a challenge to others," she said.
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