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This started out as a report for english class, but I wanted to teach others about Amelia Earhart. So I'll type my report out here, where everyone can see it!! Parenthetical citations and all!
Amelia Earhart made many contributions to the world of flight, but she is most remembered for a failed record attempt that left her at the center of a mystery that has yet to be solved. rnrn
When you hear the name Amelia Earhart, what do you think? A famous female pilot with a lot of awards and records? How about a modest young teacher, or a nurse? Didn’t know that, did you? rnrn
If you want to learn more, read on while I explain the life of my favorite woman pilot, all the way down to her effect on me. rnrn
Amelia Mary Earhart was the older of two daughters. The younger one was Muriel, and their parents were Edwin and Amy Earhart. She was born in Atchison, Kansas, on July 24, 1828 (Briand 14).
She saw her first plane at the Des Moines, Iowa, fair. Believe it or not, she wasn’t interested in it. She saw it as a “Piece of rusted metal and wood,” and was more interested in her hat (Blau, 9)!
The year after, her family packed up and moved to St. Paul Minnesota because Edwin had lost his job. After the move, things went from “bad to worse.” Edwin had had lost his new job because of a drinking problem. After that, the family moved again, this time to Springfield, Missouri, where Edwin had been promised work. Instead of a steady job, he found only four weeks’ work and could no longer support his family, so they decided to split up. Edwin would go to Kansas City to try to open a law office, and Amy, Amelia, and Muriel to Chicago, where they would live with a friend. It was in Chicago that she decided to get a good education in science and turned down the school closest to her home because the chemistry lab was “just like a kitchen sink.” Her constant moving made it hard to make friends, so her high school nickname was “the girl in the brown who walks alone (Blau 10-12). After her high school graduation, Amelia’s family got back together in Kansas City, where her father had succeeded in opening a law office. She didn’t stay at home for long, though. She went to Orgontz School to prepare for college. Even there, she felt like an outcast. The other girls she knew had not been through the hardships she had, and while the other girls worried about getting married, Amelia wanted a career (DeLeeuw, 29).
During a vacation, she saw a military hospital. She “couldn’t bear the thought of going back to school and being so useless,” so she took a first aid course and became a nurse’s aide at Spading Military Hospital in Toronto, Canada (Briand, 31).
During her off-days, Amelia would spend time at the airfield. She was truly excited by flying and wanted to try, but the men told her civilians couldn’t fly, and certainly not women! She would then return to the hospital, upset with the “small-minded people,” at the airfield (DeLeeuw, 13).
After the war, she went back to school and lived with her parents in California. She convinced her father to let her have “just one ride,” in a plane. He agreed, and, after the fight, which was piloted by Frank Hawks (who would become a famous stunt pilot) piloted, she learned that she really liked flying and wanted to learn. Lessons were expensive, about $1,000, which she couldn’t afford it, so she took a job at the telephone company to pay for it. Her instructor was Neta Snook, one of the first successful female pilots. She learned well and became a successful part-time pilot. A few years later in 1922, her family bought a Kinner Canary for her 22nd birthday (Blau, 14-19).
Amelia was a teacher at Denison House when she was asked to be the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by air. She was teaching a class when she was told she had a call waiting for her. She stopped what she was doing and went to answer the phone. The man was captain Hilton Railey, who worked for George Palmer Putnam. Railey asked Amelia if she wanted to do something for the cause of aviation. She gladly said yes.
Amelia was only one candidate for the flight. One year before, Charles Lindbergh had made his historic Trans-Atlantic flight and Putnam had thought it was time for a “Lady Lindy.” Amelia was chosen
The committee explained that the pilot would be paid $20,000 for flying, but Amelia would not be paid for the flight or any articles she might write about it.
The plane for the trip was a tri-motored Fokker named the “Friendship.” Soon after seeing the plane, she met the pilot, Wilmer “Bill” Stultz, and the mechanic, Lou “Slim” Gordon.
After many delays to the flight, due to the weather, they finally took off from Boston Harbor. After 13 hours, they were forced to fly completely by instruments because of thick fog.
They landed after 20 hours and 40 minutes. For Amelia, it had been 20 hours and 40 minutes of being a sack of potatoes, since she was only a log keeper. She doubted that she deserved all of the attention she was getting (Blau, 30).
One year later, in a plane she had bought while in England, she flew form New York to Los Angeles and back, about 6,000 miles – the longest “air gypsying” flight made by a woman (DeLeeuw, 41).
In 1929, she entered the Women’s Air Derby. She stayed behind at takeoff to help a friend and came in third place. After the race, she made the decision to solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
She left at 7:13 PM on May 20, 1932. It was five years to the day that Lindbergh made the same flight. Everything seemed to go wrong. Fuel had leaked into the cockpit, ice had formed on the wings, and her instruments had been damaged. She landed on the coast of Ireland after 15 hours and 18 minutes, at 1:45 PM (Briand 61).
She planned for her round-the-world trip a few years later. Her navigator would be Fred Noonan and her plane a Lockheed Electra. She took off at 5:00AM on June 1, 1937. Her flight path was from Miami to Puerto Rico, to Brazil, to Africa, to Karachi, to Burma, to Singapore, to Singapore, to Australia, to Howland Island, to Hawaii, to California.
She finally made it to New Guinea and was about to begin the longest leg of her trip, 2,566 miles, to Howland Island. At that point there were only 7,000 miles left in her entire trip. There would be no landmarks on the way to Howland Island, and, if they were directly on target, they would make it to the tiny island in the Pacific.
She was last heard from at 8:45 PM and never seen again (Blau 38-42).
I wanted to know more about Amelia Earhart because I knew she was in the middle of a mystery from the thirties that had yet to be solved.
Some new facts I learned about Amelia Earhart were that she had only been a log-keeper on her first cross-Atlantic Flight and that she had not always been interested in planes.
I was surprised by the fact she was so modest and not always impressed by the idea of planes.
Some of the qualities Amelia Earhart had that I admire are the fact that she was both modest and brave at the same time and that she was also caring on top of that.
Learning about Amelia Earhart gave me a little more faith in myself, and reminded me that it was okay to be different no matter what others might say about it.
So, there you go. I did it. Now, if you want to make a comment about it, send an e-mail to me at: heyodin@netzero.net
Thanks for spending your time reading this!! :)
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