Finley Brians
Amelia Earhart was a pioneer to the USA, as she was to many women; she was the first female pilot to cross the Atlantic Ocean solo. She also set many new records including writing a number of books which promoted air travel and flying.
Early life
Amelia Earhart was born on the 24th of July 1897 in Atchison, Kansas. It was here where she gained a passion for adventuring as a child. Whilst rough play was a common thing for many young children, she was often described as a tomboy. Her first flight, well sort of, was when she sat in a wooden box going down the family house roof. She emerged with a bruised lip, a broken box and a torn dress - her first failure.
Pilot Beginnings
On the 28th of December 1920, Amelia and her father visited an airfield where pilot, Frank Hawks, gave her a ride, giving her a new outlook on life. She famously quoted “by the time I was 200 to 300 feet off the ground, I just knew I had to fly” - and she did just that. She had her first flight lesson the 3rd of January 1921 and for this, she used a US built Curtiss JN-4 Canuuk single propeller engined aircraft. Six months after this, she bought a US built Kinner Airster single propeller open cockpit aircraft. In this plane, she reached a record breaking 14,000 thousand feet on the 22nd October 1922.
Trans-atlantic flight
After pilot Charles Lindbergh achieved a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, Amelia knew she wanted to be the first ever woman to cross the vast ocean. She departed on the 17th June 1928 to take on the gruelling flight. The aircraft used for this flight would be a Fokker F VIIB/3m named "Friendship". She spent a lot of the time during the flight at a cruising altitude with near to max speed. After exactly 20 hours 40 minutes, she finished this flight landing in Pwll in Wales.
Around The World 1st Attempt
On March 17th 1937, Earhart set off for her first leg of her around the world attempt. This leg would take her from Oakland, California to Honolulu, Hawaii. Alongside Earhart and her co-pilot, Noonan, there were 2 technical advisors. Even with this, the aircraft needed servicing in Hawaii. Ultimately, the aircraft had to be sent off to the US Navy for skilled servicing. When the aircraft was returned to Earhart, they continued their journey. Although, during their takeoff, one of the tires of the aircraft blew up. Due to this, their journey never continued leading to the end of attempt one.
Around The World 2nd Attempt
On the second of July, Earhart set off from LAE. It was a perfectly routine flight until disaster struck. “Earhart on NW SEZ running out of gas, only half an hour left.” These were some of the last recorded words from Earhart. They were spoken not long before she unfortunately plummeted into the waters lying next to Howland Island. Her body was not found for 2 years after her crash.
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