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 |  melia Earhart was hooked on aviation at an early age. Though she had been thrilled by seeing aerial barnstormers as a child, she was not able to take her first airplane ride until she was 23 years old. It was from an open space on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. She described the pilot and the experience simply, “His name was Frank Hawks and he holds more records for fast flying than anyone else. As soon as we left the ground, I knew I myself had to fly.” One year later, in 1921 she was flying by herself.
Amelia was definitely the exception as she began her aviation career. But being exceptional was nothing new for Amelia Earhart. Even as a child she was different, breaking with convention of the time by playing basketball, and tennis and bicycling and, in her own words, “trying any and all strenuous games.” She loved being active, she loved travel and she loved life. Toward the end of W.W.I, she visited an army hospital in Toronto during Christmas vacation in her senior year of college. She was so moved by the suffering she saw that she suspended her education and stayed on as a volunteer nurse until the end of the war. Returning to Boston to finish college, she took a position at a settlement house and became a social worker and counselor. She remained as involved in aviation as she could, and even became President of the local chapter of the National Aeronautic Association. Then, at the settlement house, opportunity knocked once again.
It was there that Amelia received a telephone call from New York. It seems another woman, Amy Guest, was sponsoring a flight across the Atlantic. Though she was the sponsor of the flight, she was unable to go and was looking for another woman to take her place. She was looking for the “right sort of girl” - one with charm, intelligence and ability. The successful candidate would not only be in for an exciting ride, she would become the first woman to cross the Atlantic by air! In her search, one name came up a number of times – Amelia Earhart.
Amelia becomes The First Woman to Cross the Atlantic by Air
Thus Amelia was recruited to fly the Atlantic. She would not be pilot, nor even co-pilot, but rather would go along on this goodwill flight to represent the people of the United States. She did not object to her roll as the passenger, saying she could not possibly “refuse such a shining adventure.” The float-equipped Fokker tri-motor Friendship arrived in England 20 hours and 40 minutes after leaving America. Though she constantly tried to redirect the outpouring of praise and accolades heaped upon her to pilot Stultz and mechanic Gordon, Amelia Earhart was an instant celebrity.
In England she was in great demand. Invitations for appearances and parties poured in. Amelia took in all in stride, noting that she “never dreamed how great a hubbub her trip would cause.” To escape some of the pressure during her stay in England, Amelia accepted an offer to go flying. Lady Mary Heath, England’s most famous aviatrix, had just completed a record setting flight of over 8,000 miles from Cape Town, South Africa to England. She had done it in a small open cockpit bi-plane, the same craft in which, the year before, she had set a new altitude record for light airplanes. It was an Avro Avian.
The Flight re-creation is being made in an airplane that is virtually identical to Amelia’s and was made at the same factory only a few weeks before hers was.
Amelia Earhart’s Flight Records
Amelia Earhart set many flight records during her life which include the following: Breaking Boundaries: Amelia Earhart’s Record-Setting Flights
Amelia Earhart was catapulted into the national spotlight in 1928 when she became the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by airplane. >From that day forward, Earhart continued to defy boundaries, setting never-before-attempted records in the male-dominated field of aviation. Earhart’s ground-breaking achievements not only asserted her as one of the greatest pilots of her time, but provided her the platform to create social change and challenge popular notions of women’s roles in society.
Following is a list of Earhart’s accomplishments in aviation that have helped inspire generations of women and girls to break boundaries in what ever they do:
· October 1922 – Earhart reaches an altitude of 14,000 feet at the Long Beach, Calif. Airshow.
· June 1928 – Earhart becomes the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by air.
· September 1928 – Earhart completes the first woman’s solo, U.S. transcontinental round trip.
· November 1929 – Earhart sets the aviation speed record for women when she over Los Angeles, Calif.
· June 1930 – Earhart sets speed records for the distance of 100 km, and 100 km with a payload of 500 kilos.
· April 1931 – Earhart breaks altitude records for autogiros (the pre-cursor to helicopters) twice in one day at Pitcairn field in Pennsylvania – first at 15,000 feet, then 18,415 feet.
· May 1932 – Earhart becomes the first woman – and only the second person – to cross the Atlantic Ocean solo.
· August 1932 – Earhart sets the women’s nonstop transcontinental speed record by flying from Los Angeles to Newark in 19 hours, five minutes.
· July 1933 – Earhart breaks her own transcontinental speed record, reducing it to 17 hours, seven minutes.
· January 1935 – Earhart becomes the first person to solo any part of the Pacific Ocean and the first person to fly solo over both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans when she flies from Hawaii to California.
· April 1935 – Earhart becomes the first person to fly solo from Los Angeles to Mexico City.
· May 1935 – Earhart becomes the first person to fly solo from Mexico to Newark, N.J.
· March 1937 – Earhart sets the speed record for an east to west crossing when she flies from Oakland, Calif. to Honolulu, Hawaii in 15 hours, 52 minutes.
· June 1937 – Earhart completes the first non-stop flight from Africa, across the Red Sea, to the Indian sub-continent, Assab-Karachi.
· June 1937 – Earhart attempts to fly around the world at the Equator.
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