Amelia Earhart: An American Icon

Amelia Mary Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas on July 24, 1897. Her mother was Amy Otis Earhart, who was a homemaker, and her father, Edwin Stanton Earhart, was a lawyer. At a young age she enjoyed the life of a well-to-do family thanks to her grandfather, Alfred Otis.

Edwin Earhart having failed in his law practice was fortunate to get an executive position with the Rock Island Line Railroad in Des Moines, Iowa in 1905. He and his wife moved to Des Moines to set up house for their two daughters who stayed behind with them grandparents. It was not until 1908 that the two sisters, Amelia and Muriel, joined her parents in her new home in Iowa. It was in 1914 that her mother abandoned her husband due to his excessive consumption of alcohol. . She and her two daughters moved to Chicago to live with friends.

In 1917, at the age of 20, Amelia served as a nursing assistant in a military hospital during World War I until its end in November 1918. In 1919, she entered Columbia University as a pre-medical student. In 1920 she decided to finish her studies at Columbia and went to California to be with her parents who had reconciled her marriage. It was in California that Amelia discovered her love for flying. Her interest was piqued at a flyby at Daughtery Field in Long Beach. Her interest turned to love when the next day she had the opportunity to fly in an open-cockpit biplane, a short flight over Los Angeles. At that moment she knew that this was what she wanted, to fly airplanes.

Amelia received her flying lessons from Anita Snook, a pioneer aviator. By 1922 Amelia was participating in record-breaking events. For a short time she held the women’s attitude record of 14,000 feet. In 1925, after moving to Boston, Mass, she got a job as a social worker. She also joined the Boston Chapter of the National Aeronautical Association. The Boston Globe called her one of the best female pilots in the United States. On April 27, 1926 she received a call from Captain HH Raily who asked her: “Would you like to be the first woman to cross the Atlantic?” It is interesting to note that due to the fact that she Amelia had no experience in flying a multi-engine aircraft. The Fokker tri-engine aircraft called the Friendship was flown by Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon. Amelia received the title of flight commander. Although she was treated like a hero at the end of Friendship’s journey, she later said that she was just a passenger on the plane and that pilots Stultz and Gordon should be given credit for the flight.

It was May 20, 1932, when Amelia made her first solo voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, the longest non-stop distance a woman had flown solo. Then, on January 11, 1935, Ella Amelia was the first person to fly non-stop from Hawaii to California. Ten pilots had lost their lives trying to cross the Pacific Ocean before her. She landed in Oakland, California, successfully accomplishing what no man or woman could at the time.

Amelia’s last flight was an attempt to go around the world. She and her navigator, Fred Noonan, in an Electra plane departed from Miami, Florida. on June 1, 1937 heading to California via around the world. Her flight took them to many destinations on its journey from Puerto Rico to South America, to Karachi and other predetermined stops. It was on July 2 that something went wrong. Earhart’s last transmission reported that she was headed for Howland Island at an altitude of 12,000 feet. never heard from him again. The aircraft was estimated to have been abandoned in the ocean between 35 and 100 miles from Howland Island. there were 9 warships and 66 planes sent by President Roosevelt in search of the plane and its occupants. The search ended on July 18 without success in its rescue attempt.

There are many theories as to what happened to Earhart and Noonan that day. The truth is not yet known, neither their bodies nor the remains of the plane were found.

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