Amelia Earhart

Flights

On the morning of May 20, 1932, she took off from Saint John, New Brunswick with a copy of the local newspaper. She then stopped off in Harbour Grace, Newfoundland in her Lockheed Vega, intending to fly to Paris, duplicating Charles Lindbergh's solo flight. However, strong north winds, icy conditions and mechanical problems forced her to land in a pasture near Derry, Northern Ireland. She 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.

On January 11, 1935, Earhart became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean from Honolulu to Oakland, California. Later that year she soloed from Los Angeles to Mexico City and back to Newark, New Jersey. In July 1936 she took delivery of a Lockheed 10E "Electra," financed by Purdue University, she started planning her round-the-world flight.

Her flight would not be the first to circle the globe, but it would be the longest at 29,000 miles (47,000 km), following an equatorial route. Fred Noonan was chosen as the navigator. He had vast experience in both marine (he was a licensed ship's captain) and flight navigation. He had recently left Pan Am, where he helped establish the company's seaplane routes across the Pacific. He hoped the resulting publicity would help him establish his own navigation school in Florida.

On March 17, 1937 they flew the first leg, Oakland, California to Honolulu, Hawaii. The flight resumed three days later, but a tire blew on takeoff and Earhart ground-looped the plane. Severely damaged, the aircraft had to be shipped to California for repairs, and the flight was called off. The second attempt would begin at Miami, this time to fly from West to East. They departed on June 1, and after numerous stops in South America, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia, they arrived at Lae, New Guinea on June 29. About 22,000 miles (35,000 km) of the journey was completed. The remaining 7,000 miles (11,000 km) would all be over the Pacific.

On July 2, 1937, at midnight GMT, Earhart and Noonan took off from Lae. Their intended destination was Howland Island, a flat sliver of land 2000 meters long and 500 meters wide, 10 feet (3 m) high and 2556 miles (4113 km) away. Their last positive position report and sighting were over the Nukumanu Islands, about 800 miles (1,300 km) into the flight. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter USCGC Itasca was on station at Howland, assigned to communicate with Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10E and guide her to the island once she arrived in the vicinity.

Through a series of misunderstandings or errors (the details of which are still controversial), the final approach to Howland using radio navigation was never accomplished, although vocal transmissions by Earhart indicated she and Noonan believed they had reached Howland's charted position, which was incorrect by about five nautical miles (9 km) over scattered clouds. After several hours of frustrating attempts at two-way communications, contact was lost, although subsequent transmissions from the downed Electra may have been received by operators across the Pacific.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.