Amelia Earhart

Amelia Mary Earhart was born on July 24, 1897, and disappeared on July 2, 1937. She was an American aviator who became one of the most celebrated aviation pioneer of early manned flight. She was declared dead on January 5, 1939.

In 1928, Earhart was the first female passenger to cross the Atlantic by airplane. In 1932, she became the first woman to make a nonstop solo transatlantic flight, and she was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for that achievement.

She was one of the first aviators to promote commercial air travel. She wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences and helped found the Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots.

On July 2, 1937, Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in a twin-engine Lockheed Model 10 Electra. They were attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. Since her disappearance, Earhart has become a global cultural figure, and numerous films, documentaries, and books have recounted her life.

Early life

Amelia Mary Earhart was born on July 24, 1897, in Atchison, Kansas, the daughter of Samuel "Edwin" Stanton Earhart (1867–1930) and Amelia "Amy" Earhart (née Otis; 1869–1962). She was born in the home of her maternal grandfather, Alfred Gideon Otis, a former judge and a leading resident of the town. She was of part-German descent. Her younger sister, Grace Muriel Earhart, was born in 1899. As children, the sisters explored their neighborhood, climbed trees, and collected worms, moths, katydids, and a tree toad. Some biographers describe Amelia as a tomboy. In 1907, her father's job with the Rock Island Railroad moved the family to Des Moines, Iowa. In 1908, at age 10, Amelia saw her first aircraft at the Iowa State Fair. She later said the plane was "not at all interesting." After living in several cities, she graduated from Hyde Park High School in Chicago in 1916. She then began junior college at Ogontz School in Rydal, Pennsylvania, but did not finish.

In late 1917, Amelia visited her sister in Toronto, Canada, where she saw wounded soldiers returning from World War I. She trained as a nurse's aide with the Red Cross and worked at Spadina Military Hospital. In 1918, she caught the 1918 Flu Pandemic and was hospitalized with pneumonia and maxillary sinusitis. Her long recovery was spent at her sister's home in Northampton, Massachusetts. Her sinus problems affected her for the rest of her life. In the early 1920s, she attended an air show at the Canadian National Exhibition, where she became interested in flying. In December 1920, she took a passenger flight with Frank Hawks, who later became known as an air racer. She then hired Neta Snook as her flying instructor and had her first lesson at Kinner Field, now in South Gate. Snook used a Curtiss JN-4 "Canuck" airplane. In 1922, Earhart set a world record for female pilots. In 1923, she became the 16th woman in the United States to receive a pilot's license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI). She also bought a Kinner Airster biplane, which she called "The Canary."

Money problems followed. After a failed investment in a gypsum mine, Earhart's inheritance from her grandmother ran out. She sold her planes and bought a car, a Kissel Gold Bug. In 1924, after her parents divorced, she drove her mother across the country to Banff, Alberta, Canada. Their trip ended in Boston, Massachusetts, where Earhart had another sinus operation. Her mother could no longer pay for her studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, so she gave up that plan. In 1925, she worked as a social worker at Denison House, a settlement house in Boston, and lived in Medford, Massachusetts. She flew from Dennison Airport in Quincy, and in 1927 she made the airport's first official flight. Her growing reputation as a flyer led her to plan an organization for female flyers.

Aviation career

In 1928, Earhart became the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by air, although she rode as a passenger. The flight was inspired by Charles Lindbergh's solo transatlantic flight in 1927. American heiress Amy Phipps Guest paid for the project and hired pilot Wilmer Stultz to fly the plane, which she bought from explorer Richard E. Byrd. Publicist George Palmer Putnam helped find the right woman for the flight, and Earhart was chosen. She wanted to take her turn at the controls, but she had little experience flying with instruments only. After several delays, the plane Friendship took off from East Boston and landed in the Burry Estuary in Wales. The crew then went to Burry Port Harbour and later travelled to Southampton. In the United States, Earhart and the crew were honored with a ticker-tape parade along the Canyon of Heroes in New York City on July 6, 1928. Earhart later wrote a book about the flight, 20 Hrs. 40 Min., and she became famous as the flight's public face, even though she always said the pilots deserved the credit.

Earhart's fame grew quickly. She worked as a lecturer and took part in promotions, and she helped promote air travel for women, including work with Transcontinental Air Transport. In 1929, she took part in the Women's Air Derby, a race from Santa Monica to Cleveland, and she later became the first president of the Ninety-Nines, an organization of female pilots. She married George Putnam in 1931. On May 20, 1932, Earhart became the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic. She landed in a pasture near Culmore, north of Derry, in Northern Ireland, and she received the Distinguished Flying Cross for her achievement. In 1935, she became the first aviator to fly solo from Honolulu to Oakland, California. That same year, she and her husband moved west, where Putnam took a job at Paramount Pictures.

World flight in 1937

In early 1936, Earhart began planning to fly around the world. Her route was about 29,000 miles (47,000 km) long, so it would be the longest such flight. Purdue University gave money for a plane, and Lockheed Aircraft Company built it in July 1936 at its plant in Burbank, California. Earhart chose Harry Manning as her navigator, and later Fred Noonan joined as a second navigator. Noonan was skilled at celestial navigation and had worked for Pan American World Airways. On March 17, 1937, the crew set out on a first attempt, but a crash at Luke Field damaged the plane. The plane was sent back to Lockheed in Burbank for repairs.

For a second attempt, Earhart flew from Miami, Florida, and then headed east across the world. Manning had left the crew, so only Earhart and Noonan remained. They reached Lae in New Guinea on June 29, 1937. On July 2, they took off from Lae Airfield toward Howland Island, a small island in the Pacific. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter USCGC Itasca (1929) was waiting to help them find the island, but radio contact was lost and the plane never arrived. The U.S. government later concluded that the plane ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean. The United States Navy and Coast Guard searched for weeks at a high cost, but no sign of Earhart, Noonan, or the plane was found. Earhart was later declared legally dead on January 5, 1939.

Speculation on disappearance

Main article: Speculation on the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan

Most historians believe that Earhart and Noonan crashed and sank in the Pacific Ocean. Other ideas have also been proposed, including several conspiracy theories. The Gardner Island hypothesis suggests the pair could not find Howland Island and kept flying south. Nikumaroro, one of the Phoenix Islands that was known at the time as Gardner Island, was studied as a possible crash site. However, despite many expeditions, no clear link between Earhart and the island has been found.

The Japanese capture theory says Japanese forces may have captured Earhart and Noonan after they reached the Imperial Japanese South Seas Mandate. Some of Earhart's relatives believe Japan was involved. The New Britain theory says Earhart may have tried to reach the airfield at Rabaul, on New Britain near Papua New Guinea. In 1990, a Australian Army veteran of the New Britain campaign said he had seen a wrecked plane in the jungle in 1945, but later searches found no wreckage. In 2006, the National Geographic Channel claimed Earhart survived, changed her name, and became Irene Craigmile Bolam. The publisher McGraw-Hill later withdrew the book that first made this claim. On September 26, 2025, President Donald Trump announced that government records about Earhart would be released.

Legacy

During her life, Earhart embraced celebrity culture and women's rights. After she disappeared, she became a global cultural role model. Many tributes and memorials have been made in her name, including a 2012 tribute by U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton, and in 2013 Flying magazine ranked her No. 9 on its list of the "51 Heroes of Aviation." Her shy charm, independence, courage, and goal-focused career gave her lasting fame in popular culture. Her story is often told as an inspiring one, especially for girls, and she is generally seen as a feminist role model. Her achievements inspired more than 1,000 female pilots of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), who served during World War II. Her birthplace is now the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum, maintained by the Ninety-Nines, an international group of female pilots that she was the first elected president of. The Amelia Earhart Festival has been held every year since 1996 in Atchison, Kansas.

Many flights have honored her. In 1967, Ann Pellegreno flew a similar aircraft around the world, and in 1997 Linda Finch retraced Earhart's final flight path in a restored Lockheed Electra. In 2001, another flight followed her 1928 route in an original Avro Avian. Ships and places have also been named for her, including the SS Amelia Earhart (launched in 1942) and USNS Amelia Earhart (named in 2007). Purdue University opened Earhart Hall in 1964 and placed a bronze statue of her there in 2009. The Amelia Earhart Airport in Atchison, Kansas, the Amelia Earhart Dam on the Mystic River in Massachusetts, and a day beacon on Howland Island carry her name. The Zonta organization established the Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship in 1938 to support women studying aerospace fields. Her honors also include induction into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1992, a bronze statue at the Spirit of Flight Center in Lafayette, Colorado in 2008, and her selection for 1935 on a 2019 set of Time magazine covers honoring women of the year.

In popular culture

Many writers have been inspired by Earhart's life, and the examples below are not a complete list. In the 2021 alternate history novella Or Even Eagle Flew by Harry Turtledove, Earhart does not go missing in 1937 and later joins the Eagle Squadrons of the British Royal Air Force. The British poet Jemma L. King won an award for her poem 'Amelia', about Earhart's final flight. The events of her disappearance are also dramatized in the 1996 novel I Was Amelia Earhart by Jane Mendelsohn. On screen, the film Flight for Freedom (1943), starring Rosalind Russell, was derived from a fictionalized treatment of Earhart's life. In the biopic Amelia (2009), Earhart is portrayed by Hilary Swank, and in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009), she is portrayed by Amy Adams. Earhart also appears in the science fiction television show Star Trek: Voyager, in the episode "The 37's" (1995), where Sharon Lawrence plays her.

Earhart has also inspired music and other works. The band Plainsong released the tribute album In Search of Amelia Earhart in 1972, and Joni Mitchell's song "Amelia" appears on her album Hejira (1976). In 2024, Public Service Broadcasting released the album The Last Flight, which tells the story of Earhart's final flight, and Laurie Anderson released the album "Amelia" in the same year. Lego produced a limited run of its Amelia Earhart Tribute 1932 Lockheed Vega 5B in 2021. Earhart was also one of several inspiring women featured in a line of Barbie dolls introduced on March 6, 2018. She has a minor planet, planetary corona, and lunar crater named after her.

Records and achievements

Amelia Earhart set many firsts in aviation. In 1928, she became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1932, she became the first woman to fly the Atlantic alone and the first woman to fly nonstop from coast to coast across the United States. She was also the first woman to fly an autogyro, in 1931, and the first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross, in 1932.

Earhart also reached firsts that were not limited to women. In 1932, she became the first person to fly the Atlantic twice. In 1937, she became the first person to fly solo from the Red Sea to Karachi. She also set several speed and altitude records during the 1920s and 1930s.

Books by Earhart

Earhart was a successful and widely promoted writer. She was the aviation editor for Cosmopolitan from 1928 to 1930, and she wrote magazine articles, newspaper columns, and essays. Her books include 20 Hrs. 40 Min. (1928), a journal of her time as the first woman passenger on a transatlantic flight, and The Fun of It (1932), a memoir of her flying experiences with an essay on women in aviation. Last Flight (1937) contains the journal entries she sent during her round-the-world flight attempt. These entries were published in newspapers in the weeks before she left New Guinea. After she disappeared over the Pacific, her husband GP Putnam compiled the journal into a book. Many historians think this book is only partly Earhart's own work.