AMELIA EARHART
THE LONGEST LIST OF THE LONGEST STUFF AT THE LONGEST DOMAIN NAME AT LONG LAST
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Amelia Earhart
Everyone knows the
name Amelia Earhart and for good reason. Known as “Lady of the Air,”
she set many records in aviation. In 1928 she was the first woman to
fly across the Atlantic as a passenger. In 1932 she was the first
woman to take a solo flight across the Atlantic. It’s also
worthwhile to note that this solo flight was also only the second
ever taken. In 1935, she made history again by being the first
person to journey on a solo flight across the Pacific, with the
total travel being from Honolulu, Hawaii to Oakland, California. Not
only are these records impressive on their own but at a time when
there was almost complete male domination, it’s extremely
remarkable.
Born in Atchison, Kansas on July 24,
1897 as Amelia Mary Earhart, she was always facing financial
difficulties of some sort and filled many small jobs in her eternal
search to be able to fly. In order to save enough money to buy her
own plane, she was a teacher, a nursing assistant, a photographer, a
secretary, and a social worker. She even purchased a truck and spent
some time delivering gravel to raise extra funds.
She was known to her friends as AE and
she was a very strong and modern woman. She was continually fighting
for international peace, women’s rights, a more active role for
women in aviation, and the promotion of commercial aviation. Despite
her previous records, Amelia Earhart wanted more. She wanted to set
the record for being the first person to ever fly around the world
at its longest distance – around the equator. The travel distance
would be difficult with it being 29,000 miles. Excited about making
the record, she knew this would be her last record-breaking attempt.
She chose Frederick J. Noonan who was very experienced in the art of
navigation, to accompany her on the trip.
After travelling 22,000 miles of the
extremely long journey, she left Lae, New Guinea on July 2, 1937 in
her silver twin-engine Electra. It would take her eighteen hours to
travel the 2,556 miles across the ocean and to land on Howland
Island. It would be the most dangerous part of the trip and the U.S.
government had stationed supplies on the island to help her in her
quest. Along with the supplies, the government had also constructed
an airfield to ensure that she could land and take off again safely.
Howland Island is devoid of any people
who live there. It’s a very small island located in the North
Pacific and measures only one and a half miles long and half a mile
wide. Taking even further measures to ensure that she would arrive
safely, the United States Coast Guard had place a boat Itasca just
off the shore of the island to maintain radio contact with Earhart.
At about the time she was due to land
onto the island, Amelia radioed in to the Itasca to report that she
believed herself to be flying above the island but she could not see
it. She seemed a bit disoriented as to what her location was and she
needed help to manoeuvre herself and her plane onto safe land. She
spoke into the radio, “We are running north and south,” and it’s
believed that she was flying in a search pattern while trying to
locate the island. Those would be her last words. Before those
aboard the Itasca could locate her, she lost all contact on the
radio. Although radio contact continued to try and be made,
eventually all contact was lost.
Although some think it’s a mystery what happened to Amelia Earhart,
it’s most likely that her plane simply ran out of fuel before she
could locate the island and the plane, herself and Frederick J.
Noonan were lost at sea. It is interesting however that neither the
famous female aviator, her navigator, or the plane have ever been
found.
Amelia Earhart
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