Amelia
Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897 in Atchison Kansas. Earhart was the
first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantin ic Ocean. The first time that Amelia saw a plane was at state fair when she was ten years old. She was not impressed at all. "It was a thing of rusty wire and wood and looked not at all interesting," she said. It wasn't until she attended a stunt-flying
exhibition, almost a decade later, that she became very interested in the stunts. While her and a friend were at the exhibition, a pilot spotted them, who were watching from the ground, and dove at them. "I am sure he said to himself," "Watch me make them scamper," she said. As the plane swooped by, something inside her awakened. "I did not understand it at the time," she said, "but I believe that little red airplane said something to me as it swished by." On December 28, 1920, pilot
Frank Hawks gave her a ride in a plane that changed her life. "By the time I had got two or three hundred feet off the ground," she said, "I knew I had to fly."
After graduating from Hyde Park High School in 1915, Earhart attended Ogontz, a girl's finishing school in Philadelphia. She left in the middle of her second year to work as a nurse's aide in a military hospital in Canada. After she attended college she later became a social worker at Denison House, a settlement house in Boston. Earhart took her first flying lesson on January 3, 1921, and in six months managed to save enough money to buy her first plane. The second-hand Kinner Airster was a two-seater biplane painted bright yellow. Earhart named the plane "Canary," and used it to set her first women's record by rising to an altitude of 14,000 feet.
One afternoon in April 1928, a phone call came for Earhart at work. "I'm too busy to answer just now," she said. After hearing that it was important, Earhart answered. At first she thought it was a prank. It wasn't until the caller had excellent details that she realized the man was serious. "How would you like to be the first woman to fly the Atlantic?" he asked, to which Earhart promptly replied, "Yes!" After an interview in New York with the project coordinators, including book publisher and publicist George P. Putnam, she was asked to join pilot Wilmer "Bill" Stultz and co-pilot Louis E. Gordon. The team left Trepassey harbor, Newfoundland, in a Fokker F7 named "Friendship" on June 17, 1928, and arrived at Burry Port, Wales, about 21 hours later. Their landmark flight made headlines worldwide, because three women had died within the year trying to be that first woman. When the crew returned to the United States they were greeted with a ticker-tape parade in New York and a reception held by President Calvin Coolidge at the White House.
At 10am, on July 2, the she took off. Not caring about weather reports and conditions, she flew into cloudy skies and rain showers. This made her method of tracking and navigation, difficult. As dawn came, Earhart called the ITASCA, reporting "cloudy, weather cloudy." A little later, Earhart asked the ITASCA to take bearings on her. The ITASCA sent her a steady stream of transmissions but she could not hear them. Her radio transmissions were good through most of the flight, ther were interrupted with static at this point. At 7:42 A.M. the Itasca picked up the message, "We must be on you, but we cannot see you. Fuel is running low. Been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000 feet." The ship tried to reply, but the plane seemed not to hear. At 8:45 Earhart reported, "We are running north and south." Nothing further was heard from Earhart.
A rescue attempt began immediately and became the longest air and sea search in history this far. On July 19, after spending $4 million and scouring 250,000 square miles of ocean, the United States government called off the search. In 1938, a lighthouse was constructed on Howland Island in her memory. Across the United States there are streets, schools, and airports named after her. Her birthplace, Atchison, Kansas, has been turned into a virtual shrine to her memory. Amelia Earhart awards and scholarships are given out every year.
Today, though there are many theories, there is no proof of her fate. In a letter to her husband, written in case a dangerous flight would be her last, this brave spirit was evident. "Please know I am quite aware of the hazards," she said. "I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others."
first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantin ic Ocean. The first time that Amelia saw a plane was at state fair when she was ten years old. She was not impressed at all. "It was a thing of rusty wire and wood and looked not at all interesting," she said. It wasn't until she attended a stunt-flying
exhibition, almost a decade later, that she became very interested in the stunts. While her and a friend were at the exhibition, a pilot spotted them, who were watching from the ground, and dove at them. "I am sure he said to himself," "Watch me make them scamper," she said. As the plane swooped by, something inside her awakened. "I did not understand it at the time," she said, "but I believe that little red airplane said something to me as it swished by." On December 28, 1920, pilot
Frank Hawks gave her a ride in a plane that changed her life. "By the time I had got two or three hundred feet off the ground," she said, "I knew I had to fly."
After graduating from Hyde Park High School in 1915, Earhart attended Ogontz, a girl's finishing school in Philadelphia. She left in the middle of her second year to work as a nurse's aide in a military hospital in Canada. After she attended college she later became a social worker at Denison House, a settlement house in Boston. Earhart took her first flying lesson on January 3, 1921, and in six months managed to save enough money to buy her first plane. The second-hand Kinner Airster was a two-seater biplane painted bright yellow. Earhart named the plane "Canary," and used it to set her first women's record by rising to an altitude of 14,000 feet.
One afternoon in April 1928, a phone call came for Earhart at work. "I'm too busy to answer just now," she said. After hearing that it was important, Earhart answered. At first she thought it was a prank. It wasn't until the caller had excellent details that she realized the man was serious. "How would you like to be the first woman to fly the Atlantic?" he asked, to which Earhart promptly replied, "Yes!" After an interview in New York with the project coordinators, including book publisher and publicist George P. Putnam, she was asked to join pilot Wilmer "Bill" Stultz and co-pilot Louis E. Gordon. The team left Trepassey harbor, Newfoundland, in a Fokker F7 named "Friendship" on June 17, 1928, and arrived at Burry Port, Wales, about 21 hours later. Their landmark flight made headlines worldwide, because three women had died within the year trying to be that first woman. When the crew returned to the United States they were greeted with a ticker-tape parade in New York and a reception held by President Calvin Coolidge at the White House.
At 10am, on July 2, the she took off. Not caring about weather reports and conditions, she flew into cloudy skies and rain showers. This made her method of tracking and navigation, difficult. As dawn came, Earhart called the ITASCA, reporting "cloudy, weather cloudy." A little later, Earhart asked the ITASCA to take bearings on her. The ITASCA sent her a steady stream of transmissions but she could not hear them. Her radio transmissions were good through most of the flight, ther were interrupted with static at this point. At 7:42 A.M. the Itasca picked up the message, "We must be on you, but we cannot see you. Fuel is running low. Been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000 feet." The ship tried to reply, but the plane seemed not to hear. At 8:45 Earhart reported, "We are running north and south." Nothing further was heard from Earhart.
A rescue attempt began immediately and became the longest air and sea search in history this far. On July 19, after spending $4 million and scouring 250,000 square miles of ocean, the United States government called off the search. In 1938, a lighthouse was constructed on Howland Island in her memory. Across the United States there are streets, schools, and airports named after her. Her birthplace, Atchison, Kansas, has been turned into a virtual shrine to her memory. Amelia Earhart awards and scholarships are given out every year.
Today, though there are many theories, there is no proof of her fate. In a letter to her husband, written in case a dangerous flight would be her last, this brave spirit was evident. "Please know I am quite aware of the hazards," she said. "I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others."