Amelia Earhart Biography

In 1928, Amelia Earhart found herself unexpectedly swept up in a media frenzy. Just one year after Charles Lindbergh became the first person to solo the Atlantic Ocean in his airplane and 25 years after the first mechanized flight at Kitty Hawk, Earhart seized an opportunity to cross the Atlantic as a goodwill passenger in a Fokker tri-motor airplane. When she reached England 20 hours and 40 minutes later, Earhart found herself in the international spotlight as the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by air. From that point forward and until her ill-fated flight in 1937, Earhart continued to attract media attention by setting dozens of aviation records and sparking public dialogue about women’s roles in society.

Earhart, born July 24, 1897, fell in love with flying at an early age. As a child she marveled over aerial barnstormers, but was not able to take her first flight until she was 23 years old. Frank Hawks, who was known at the time for holding more aviation speed records than anyone else, flew Earhart over an open space on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles, Calif. Earhart was hooked and destined to fly.

While in her mid-20s, Earhart’s spent four years in California, which had become an aviation "hotbed." It was there that Earhart learned to fly with help from a female instructor, Neta Snook, and took her first solo flight in 1921. She purchased her first airplane, a Kinner Canary; cut her signature wavy hair short; and soon joined the camaraderie of other pilots in hangars and on airstrips.

Earhart’s adventurous spirit and zest for life was apparent even before she became famous. After high school and before her flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1928, Earhart experimented with a number of different jobs. Compelled by compassion, Earhart left college during her senior year to volunteer as a nurse’s aid in a military hospital in Canada. In 1926, that same compassion drew her to work at a settlement house in Boston. Earhart loved variety and enjoyed traveling, so this lifestyle was an ideal fit.

While descriptions of Earhart’s aviation records could fill a book, she also was an active supporter of women’s organizations. In 1929, she organized a cross-country air race for women pilots called the "Los Angeles to Cleveland Women’s Air Derby" and later coined "The Powder-Puff Derby" by Will Rogers. Earhart also founded The Ninety-Nines, an organization of women’s pilots named after the number of original members. She was an active member of the women’s professional groups Zonta International and the Society for Women Geographers; and was appointed assistant to the general traffic manager at Transcontinental Air Transport (later known as TWA). In 1935, Earhart’s pioneering aviation career became one of the rallying cries behind the political group, the National Women’s Party.

Earhart met George Palmer Putman, Jr. of the famous publishing house, G.P. Putman & Sons, in 1928. Earhart flew a leg of her record-setting flight across America in the fall of that same year with Putman as a passenger. The two fell in love and were married in December 1929. Their marriage was rather unconventional for the time. While Earhart continued to pursue her love of flying, George Putman scheduled her appearances, secured bylined articles and promoted her flights. In 1932, five years after Charles Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic Ocean, Earhart became the first woman — and only the second person — to achieve the same feat.

Later that same decade in 1935, Earhart began plans for perhaps her most famous flight — an attempt to circumnavigate the world by air. After completing more than 22,000 miles of the flight, with a remaining 7,000 miles, Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan left New Guinea on June 29, 1937 to cross the Pacific Ocean, on course for Howland Island. Neither Earhart, Noonan nor the Lockheed Electra aircraft they were flying were ever seen again.