Opportunity

Los Angeles, California, 1920 AirMeet: (a gathering of people who are interested in airplanes). The ‘Airplane’ had only been successfully invented in1903. Flying mania was sweeping across the World. The crowds were thrilled at the stunt-flyers swooping and diving close to the ground.

A girl, 22-year old Amelia Earhart, walked up to a pilot that was working on the engine of his plane. “I want to go up for a ride.” she said, boldly. 

So, Frank Hawks helped her up into the cockpit. Amelia was awed by the many gadgets on the dashboard. As that pilot took off slowly, she watched how he controlled those gadgets  to fly the plane. They bumped along the airstrip as they taxied for take-off. Then, she felt the plane leave the ground – rising and soaring. She was flying! She finally knew what she wanted to be – an Aviator!

But women didn’t pilot planes in 1920.

Curiosity

“Do you think a girl can learn to fly an airplane? she asked the pilot.

“Well, I  don’t see why not.” he answered.

Frank Hawkes, who was to go on to be called “The Speed Flying King” then introduced Amelia to ‘Neta Snook’. A pioneer of aviation, Neta took Amelia under her wing and taught ‘the girl’ how to fly.

Circumstances

Amelia was born in Atchison, Kansas in July of 1898. Her parents believed that ‘experience was education’. They were tolerant of Amelia’s curious, and action-loving inclinations, that, at the time, were considered ‘unladylike’ in a girl.  One Christmas, she and her sister, wrote a note to their Dad:

Dear Dad: Muriel and I would like footballs this year, please. We need them especially, as we have plenty of baseballs and bats, etc. . . . 

Growing Up

Her family called her ‘Meelie’. Her childhood was spent devising ‘worm races’, inventing a roller-coaster, designing chicken coops, fishing, and riding her grandpa’s old horses. Her sister, Muriel, who she called ‘Pidge’, was her ‘sidekick’, always there to join in the exciting games that Amelia created and supervised with determination.

But, when Amelia  went to High School, those innocent and charming antics of her childhood did not appeal to her peers. She felt ‘different’ and alone. The caption under her picture in the High School annual 1915, read, ‘The Girl in Brown Who Walks Alone’.

Mr. and Mrs. Earhart Reconsider the Situation

Mr. and Mrs. Earhart decided that ‘perhaps they had been a little too permissive with the girls in their youth’. They sent Muriell to Toronto to attend college. But, they sent Amelia to the fashionable Ogontz Finishing School near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The school’s curriculum of the ‘social graces of conventional behavior’ clashed with Amelia’s fierce independent nature. She was not happy there. 

Everything Changes

During the Christmas vacation of her senior year at Ogontz, Amelia and her mother went to Toronto to visit Muriel. It was 1918. World War I was being waged across the ocean. In Toronto, Amelia  was deeply moved by the injured soldiers she saw returning from war. She stayed in Toronto and worked as a Nurses Aid under the Canadian Red Cross. Her class at Ogontz Finishing School of the ‘social graces of conventional behavior’ graduated without her.

Later, she went on to study medicine at Columbia University in New York where her intelligence and distinctive personality were finally  appreciated. She thought she had discovered her life’s passion in the field of medicine.

While at Columbia, she went to see her parents who had moved to California. Her father took her to that AirMeet where she met Frank Hawkes and her real future was revealed to her. She spent the rest of her life devoted to the cause of promoting the endless possibilities of the Airplane. She encouraged women to realize that ‘a girl can learn to fly’.

Did You Know?

• Amelia made her first ‘solo’ flight in 1920 from Rogers Airport in California
• She worked ‘odd jobs’ to earn money to buy a second-hand airplane
• Her first plane was bright yellow, named The Canary
• Amelia married publisher George Palmer Putnam
• She helped establish a commercial airport
• She was the first woman to fly the Atlantic Ocean with pilot Wilbur Stultz
• Amelia wrote books, and was Aviation Editor for a top magazine
• She held corporate positions in airline companies
• She designed and produced aviation fashion wear
• Amelia was a ‘good-will’  ambassador for aviation and met many world leaders

Greatest Adventure

May 20-21, 1932, Aviation Pioneer, Amelia Earhart dared to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean. Her place in history was secured. In 13 hours and 30 minutes, she set a new Transatlantic Flight record.  Her achievement not only proved that ‘girls can fly’, but girls can fly faster!

Adventurers Are Fearless

Amelia always knew that aviation was more than just flying the plane. Her last vision for the field of ‘aeronautics’ was to study the effects of long flights on pilots. She would equip a plane as a laboratory and fly around the world. Such a huge undertaking required much planning.

When a reporter questioned her on the danger of the venture, she answered, 

“Don’t worry about me. I know the risks involved. I’m willing to take them. If I make it, I will have the satisfaction of knowing that I have added an important new chapter to aviation. If I go down –  well, it will have been worth it. I’ve had a wonderful life.”

The Last Adventure

March, 1937. With her trusted Navigator,  Fred Noonan, the intrepid (fearless) Amelia Earhart set out on a flight around the world. From point to point, along coastlines, across oceans and deserts, over mountains and through storms, they landed briefly at Lae, New Guinea, near Australia. Amelia’s last notes to her husband were dispatched from Lae.

From there they took off towards Howland Island, which was a half-way point to Hawaii.

With 22,000 miles behind them, they were happy to have only 7,000 miles left to go to complete their circumvention of the globe and report the experimental data of the flight.

At some point, near Howland Island, radio contact was broken and ground control could read no bearings of the plane’s location. The greatest search and rescue operation in history could find no trace of wreckage or people. The details of their disappearance have remained the subject of many investigations, but no definite findings have explained the mystery.

Thank you for reading about the Adventures of Amelia Earhart. We hope that you enjoyed the ‘read’ and are curious to read more about the life of this historic person. 

Visit your local library for books about Amelia Earhart and other Adventurers that dared to venture out into the unknown.

 Amelia Earhart and Her 1937 Plane

Airplane of Early Aviation – 1920’s