Amelia Earhart#World flight in 1937

{{short description|American aviation pioneer and author (1897–1937)}}

{{redirect|Earhart|other uses|Earhart (disambiguation)|and|Amelia Earhart (disambiguation)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Amelia Earhart

| image = Amelia Earhart standing under nose of her Lockheed Model 10-E Electra, small (cropped).jpg

| caption = Earhart beneath the nose of her Lockheed Model 10-E Electra, March 1937 in Oakland, California, before departing on her final round-the-world attempt prior to her disappearance

| birth_name = Amelia Mary Earhart

| birth_date = {{birth date|1897|07|24}}

| birth_place = Atchison, Kansas, U.S.

| disappeared_date = {{Disappeared date and age|1937|7|2|1897|7|24}}

| disappeared_place = Pacific Ocean, en route to Howland Island from Lae, New Guinea

| disappeared_status = Declared dead in absentia{{sfn|Van Pelt|2005|p=205}}
{{Death date|1939|1|5|1897|07|24}}

| occupation = {{flatlist|

Aviator
author

}}

| spouse = {{marriage|George P. Putnam|February 7, 1931}}

| known_for = Many early aviation records, including first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean

| signature = Amelia Earhart's signature.svg

| signature_size = 200px

| website = {{Official URL}}

| awards = {{ubl|Distinguished Flying Cross|Légion d'honneur|National Aviation Hall of Fame|National Women's Hall of Fame}}

}}

Amelia Mary Earhart ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɛər|h|ɑr|t}} {{Respell|AIR|hart}}; born July 24, 1897; disappeared July 2, 1937; declared dead January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer. On July 2, 1937, she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. During her life, Earhart embraced celebrity culture and women's rights, and since her disappearance has become a global cultural figure. She was the first female pilot to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean and set many other records.{{sfn|Oakes|1985}} She was one of the first aviators to promote commercial air travel, wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences, and was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots.{{sfn|Lovell|1989|p=152}}

Earhart was born and raised in Atchison, Kansas, and developed a passion for adventure at a young age, steadily gaining flying experience from her twenties. In 1928, she became a celebrity after becoming 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 was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for her achievement.{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|pp=111, 112}} In 1935, she became a visiting faculty member of Purdue University as an advisor in aeronautical engineering and a career counselor to female students. She was a member of the National Woman's Party and an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment.[http://www.feminism101.com/timelineera.html "Timeline: Equal Rights Amendment, Phase One: 1921–1972."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121208094346/http://www.feminism101.com/timelineera.html |date=December 8, 2012 }} feminism101.com. accessed: June 4, 2012.Francis, Roberta W.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110721112813/http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/era.htm "The History Behind the Equal Rights Amendment."] equalrightsamendment.org, July 21, 2011. accessed: June 4, 2012. She was one of the most inspirational American figures from the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s. Her legacy is often compared to that of the early career of pioneer aviator Charles Lindbergh, as well as First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, for their close friendship and lasting influence on women's causes.

In 1937, during an attempt to become the first woman to complete a circumnavigational flight of the globe, flying a Lockheed Model 10-E Electra airplane, Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared near Howland Island in the central Pacific Ocean. The two were last seen in Lae, New Guinea, their last land stop before Howland Island, a very small location where they were intending to refuel. It is generally believed that they ran out of fuel before they found Howland Island and crashed into the ocean near their destination.{{Cite journal |last=De Hart |first=Jane Sherron |date=1995 |editor-last=Ware |editor-first=Susan |title=The Perils of Flying Solo: Amelia Earhart and Feminist Individualism |journal=Reviews in American History |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=86–90 |doi=10.1353/rah.1995.0004 |jstor=2703241 |s2cid=201762326 |issn=0048-7511}} Nearly one year and six months after she and Noonan disappeared, Earhart was officially declared dead.

The mysterious nature of Earhart's disappearance has caused much public interest in her life. Her airplane has never been found, which has led to speculation and conspiracy theories about the outcome of the flight. Decades after her presumed death, Earhart was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1968 and the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1973. Several commemorative memorials in the United States have been named in her honor; these include a commemorative US airmail stamp, an airport, a museum, a bridge, a cargo ship, an earth-fill dam, a playhouse, a library, and multiple roads and schools. She also has a minor planet, planetary corona, and newly discovered lunar crater named after her. Numerous films, documentaries, and books have recounted Earhart's life, and she is ranked ninth on Flying's list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation.

Early life

= Childhood =

File:Amelia Earhart birthplace from NE 1.JPG]]

Amelia Mary Earhart was born on July 24, 1897, in Atchison, Kansas, as the daughter of Samuel "Edwin" Stanton Earhart (1867–1930) and Amelia "Amy" ({{née|Otis}}; 1869–1962).[https://web.archive.org/web/20060901135618/http://oasis.harvard.edu:10080/oasis/deliver/~sch00228 "A/E11/M-129, Earhart, Amy Otis, 1869–1962. Papers, 1944, n.d.: A Finding Aid."] Harvard University Library., September 1, 2006. (archived). accessed: June 3, 2012. Amelia was born in the home of her maternal grandfather Alfred Gideon Otis (1827–1912), who was a former judge in Kansas, the president of Atchison Savings Bank, and a leading resident of the town.{{cite book|title=Genealogical and biographical record of north-eastern Kansas|location=Chicago|publisher=Lewis Publishing|page=28|year=1900|isbn=978-5-87160-647-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S0QHAwAAQBAJ}} Earhart was the second child of the marriage after a stillbirth in August 1896.{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=8}} She was of part-German descent; Alfred Otis had not initially favored the marriage and was not satisfied with Edwin's progress as a lawyer.{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=9}}

According to family custom, Amelia Earhart was named after her two grandmothers Amelia Josephine Harres and Mary Wells Patton.{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=8}} From an early age, Amelia was the dominant sibling while her sister Grace Muriel Earhart (1899–1998), two years her junior, acted as a dutiful follower.[http://www.ninety-nines.org/grace-muriel-earhart-morrissey.htm "Grace Muriel Earhart Morrissey."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151130001159/http://www.ninety-nines.org/grace-muriel-earhart-morrissey.htm |date=November 30, 2015 }} The Ninety-Nines. accessed: June 3, 2012. Amelia was nicknamed "Meeley" and sometimes "Millie", and Grace was nicknamed "Pidge"; both girls continued to answer to their childhood nicknames well into adulthood.{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=8}} Their upbringing was unconventional; Amy Earhart did not believe in raising her children to be "nice little girls".{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|pp=8–9}} The children's maternal grandmother disapproved of the bloomers they wore, and although Amelia liked the freedom of movement they provided, she was sensitive to the fact the neighborhood's girls wore dresses.

File:ameliachild.jpg

The Earhart children seemed to have a spirit of adventure and would set off daily to explore their neighborhood.{{sfn|Randolph|1987|p=16}} As a child, Amelia Earhart spent hours playing with sister Pidge, climbing trees, hunting rats with a rifle, and sledding downhill.[https://web.archive.org/web/20120412224805/http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/special_features/download_files/amelia_transcript.pdf "American Experience: Amelia Earhart Program Transcript."] americanexperience, April 12, 2012. accessed: September 23, 2017. Some biographers have characterized the young Amelia as a tomboy.{{sfn|Rich|1989|p=4}} The girls kept worms, moths, katydids and a tree toad they gathered in a growing collection.{{sfn|Lovell|1989|p=14}} In 1904, with the help of her uncle, Amelia Earhart constructed a home-made ramp that was fashioned after a roller coaster she had seen on a trip to St. Louis, Missouri, and secured it to the roof of the family tool shed. Following Amelia's well-documented first flight, she emerged from the broken wooden box that had served as a sled with a bruised lip, a torn dress and a "sensation of exhilaration", saying: "Oh, Pidge, it's just like flying!"{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=9}}

In 1907, Edwin Earhart's job as a claims officer for the Rock Island Railroad led to a transfer to Des Moines, Iowa. The next year, at the age of 10,[http://www.ameliaearhart.com/about/bio.html "Biography.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120525154635/http://www.ameliaearhart.com/about/bio.html |date=May 25, 2012 }} The Official Website of Amelia Earhart (The Family of Amelia Earhart). accessed: June 4, 2012. Amelia saw her first aircraft at Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=14}}{{sfn|Morrissey|1963|pp=17–18}} Their father tried to interest his daughters in taking a flight but after looking at the rickety "flivver", Amelia promptly asked if they could go back to the merry-go-round.{{sfn|Randolph|1987|p=18}} She later described the biplane as "a thing of rusty wire and wood and not at all interesting".{{sfn|Lovell|1989|p=15}}

= Education =

Sisters Amelia and Grace—who from her teenage years went by her middle name Muriel—Earhart remained with their grandparents in Atchison while their parents moved into new, smaller quarters in Des Moines. During this period, the Earhart girls received homeschooling from their mother and a governess. Amelia later said she was "exceedingly fond of reading"{{sfn|Hamill|1976|p=51}} and spent many hours in the large family library. In 1909, when the family was reunited in Des Moines, the Earhart children were enrolled in public school for the first time and Amelia, 12, entered seventh grade.{{cite web|url=https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/publications/TB/1037670.pdf|title=Pieces of Iowa's Past - Amelia Earhart: A Des Moines Connection|publisher=Iowa State Capitol Tour Guides|date=20 February 2019|access-date=2 November 2024}}

File:Amelia-in-evening-clothes (cropped).jpg

The Earhart family's finances seemingly improved with the acquisition of a new house and the hiring of two servants but it soon became apparent Edwin was an alcoholic. In 1914, he was forced to retire; he attempted to rehabilitate himself through treatment but the Rock Island Railroad never reinstated him. At about this time, Earhart's grandmother Amelia Otis died, leaving a substantial estate that placed her daughter's share in a trust, fearing Edwin's drinking would exhaust the funds. The Otis house was auctioned along with its contents; Amelia later described these events as the end of her childhood.{{sfn|Garst|1947|p=35}}

In 1915, after a long search, Edwin Earhart found work as a clerk at the Great Northern Railway in St. Paul, Minnesota, where Amelia entered Central High School as a junior. Edwin applied for a transfer to Springfield, Missouri, in 1915, but the current claims officer reconsidered his retirement and demanded his job back, leaving Edwin Earhart unemployed. Amy Earhart took her children to Chicago, where they lived with friends. Amelia canvassed nearby high schools in Chicago to find the best science program; she rejected the high school nearest her home, complaining the chemistry lab was "just like a kitchen sink".{{sfn|Blau|1977|pp=10–11}} She eventually enrolled in Hyde Park High School but spent a miserable semester for which a yearbook caption noted: "A.E.—the girl in brown who walks alone".{{sfn|Rich|1989|p=11}}

Amelia Earhart graduated from Hyde Park High School in 1916.{{sfn|Long|Long|1999|p=33}} Throughout her childhood, she had continued to aspire to a future career; she kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about successful women in male-dominated careers, including film direction and production, law, advertising, management, and mechanical engineering. She began junior college at Ogontz School in Rydal, Pennsylvania, but did not complete her program.{{Cite news |url=https://libraries.psu.edu/about/collections/ogontz-school-1850-1950/outstanding-alumnae |title=Outstanding Alumnae |date=2016-09-12 |work=Penn State University Libraries |access-date=2018-09-25 |language=en |archive-date=September 25, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180925220042/https://libraries.psu.edu/about/collections/ogontz-school-1850-1950/outstanding-alumnae |url-status=live }}{{sfn|Kerby|1990|pp=18–19}}

=Nursing career and illness=

During Christmas vacation in 1917, Earhart visited her sister in Toronto, Canada, where she saw wounded soldiers returning from World War I. After receiving training as a nurse's aide from the Red Cross, Earhart began working with the Voluntary Aid Detachment at Spadina Military Hospital, where her duties included food preparation for patients with special diets and handing out prescribed medication in the hospital's dispensary.Popplewell, Brett. [https://www.thestar.com/News/Ideas/article/451270 "The city Amelia loved".] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090611122605/http://www.thestar.com/News/Ideas/article/451270 |date=June 11, 2009 }} Toronto Star, June 29, 2008. accessed: June 30, 2008.[http://ids.lib.harvard.edu/ids/view/1391197?buttons=Y "Portrait of Earhart as a volunteer nurse in Toronto."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170924140105/http://ids.lib.harvard.edu/ids/view/1391197?buttons=Y |date=September 24, 2017 }} Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. accessed: September 23, 2017. There, Earhart heard stories from military pilots and developed an interest in flying.Gils, Bieke, "Pioneers of Flight: An Analysis of Gender Issues in United States Civilian (Sport) and Commercial Aviation 1920–1940" (2009). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 262.

Ware, Susan. Still Missing: Amelia Earhart and the Search for Modern Feminism. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1993. {{ISBN|0-393-03551-4}}.

In 1918, when the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic reached Toronto, Earhart was engaged in nursing duties that included night shifts at Spadina Military Hospital.{{sfn|Lovell|1989|p=27}}{{sfn|Earhart|1932|p=21}} In early November that year, she became infected and was hospitalized for pneumonia and maxillary sinusitis. She was discharged in December 1918, about two months later.{{sfn|Lovell|1989|p=27}} Her sinus-related symptoms were pain and pressure around one eye, and copious mucus drainage via the nostrils and throat.{{sfn|Backus|1982|pp=49–50}} While staying in the hospital during the pre-antibiotic era, Earhart had painful minor operations to wash out the affected maxillary sinus{{sfn|Lovell|1989|p=27}}{{sfn|Earhart|1932|p=21}}{{sfn|Backus|1982|pp=49–50}} but these procedures were not successful and her headaches worsened. Earhart's convalescence lasted nearly a year, which she spent at her sister's home in Northampton, Massachusetts.{{sfn|Earhart|1932|p=21}} Earhart passed the time reading poetry, learning to play the banjo, and studying mechanics.{{sfn|Lovell|1989|p=27}} Chronic sinusitis significantly affected Earhart's flying and other activities in later life,{{sfn|Backus|1982|pp=49–50}} and sometimes she was forced to wear a bandage on her cheek to cover a small drainage tube.{{sfn|Rich|1989|pp=31–32}}

By 1919, Earhart prepared to enter Smith College, where her sister was a student,{{Cite book |last=College |first=Smith |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rEY4AAAAMAAJ&pg=PP7 |title=Official Circulars, Smith College |date=1921 |publisher=Smith College |page=192 |language=en |access-date=October 24, 2022 |archive-date=January 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112001122/https://books.google.com/books?id=rEY4AAAAMAAJ&pg=PP7#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D0Y4AAAAMAAJ |title=Catalogue of Smith College |year=1918 |page=165 |publisher=Smith College |access-date=March 18, 2023 |archive-date=January 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112001225/https://books.google.com/books?id=D0Y4AAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }} but she changed her mind and enrolled in a course of medical studies and other programs at Columbia University.{{sfn|Thames|1989|p=7}} Earhart quit her studies a year later to be with her parents, who had reunited in California.

= Early flying experiences =

File:Amelia Earhart in her first training plane, 1920.jpg

In the early 1920s, Earhart and a young woman friend visited an air fair held in conjunction with the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto; she said: "The interest, aroused in me, in Toronto, led me to all the air circuses in the vicinity."{{cite web |title=Amelia Earhart Story |url=https://www.forneymuseum.org/News_AmeliaEarhart.html |website=Forney Museum of Transportation |access-date=24 May 2022 |archive-date=January 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112001214/https://www.forneymuseum.org/News_AmeliaEarhart.html |url-status=live }} One of the highlights of the day was a flying exhibition put on by a World War I ace.{{sfn|Earhart|1937|p=2}} The pilot saw Earhart and her friend, who were watching from an isolated clearing, and dived at them. "I am sure he said to himself, 'Watch me make them scamper,'{{sp}}" she said. Earhart stood her ground as the aircraft came close. "I did not understand it at the time," she said, "but I believe that little red airplane said something to me as it swished by."{{sfn|Earhart|1937|p=3}}

On December 28, 1920, Earhart and her father attended an "aerial meet"{{cite news |last1=Epting |first1=Chris |title=In the Pipeline |url=https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/tn-dpt-xpm-2008-07-31-hbi-pipeline073108-story.html |access-date=25 May 2022 |work=Daily Pilot Huntington Beach Independent |publisher=Los Angeles Times |date=31 July 2008 |archive-date=January 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112001225/https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/tn-dpt-xpm-2008-07-31-hbi-pipeline073108-story.html |url-status=live }} at Daugherty Field in Long Beach, California. She asked her father to ask about passenger flights and flying lessons. Earhart was booked for a passenger flight the following day at Emory Roger's Field, at the corner{{cite news |last1=Harvey |first1=Steve |title=Has Simi Valley become embroiled in the Middle East situation? |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-08-09-me-25-story.html |access-date=25 May 2022 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=9 August 1990 |quote=Fawn Peck took off on his first airplane flight from Rogers Field, which isn't listed on any current maps. It was at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue. Soon afterward he took a job as a mechanic at a two-hangar facility called Mines Field. You might know it better by its current name, Los Angeles International Airport. The year was 1928. |archive-date=January 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112001124/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-08-09-me-25-story.html |url-status=live }} of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue. A 10-minute flight with Frank Hawks, who later gained fame as an air racer, cost $10 ({{Inflation|US|10|1920|fmt=eq|r=-1}}). The ride with Hawkes changed Earhart's life; she said: "By the time I had got two or three hundred feet [60–90 m] off the ground ... I knew I had to fly."{{sfn|Earhart|1937|p=4}}

File:Neta amelia kinner airster s.jpg, Earhart's Kinner Airster and Amelia Earhart, {{circa|1921}}{{cite web |title=Viewing page 3 of 10 |url=https://transcription.si.edu/view/18704/NASM-NASM.XXXX.0424-M0000075-00060 |website=Smithsonian Digital Volunteers |publisher=transcription.si.edu |access-date=25 May 2022 |archive-date=January 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112001144/https://transcription.si.edu/view/18704/NASM-NASM.XXXX.0424-M0000075-00060 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=Flight instructor Neta Snook with her student Amelia Earhart at Kinner Field, Los Angeles, in 1921. |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |url=https://www.historynet.com/lady-lindy-the-remarkable-life-of-amelia-earhart-july-97-aviation-history-feature/amelia-netta-960_640/ |via=HistoryNet |access-date=24 May 2022 |quote=uncropped, different histogram |archive-date=January 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112001126/https://www.historynet.com/lady-lindy-the-remarkable-life-of-amelia-earhart-july-97-aviation-history-feature/amelia-netta-960_640/ |url-status=live }}]]

The next month, Earhart engaged Neta Snook to be her flying instructor. The initial contract was for 12 hours of instruction for $500 ({{Inflation|US|500|1921|fmt=eq|r=-3}}). Working at a variety of jobs, including photographer, truck driver, and stenographer at the local telephone company, Earhart saved $1,000 ({{Inflation|US|1000|1921|fmt=eq|r=-3}}) for flying lessons; she had her first lesson on January 3, 1921, at Kinner Field on the west side of Long Beach Boulevard and Tweedy Road, now in the city of South Gate. Snook used a crash-salvaged Curtiss JN-4 "Canuck" airplane she had restored for training. To reach the airfield, Earhart had to take a bus then walk {{convert|4|miles|km|abbr=out|spell=in}}. Earhart's mother provided part of the $1,000 "stake" against her "better judgement".[http://www.aviationhistory.org/ah_Amelia_Earhart.html "Lady Lindy, Amelia Earhart's life history."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061205024527/http://aviationhistory.org/ah_Amelia_Earhart.html |date=December 5, 2006 }} aviationhistory.org. accessed: October 12, 2009. Earhart cropped her hair short in the style of other female flyers.{{sfn|Blau|1977|pp=15–16}} Six months later, in mid 1921 and against Snook's advice, Earhart purchased a secondhand, chromium yellow Kinner Airster biplane, which she nicknamed "The Canary". After her first successful solo landing, she bought a new leather flying coat. Due to the newness of the coat, she was subjected to teasing, so she aged it by sleeping in it and staining it with aircraft oil.

On October 22, 1922, Earhart flew the Airster to an altitude of {{convert|14000|ft|m|abbr=out}}, setting a world record for female pilots.{{sfn|Rich|1989|p=36}} On May 16, 1923, Earhart became the 16th woman in the United States to be issued a pilot's license (#6017){{sfn|Long|Long|1999|p=36}} by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).[http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/earhart/pop-ups/02.html "Amelia Earhart's pilot's license, leather and paper, Issued May 16, 1923 (One Life: Amelia Earhart)."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170528125615/http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/earhart/pop-ups/02.html |date=May 28, 2017 }} National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. accessed: September 23, 2017.

= Financial problems and move to Massachusetts =

Throughout the early 1920s, following a disastrous investment in a failed gypsum mine, Amelia Earhart's inheritance from her grandmother, which her mother was now administering, steadily diminished until it was exhausted. Consequently, with no immediate prospect of recouping her investment in flying, Earhart sold the Canary and a second Kinner and bought a yellow Kissel Gold Bug "Speedster", a two-seat automobile, and named it "Yellow Peril". Simultaneously, pain from Earhart's old sinus problem worsened, and in early 1924, she was hospitalized for another sinus operation, which was again unsuccessful. She tried a number of ventures that included setting up a photography company.{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=33}}

File:Amelia Earhart on horseback from 20 Hrs 40 Min.jpg (1928)]]

Following her parents' divorce in 1924, Earhart drove her mother in "Yellow Peril" on a transcontinental trip from California with stops throughout the western United States and northward to Banff, Alberta, Canada. Their journey ended in Boston, Massachusetts, where Earhart underwent another, more-successful sinus operation. After recuperation, she returned to Columbia University for several months but was forced to abandon her studies and any further plans for enrolling at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), because her mother could no longer afford the tuition fees and associated costs. In 1925, Earhart found employment first as a teacher, then as a social worker at Denison House, a Boston settlement house.[https://web.archive.org/web/20080401003450/http://www.lib.purdue.edu/spcol/aearhart/biog.php "Amelia Earhart Biographical Sketch".] George Palmer Putnam Collection of Amelia Earhart Papers, Purdue University, April 1, 2008. accessed: September 23, 2017. At this time, she lived in Medford, Massachusetts.

When Earhart lived in Medford, she maintained her interest in aviation, becoming a member of the American Aeronautical Society's Boston chapter and eventually being elected its vice president.{{sfn|Rich|1989|p=43}} She flew out of Dennison Airport in Quincy, helped finance the airport's operation by investing a small sum of money,{{sfn|Long|Long|1999|p=38}} and in 1927, she flew the first official flight out of Dennison Airport.Chaisson, Stephanie. [https://archive.today/20120909002251/http://www.patriotledger.com/archive/x1709132033 "Squantum has a hold on its residents."] The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, Massachusetts, July 12, 2007. accessed: September 23, 2017. Earhart worked as a sales representative for Kinner Aircraft in the Boston area and wrote local-newspaper columns promoting flying; as her local celebrity grew, Earhart made plans to launch an organization for female flyers.{{sfn|Randolph|1987|p=41}}

Aviation career and marriage

= First woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 1928 =

File:Amelia Earhart 1928.jpg

In 1928, Earhart became the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean in an airplane. The project coordinators included publisher and publicist George P. Putnam, who later became her husband. She was a passenger, with the plane flown by Wilmer Stultz and copilot/mechanic Louis Gordon. On June 17, 1928, the team departed from Trepassey Harbor, Newfoundland, in a Fokker F.VIIb/3m named Friendship and landed at Pwll near Burry Port, South Wales, exactly 20 hours and 40 minutes later.{{sfn|Bryan|1979|p=132}} The flight duration became the title to her book about the expedition 20 Hrs. 40 Min.

Earhart had no training on this type of aircraft and did not pilot the plane. When interviewed after landing, she said: "Stultz did all the flying—had to. I was just baggage, like a sack of potatoes ... maybe someday I'll try it alone."{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=54}} Despite her feeling, she gained international attention from the press and was greeted like a heroine.{{Cite web|url=https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/medal-amelia-earhart-first-woman-to-cross-the-atlantic-by-airplane/nasm_A19640152000|title=Medal, Amelia Earhart, First Woman to Cross the Atlantic by Airplane | National Air and Space Museum|website=airandspace.si.edu}}

On June 19, 1928, Earhart flew to Woolston, Southampton, England, where she received a rousing welcome.Southampton: A pictorial peep into the past. Southern Newspapers Ltd, 1980.{{page needed|date=January 2024}} She had changed aircraft and flew an Avro Avian 594 Avian III, SN: R3/AV/101 that was owned by Irish aviator Lady Mary Heath, the first woman to hold a commercial flying licence in Britain. Earhart later acquired the aircraft and had it shipped to the United States.{{cite web| url=http://www.goldenwingsmuseum.com/collection/AC-Pages/Avro%20Avian.html |title=1927 Avro Avian |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171102220027/http://www.goldenwingsmuseum.com/collection/AC-Pages/Avro%20Avian.html |archive-date=November 2, 2017 |website=goldenwingsmuseum.com |access-date= July 1, 2013}}

When Stultz, Gordon, and Earhart returned to the United States on July 6, they were greeted with a ticker-tape parade along the Canyon of Heroes in Manhattan, followed by a reception with President Calvin Coolidge at the White House.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/427656|title=Parade in New York City for Amelia Earhart and the "Friendship" Crew, July 6, 1928 - The Henry Ford|website=www.thehenryford.org}}

= Celebrity status =

When Earhart became famous, the press dubbed her "Lady Lindy", because of her physical resemblance to the famous male aviator Charles Lindbergh{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=55}}{{sfn|Glines|1997|p=44}} and "Queen of the Air".{{sfn|Rich|1989|p=177}} Immediately after her return to the United States, Earhart undertook an exhausting lecture tour in 1928 and 1929. Putnam had undertaken to heavily promote Earhart in a campaign that included publishing a book she wrote, a series of new lecture tours, and using pictures of her in media endorsements for products including luggage. A Lucky Strike cigarettes endorsement caused McCall's magazine to retract their offer.{{sfn|Pearce|1988|p=76}} The money Earhart made from Lucky Strike had been intended to support Richard Evelyn Byrd's imminent expedition to the South Pole.{{sfn|Pearce|1988|p=76}}

The marketing campaign by both Earhart and Putnam was successful in establishing the Earhart mystique in the public psyche.Crouch, Tom D. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070929121928/http://www.americanheritage.com/rss/articles/web/20070702-fred-noonan-lockheed-electra-george-putnam-tighar-ric-gillespie-david-jourdan.shtml "Searching for Amelia Earhart."] Invention & Technology, Summer 2007 via americanheritage.com. (archived). accessed: July 2, 2010. Rather than simply endorsing the products, Earhart became involved in the promotions, especially in women's fashions. The "active living" lines that were sold in stores such as Macy's were an expression of Earhart's new image.V Morell (1998) Amelia Earhart. National Geographic 193(1), 112–135 Her concept of simple, natural lines matched with wrinkle-proof, washable materials was the embodiment of a sleek, purposeful, but feminine "A.E.", the familiar name she used with family and friends.{{sfn|Rich|1989|p=177}}{{sfn|Lovell|1989|p=135}} Celebrity endorsements helped Earhart finance her flying.[http://www.ameliaearhartmuseum.org/ "Biography of Amelia Earhart."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061205052158/http://ameliaearhartmuseum.org/ |date=December 5, 2006 }} Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum. accessed: July 2, 2010.

= Promoting aviation =

File:Aa earhart subj e.jpg

Earhart accepted a position as associate editor at Cosmopolitan and used it to campaign for greater public acceptance of aviation, especially focusing on the role of women entering the field.{{sfn|Glines|1997|p=45}} In 1929, Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) appointed Earhart and Margaret Bartlett Thornton to promote air travel, particularly for women,{{cite news |title=TAT Plane Talk |url=https://digital.shsmo.org/digital/api/collection/twa/id/8058/download |access-date=24 March 2022 |volume=1|issue=9 |date=Sep 1929 |archive-date=January 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112001658/https://digital.shsmo.org/digital/api/collection/twa/id/8058/download |url-status=live }} and Earhart helped set up the Ludington Airline, the first regional shuttle service between New York and Washington, D.C. Earhart was appointed Vice President of National Airways, which operated Boston-Maine Airways and several other airlines in the northeastern US, and by 1940 had become Northeast Airlines.Boston and Maine Railroad Employees Magazine, Volume 8, Number 10, July 1933, copy in Purdue University Special Collections. In 1934, Earhart interceded on behalf of Isabel Ebel, who had helped Earhart in 1932, to be accepted as the first woman student of aeronautical engineering at New York University (NYU).{{Cite web |title=MIT AeroAstro News June 2012 |url=http://web.mit.edu/aeroastro/news/enews/june12/index.html |access-date=2023-02-02 |website=web.mit.edu |archive-date=January 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112001702/http://web.mit.edu/aeroastro/news/enews/june12/index.html |url-status=live }}

= Competitive flying =

In August 1928, Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the North American continent and back.Mendieta, Carlene. [http://www.ameliaflight.com/ameliaflight/flight.po "Amelia Earhart's Flight Across America: Rediscovering a Legend."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929221217/http://www.ameliaflight.com/ameliaflight/flight.po |date=September 29, 2007 }} ameliaflight.com. accessed: May 21, 2007. Her piloting skills and professionalism gradually grew, and she was acknowledged by experienced professional pilots who flew with her. General Leigh Wade, who flew with Earhart in 1929, said: "She was a born flier, with a delicate touch on the stick."{{sfn|Rich|1989|p=85}}

Earhart made her first attempt at competitive air racing in 1929 during the first Santa Monica-to-Cleveland Women's Air Derby (nicknamed the "Powder Puff Derby" by Will Rogers), which left Santa Monica, California, on August 18 and arrived at Cleveland, Ohio, on August 26. During the race, Earhart settled into fourth place in the "heavy planes" division. At the second-to-last stop at Columbus, Earhart's friend Ruth Nichols, who was in third place, had an accident; her aircraft hit a tractor and flipped over, forcing her out of the race.{{sfn|Lauber|1989|p=47}} At Cleveland, Earhart was placed third in the heavy division.{{sfn|Jessen|2002|p=193}}San Bernardino County Sun. August 26, 1929.

In 1930, Earhart became an official of the National Aeronautic Association, and in this role, she promoted the establishment of separate women's records and was instrumental in persuading the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) to accept a similar international standard.{{sfn|Glines|1997|p=45}} On April 8, 1931,"Miss Earhart Sets Autogiro Record", The New York Times, April 9, 1931, p. 1"The Autogiro Flies the Mail!", by W. David Lewis, in Realizing the Dream of Flight, ed. by Virginia P. Dawson (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2005) p. 78 Earhart set a world altitude record of {{convert|18415|ft}} flying a Pitcairn PCA-2[https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/model-static-pitcairn-pca-2-beech-nut "Model, Static, Pitcairn PCA-2 ("Beech-Nut")."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170924183750/https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/model-static-pitcairn-pca-2-beech-nut |date=September 24, 2017 }} National Air and Space Museum. accessed: September 23, 2017. autogyro she borrowed from the Beech-Nut Chewing Gum company.Nesbit, Roy Conyers. [https://books.google.com/books?id=dTewDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA5 "Missing: Believed Killed: Amelia Earhart, Amy Johnson, Glenn Miller & The Duke of Kent."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112001741/https://books.google.com/books?id=dTewDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA5 |date=January 12, 2024 }} Pen & Sword Military, 2010. accessed: September 23, 2017.[http://www.historynet.com/aviators-amelia-earharts-autogiro-adventures.htm 'Aviators: Amelia Earhart's Autogiro Adventures.'] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110612205958/http://www.historynet.com/aviators-amelia-earharts-autogiro-adventures.htm |date=June 12, 2011 }} HistoryNet. accessed: September 23, 2017.{{cite book |last1=Reuther |first1=Ronald T. |last2=Larkins |first2=William T. |title=Oakland Aviation |year=2008 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-5600-0 |pages=20–21}}{{sfn|Van Pelt|2008|pages=20–21}}

During this period, Earhart became involved with Ninety-Nines, an organization of female pilots providing moral support and advancing the cause of women in aviation. In 1929, following the Women's Air Derby, Earhart called a meeting of female pilots. She suggested the name based on the number of the charter members, and became the organization's first president in 1930.{{sfn|Lovell|1989|p=152}} Earhart was a vigorous advocate for female pilots; when the 1934 Bendix Trophy Race banned women from competing, Earhart refused to fly screen actor Mary Pickford to Cleveland to open the race.{{sfn|Oakes|1985|p=31}}

= Marriage to George Putnam =

File:Amelia Earhart and husband George Putnam 1931.jpg

Earhart married her public relations manager George P. Putnam on February 7, 1931, in Putnam's mother's house in Noank, Connecticut, in what has been described as a marriage of convenience.{{cite web | url=https://pioneersofflight.si.edu/content/earhart-and-george-palmer-putnam | title=Earhart and George Palmer Putnam }} Earhart had been engaged to Samuel Chapman, a chemical engineer from Boston, but she broke off the engagement on November 23, 1928.{{sfn|Lovell|1989|pp=130, 138}} Putnam, who was known as GP, was divorced in 1929 and sought out Earhart, proposing to her six times before she agreed to marry him. Earhart referred to her marriage as a "partnership" with "dual control"; in a letter to Putnam and hand-delivered to him on the day of the wedding, she wrote:

I want you to understand I shall not hold you to any midaevil {{Sic}} code of faithfulness to me nor shall I consider myself bound to you similarly ... I may have to keep some place where I can go to be by myself, now and then, for I cannot guarantee to endure at all times the confinement of even an attractive cage.{{sfn|Lovell|1989|pp=165–166}}[https://web.archive.org/web/20041107204646/http://ncbuy.com/news/wireless_news.html?qdate=2003-02-25&nav=VIEW&id=0823D7UCP05030225 "Newly Discovered Amelia Earhart Letter Shows Her Wild Side."] Wireless Flash News, February 25, 2003. accessed: September 23, 2017.Patterson-Neubert, Amy. [http://news.uns.purdue.edu/html4ever/030224.Mobley.Earhart.html "Public to get first look at Amelia Earhart's private life."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060725091511/http://news.uns.purdue.edu/html4ever/030224.Mobley.Earhart.html |date=July 25, 2006 }} Purdue News, 2003. accessed: July 2, 2010.

Earhart's ideas on marriage were liberal for the time; she believed in equal responsibilities for both breadwinners and kept her own name rather than being referred to as "Mrs. Putnam". When The New York Times referred to her as "Mrs. Putnam", she laughed it off. Putnam also learned he would be called "Mr. Earhart".{{sfn|Pearce|1988|p=82}} There was no honeymoon for the couple because Earhart was involved in a nine-day, cross-country tour promoting autogyros and the tour's sponsor Beech-Nut chewing gum. Earhart and Putnam never had children but Putnam had two sons—the explorer and writer David Binney Putnam (1913–1992), and George Palmer Putnam Jr. (1921–2013)—from his previous marriage to Dorothy Binney (1888–1982),[https://web.archive.org/web/20040604061051/http://www.rootsweb.com/~flslchs/DorothyPutnam.htm "Dorothy Binney Putnam Upton Blanding Palmer 1888–1982."] St. Lucie Historical Society, Inc. (archived). accessed: September 23, 2017.{{better source needed|date=June 2024}} an heir to her father's chemical company Binney & Smith.[http://www.rootsweb.com/~flslchs/EdwinBinney.htm "Edwin Binney 1866–1934."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060713052246/http://www.rootsweb.com/~flslchs/EdwinBinney.htm |date=July 13, 2006 }} St. Lucie Historical Society, Inc. accessed: June 3, 2012.{{sfn|Lovell|1989|pp=154, 174}}

= Transatlantic solo flight in 1932 =

File:Herbert Hoover and Amelia Earhart.jpg

On May 20, 1932, 34-year-old Earhart set off from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, with a copy of the Telegraph-Journal, given to her by journalist Stuart Trueman"Eighty years since famed flight; Anniversary Amelia Earhart's stop in Saint John may have been brief but pivotal in record-breaking feat". The Telegraph-Journal, May 19, 2012. to confirm the date of the flight. She intended to fly to Paris in her single engine Lockheed Vega 5B to emulate Charles Lindbergh's solo flight five years earlier.{{sfn|Parsons|1983|pp=95–97}}{{efn|Earhart's Vega 5B was her third, after trading in two Vega 1s at the Lockheed Aircraft Company's Burbank plant.[http://www.dmairfield.org/airplanes/NC7952/index.html "Lockheed Vega NV7952."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111117190444/http://dmairfield.org/airplanes/NC7952/index.html |date=November 17, 2011 }} Davis-Monthan Aviation Field Register, September 11, 2011. accessed: September 23, 2017.}} Her technical advisor for the flight was the Norwegian-American aviator Bernt Balchen, who helped prepare her aircraft and played the role of "decoy" for the press because he was ostensibly preparing Earhart's Vega for his own Arctic flight.{{refn|Bernt Balchen had been instrumental in other transatlantic and Arctic record-breaking flights during that period.{{sfn|Butler|1997|p=263}}}} After a flight lasting 14 hours, 56 minutes, during which she contended with strong northerly winds, icy conditions and mechanical problems, Earhart landed in a pasture at Culmore, north of Derry, Northern Ireland. The landing was witnessed by Cecil King and T. Sawyer. When a farm hand asked, "Have you flown far?" Earhart replied, "From America."Goddard, Seth. [https://web.archive.org/web/20021005082222/http://www.life.com/Life/heroes/newsletters/nlearhart.html "Life Hero of the Week Profile: Amelia Earhart; First Lady of the Sky."] Time-Life (life.com), October 5, 2002 (archived). accessed: September 23, 2017.[https://web.archive.org/web/20060310224954/http://www.derrycity.gov.uk/museums/emelia.asp "Amelia Earhart Centre."]| Derry City Council Heritage and Museum Service. accessed: September 23, 2017.

As the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic, Earhart received the Distinguished Flying Cross from Congress, the Cross of Knight of the Legion of Honor from the French Government, and the Gold Medal of the National Geographic SocietySherman, Stephen. [http://acepilots.com/wwi/hfa.html "The Hall of Fame of the Air; An illustrated newspaper feature from 1935 to 1940."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070502004738/http://www.acepilots.com/wwi/hfa.html |date=May 2, 2007 }} acepilots.com, April 11, 2012. accessed: July 9, 2017. from President Herbert Hoover. As her fame grew, Earhart developed friendships with many people in high office, most notably First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who shared many of Earhart's interests, especially women's causes. After flying with Earhart, Roosevelt obtained a student permit but did not further pursue her plans to learn to fly. Earhart and Roosevelt frequently communicated with each other.{{sfn|Glines|1997|p=47}} Another flyer, Jacqueline Cochran, who was said to be Earhart's rival, also became her confidante during this period.{{sfn|Leder|1989|p=49}}

= Additional solo flights =

File:Amelia Earhart First Female Aviator Flies Solo Across Pacific in 18 Hours, 1932.webm

On January 11, 1935, Earhart became the first aviator to fly solo from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Oakland, California.[https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/11-january-1935/ "11–12 January 1935."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150114001507/http://www.thisdayinaviation.com/11-january-1935/ |date=January 14, 2015 }} This Day in Aviation, January 11, 2017. accessed: July 13, 2017,[http://aviation.hawaii.gov/aviation-pioneers/amelia-earhart/ 'Hawaii Aviation; Amelia Earhart."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160116182959/http://aviation.hawaii.gov/aviation-pioneers/amelia-earhart/ |date=January 16, 2016 }} aviation.hawaii.gov. accessed: September 23, 2017.[https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/earhart-amelia-lockheed-model-5c-vega-special-6th-earhart-aircraft-nr-965y "Earhart, Amelia; Lockheed Model 5C Vega Special (6th Earhart Aircraft, NR-965Y). (photograph)."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160706200417/https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/earhart-amelia-lockheed-model-5c-vega-special-6th-earhart-aircraft-nr-965y |date=July 6, 2016 }} National Air and Space Museum. accessed: July 13, 2017. This time, Earhart used a Lockheed 5C Vega.{{cite web|url=https://www.si.edu/object/lockheed-vega-5b-amelia-earhart%3Anasm_A19670093000|title=Lockheed Vega 5B, Amelia Earhart|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|language=English|access-date=7 December 2022|archive-date=January 12, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112001632/https://www.si.edu/object/lockheed-vega-5b-amelia-earhart%3Anasm_A19670093000|url-status=live}} Although many aviators had attempted this transoceanic route, notably by the unfortunate participants in the 1927 Dole Air Race that had reversed the route, Earhart's{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=132}} flight had been mainly routine with no mechanical breakdowns. In her final hours, she relaxed and listened to "the broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera from New York".{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=132}}

On April 19, 1935, using her Lockheed Vega aircraft that she had named "old Bessie, the fire horse",{{efn|"Old Bessie" started out as a Vega 5 built in 1928 as c/n 36, but was modified with a replacement fuselage to become a 5B.{{cite book |last=Allen |first=Richard Sanders |title=Revolution in the sky: those fabulous Lockheeds, the pilots who flew them |year=1964 |publisher=S. Greene Press |pages=199–200, 202}}}}[https://parksfield.org/airplanes/NR965Y/ "Parks Airport Lockheed Vega 5C Special NX/NR/NC965Y."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170924151638/https://parksfield.org/airplanes/NR965Y/ |date=September 24, 2017 }} parksfield.org. accessed: July 13, 2017. Earhart flew solo from Los Angeles to Mexico City. Earhart's next record attempt was a nonstop flight from Mexico City to New York. After she set off on May 8, her flight was uneventful, although large crowds that greeted her at Newark, New Jersey, were a concern,{{sfn|Lovell|1989|p=218}} because she had to be careful not to taxi into them.

Earhart again participated in the 1935 Bendix Trophy long-distance air race, finishing fifth, the best result she could manage because her stock Lockheed Vega, whose maximum speed was {{convert|195|mi/h|km/h|abbr=on}}, was outclassed by purpose-built aircraft that reached more than {{convert|300|mi/h|km/h|abbr=on}}.{{sfn|Oakes|1985|p=35}} The race had been difficult because a competitor, Cecil Allen, died in a fire at takeoff, and Jacqueline Cochran was forced to pull out due to mechanical problems. In addition, "blinding fog"{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=145}} and violent thunderstorms plagued the race.

Between 1930 and 1935, Earhart set seven women's speed-and-distance aviation records in a variety of aircraft, including the Kinner Airster, Lockheed Vega, and Pitcairn Autogiro. By 1935, recognizing the limitations of her "lovely red Vega" in long, transoceanic flights, Earhart contemplated a new "prize ... one flight which I most wanted to attempt—a circumnavigation of the globe as near its waistline as could be."{{sfn|Earhart|1937|p=37}} For the new venture, she would need a new aircraft.

= Move from New York to California =

File:Amelia Earhart LOC hec.40747.jpg]]

In late November 1934, while Earhart was away on a speaking tour, a fire broke out at the Putnam residence in Rye, destroying many family treasures and Earhart's personal mementos.{{sfn|Lovell|1989|p=209}} Putnam had already sold his interest in the New York-based publishing company to his cousin Palmer Putnam. Following the fire, the couple decided to move to the west coast, where Putnam took up his new position as head of the editorial board of Paramount Pictures in North Hollywood.{{sfn|Sloate|1990|p=64}}

At Earhart's urging, in June 1935, Putnam purchased a small house in Toluca Lake, a San Fernando Valley celebrity enclave community between the Warner Brothers and Universal Pictures studio complexes, where they had earlier rented a temporary residence.Altman, Elizabeth. [http://digital-library.csun.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOBOX=1&CISOPTR=1617&CISOROOT=/SFVH&REC=3 "Amelia Earhart home, Toluca Lake, 2003."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120325084331/http://digital-library.csun.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOBOX=1&CISOPTR=1617&CISOROOT=%2FSFVH&REC=3 |date=March 25, 2012 }} Oviatt Library Digital Archives, Delmar T. Oviatt Library, Urban Archives Center, California State University, Northridge, California. Photo: {{as of|2003|09|29}}. accessed: September 23, 2011.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110717070506/http://www.tolucalakechamber.com/History.htm "History."] TolucaLakeChamber.com, July 17, 2011. accessed: September 15, 2010.

In September 1935, Earhart and Paul Mantz established a business partnership they had been considering since late 1934, and established the short-lived Earhart-Mantz Flying School, which Mantz controlled and operated through his aviation company United Air Services, which was based at Burbank Airport. Putnam handled publicity for the school, which primarily taught instrument flying using Link Trainers.{{sfn|Long|Long|1999|pp=53–54}} Also in 1935, Earhart joined Purdue University as a visiting faculty member to counsel women on careers and as a technical advisor to its Department of Aeronautics.{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=145}}

World flight in 1937

File:Amelia Earhart - GPN-2002-000211.jpg

= Planning =

Early in 1936, Earhart started planning to fly around the world; if she succeeded, she would become the first woman to do so. Although others had flown around the world, Earhart's flight would be the longest at 29,000 miles (47,000 km) because it followed a roughly equatorial route. Earhart planned to court publicity along the route to increase interest in a planned book about the expedition.[https://www.nytimes.com/1936/04/20/archives/miss-earhart-to-get-flying-laboratory-purdue-announces-50000-fund.html "Miss Earhart to get 'Flying Laboratory'."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130520205402/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20A1FF83C5E167B93C2AB178FD85F428385F9 |date=May 20, 2013 }} The New York Times, April 20, 1936, p. 3. accessed: September 23, 2017.

Purdue University established the Amelia Earhart Fund for Aeronautical Research and gave $50,000 ({{Inflation|US|50000|1936|fmt=eq|r=-4}}) to fund the purchase of a Lockheed Electra 10E airplane.{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=150}} In July 1936, Lockheed Aircraft Company built the airplane, which was fitted with extra fuel tanks and other extensive modifications.[http://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/electra/1055.html "Lockheed Model 10E Electra c/n: 1055 Reg: NR16020."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120710172423/http://pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/electra/1055.html |date=July 10, 2012 }} PacificWrecks.com, January 5, 2011. accessed: September 23, 2017. Earhart dubbed the twin-engine monoplane her "flying laboratory". The plane was built at Lockheed's plant in Burbank, California, and after delivery, it was hangared at the nearby Mantz's United Air Services.{{sfn|Long|Long|1999|p=59}}

Earhart chose Harry Manning as her navigator; he had been the captain of the {{SS|President Roosevelt|1921|2}}, the ship that had transported Earhart from Europe in 1928.{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=150}} Manning was also a pilot and a skilled radio operator who knew Morse code.{{sfn|Long|Long|1999|p=62}}

File:Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan.jpg

The original plan was a two-person crew: Earhart would fly and Manning would navigate. During a flight across the US that included Earhart, Manning, and Putnam, Earhart flew using landmarks; she and Putnam knew where they were. Manning did a navigation fix that alarmed Putnam, because Manning made a minor navigational error that put them in the wrong state; they were flying close to the state line, but Putnam was still concerned.{{harvtxt|Long|Long|1999|pp=60–61}}: Manning "passed a note to Amelia in the cockpit giving a position in southern Kansas when they were actually in northern Oklahoma. Amelia realized they were only a few miles south of the Kansas border; in reality, the position wasn't all that far off. G. P. took the worst possible view and expressed concern because Manning didn't even have them in the right state." Sometime later, Putnam and Mantz arranged a night flight to test Manning's navigational skill.{{sfn|Long|Long|1999|p=64}} Under poor navigational conditions, Manning's position was off by {{convert|20|miles|km|abbr=out}}. Elgen M. and Marie K. Long considered Manning's performance reasonable, because it was within an acceptable error of {{convert|30|miles|km|abbr=out}}, but Mantz and Putnam wanted a better navigator.{{sfn|Long|Long|1999|p=65}}

Through contacts in the Los Angeles aviation community, Fred Noonan was chosen as a second navigator, because there were significant additional factors that had to be dealt with while using celestial navigation for aircraft.{{sfn|Long|Long|1999|p=65}}{{sfn|Post|Gatty|1931|pp=45–56}} Noonan, a licensed ship's captain, was experienced in both marine and flight navigation; he had recently left Pan American World Airways (Pan Am), where he established most of the company's China Clipper seaplane routes across the Pacific. Noonan had also been responsible for training Pan American's navigators to fly the route between San Francisco and Manila.{{sfn|Grooch|1936|pp=177, 189}} Under the original plans, Noonan would navigate from Hawaii to Howland Island—a difficult portion of the flight—then Manning would continue with Earhart to Australia, and she would proceed on her own for the remainder of the project.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

= Abandoned first attempt =

On March 17, 1937, Earhart and her crew set out on the first leg of her round-the-world flight, but they abandoned this attempt after a non-fatal crash that damaged the aircraft. The first leg of this attempt was between Oakland, California, and Honolulu, Hawaii. The crew were Earhart, Noonan, Manning, and Mantz, who was acting as Earhart's technical advisor. The propeller hubs' variable pitch mechanisms had problems, so the aircraft was taken to the U.S. Navy's Luke Field facility at Pearl Harbor for servicing. The flight resumed three days later from Luke Field, with Earhart, Noonan and Manning on board. The next destination was Howland Island, a small island in the Pacific. Manning, the radio operator, had made arrangements to use radio direction finding to home in to the island. The flight never left Luke Field; during the takeoff run, there was an uncontrolled ground-loop, the forward landing gear collapsed, both propellers hit the ground, and the plane skidded on its belly. The cause of the crash is not known; some witnesses at Luke Field, including an Associated Press journalist, said they saw a tire blow.{{sfn|Rich|1989|p=245}} Earhart earlier thought the Electra's right tire had blown and the right landing gear had collapsed. Some sources, including Mantz, cited an error by Earhart.{{sfn|Rich|1989|p=245}} With the aircraft severely damaged, the attempt was abandoned and the aircraft was shipped to Lockheed Burbank, California, for repairs.{{sfn|Leder|1989|p=48}}

=Second attempt=

File:Amelia Earhart flight route.svg

While the Electra was being repaired, Earhart and Putnam secured additional funds and prepared for a second attempt, in which they would fly west to east. The second attempt began with an unpublicized flight from Oakland to Miami, Florida, and after arriving there, Earhart announced her plans to circumnavigate the globe. The flight's opposite direction was partly the result of changes in global wind-and-weather patterns along the planned route since the earlier attempt.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

Manning, the only skilled radio operator, had left the crew, which now consisted of Noonan and Earhart. The pair departed Miami on June 1 and after numerous stops in South America, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia, arrived at Lae, New Guinea, on June 29, 1937. At this stage, about 22,000 miles (35,000 km) of the journey had been completed. The remaining 7,000 miles (11,000 km) would be over the Pacific.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto;" \|+ Earhart's 1937 flight route !width=12em\| Date !! Departure cityWaitt, Ted. [http://www.searchforamelia.org/ "The Search for Amelia."] {{webarchive\|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130703131716/http://searchforamelia.org/ \|date=July 3, 2013 }} Waitt Institute for Discovery. accessed: June 19, 2013. !! Arrival city !! Nautical miles !! Notes{{sfn\|Earhart\|1937}}
{{nowrap\|May 20, 1937}}	Oakland, California	Burbank, California	style="text-align:right"\| 283
May 21, 1937	Burbank, California	Tucson, Arizona	style="text-align:right"\| 393
May 22, 1937	Tucson, Arizona	New Orleans, Louisiana	style="text-align:right"\| 1070	Arrived at Lakefront Airport{{cite web \|url=https://www.nola.com/news/politics/new-orleans-art-deco-lakefront-airport-terminal-sheds-its-cold-war-shell/article_6b45a635-4385-5e0b-8127-0cac7b660241.html \|title=New Orleans' Art Deco Lakefront Airport terminal sheds its Cold War shell \|website=nola.com \|date=September 25, 2013 \|access-date = February 3, 2024 \|url-status=live \|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171215223900/http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/09/new_orleans_art_deco_lakefront.html \|archive-date = December 15, 2017 \|df=mdy-all}}
May 23, 1937	New Orleans, Louisiana	Miami, Florida	style="text-align:right"\| 586	Arrived at Miami Municipal Airport. {{cite web \|title=Miami Municipal Airport / Amelia Earhart Field and All-American Airport / Masters Field / Naval & Marine Corps Air Station Miami \|url=https://www.pbase.com/airlinerphotos/airports_oldmiami \|website=Sunbird Photos by Don Boyd \|access-date=1 February 2024}} {{cite web \|title=Then: Navy Municipal (former Miami Municipal) and Naval Air Station Miami Master Field (former All-American Airport) \|url=https://pbase.com/donboyd/image/90390413 \|website=Memories of Old Hialeah, Old Miami and Old South Florida Photo Galleries \|access-date=1 February 2024}} {{cite web \|last1=Estock \|first1=Debra \|title=Opa-locka, Florida \|url=https://sofl.cooperatornews.com/article/opa-locka-florida \|website=CooperatorNews South Florida \|access-date=1 February 2024 \|date=June 2016}} {{cite web\| url= http://www.crazedfanboy.com/npcr/laflapcr192.html \|title= The History of Aviation in Florida\| website=Crazedfanboy.com \| publisher=La Floridiana\| date= November 24–30, 2003 \|first= William \|last= Moriaty \|access-date= 8 April 2006}}
June 1, 1937	Miami, Florida	San Juan, Puerto Rico	style="text-align:right"\| 908
June 2, 1937	San Juan, Puerto Rico	Caripito, Venezuela	style="text-align:right"\| 492	Out of Isla Grande Airport
June 3, 1937	Caripito, Venezuela	Paramaribo, Surinam	style="text-align:right"\| 610
June 4, 1937	Paramaribo, Surinam	Fortaleza, Brazil	style="text-align:right"\| 1142
June 5, 1937	Fortaleza, Brazil	Natal, Brazil	style="text-align:right"\| 235
June 7, 1937	Natal, Brazil	Saint-Louis, French West Africa (now Senegal)	style="text-align:right"\| 1727	Transatlantic flight
June 8, 1937	Saint-Louis, Fr.W. Africa	Dakar, Fr.W. Africa (now Senegal)	style="text-align:right"\| 100
June 10, 1937	Dakar, Fr.W. Africa	Gao, French Sudan	style="text-align:right"\| 1016
June 11, 1937	Gao, French Sudan	Fort-Lamy, French Equatorial Africa (now N'Djamena, Chad)	style="text-align:right"\| 910
June 12, 1937	Fort-Lamy, Fr.Eq. Africa	El Fasher, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan	style="text-align:right"\| 610
June 13, 1937	El Fasher, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan	Khartoum, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan	style="text-align:right"\| 437
June 13, 1937	Khartoum, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan	Massawa, Italian East Africa (now Eritrea)	style="text-align:right"\| 400
June 14, 1937	Massawa, Italian East Africa	Assab, Italian East Africa (now Eritrea)	style="text-align:right"\| 241
June 15, 1937	Assab, Italian East Africa	Karachi, British India	style="text-align:right"\| 1627	First ever non-stop flight from the Red Sea to India
June 17, 1937	Karachi, British India	Calcutta, British India	style="text-align:right"\| 1178
June 18, 1937	Calcutta, British India	Akyab, Burma	style="text-align:right"\| 291
June 19, 1937	Akyab, Burma	Rangoon, Burma	style="text-align:right"\| 268
June 20, 1937	Rangoon, Burma	Bangkok, Siam	style="text-align:right"\| 315
{{nowrap\|June 20, 1937}}	Bangkok, Siam	Singapore, Straits Settlements	style="text-align:right"\| 780
June 21, 1937	Singapore, Straits Settlements	Bandoeng, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia)	style="text-align:right"\| 541
June 25, 1937	Bandoeng, Dutch East Indies	Soerabaia, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia)	style="text-align:right"\| 310	Delayed due to monsoon
June 25, 1937	Soerabaia, Dutch East Indies	Bandoeng, Dutch East Indies	style="text-align:right"\| 310	Returned for repairs, Earhart ill with dysentery
June 26, 1937	Bandoeng, Dutch East Indies	Soerabaia, Dutch East Indies	style="text-align:right"\| 310
June 27, 1937	Soerabaia, Dutch East Indies	Koepang, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia)	style="text-align:right"\| 668
June 28, 1937	Koepang, Dutch East Indies	Darwin, Australia	style="text-align:right"\| 445	Direction finder repaired, parachutes removed and sent home
June 29, 1937	Darwin, Australia	Lae, New Guinea (now Papua New Guinea)	style="text-align:right"\| 1012
July 2, 1937	Lae, New Guinea	Howland Island, American Equatorial Islands	style="text-align:right"\| 2223{{Cite web\|url=https://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/ResearchPapers/Worldflight/2ndattemptroute.html\|title=Intended Route to Howland, 2nd Attempt\|website=tighar.org\|access-date=April 15, 2021\|archive-date=April 15, 2021\|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415203511/https://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/ResearchPapers/Worldflight/2ndattemptroute.html\|url-status=live}}	Did not arrive
July 3, 1937	Howland Island	Honolulu, Hawaii	style="text-align:right"\| 1900	Planned leg
July 4, 1937	Honolulu, Hawaii	Oakland, California	style="text-align:right"\| 2400	Planned leg

=Flight between Lae and Howland Island=

File:Earhart locations.png to Howland Island, a trip of {{convert|2556|miles|nmi km|-2}}.]]

On July 2, 1937, at 10:00 am local time (12:00 am GMT), Earhart and Noonan took off from Lae Airfield in the heavily loaded Electra.[http://gc.kls2.com/airport/AYLA.OLD Lae Airfield (AYLA)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018133354/http://gc.kls2.com/airport/AYLA.OLD |date=October 18, 2012 }} at Great Circle Mapper Their destination was Howland Island, a flat sliver of land 6,500 ft (2,000 m) long and 1,600 ft (500 m) wide, 10 ft (3 m) high and {{convert|2556|mi|nmi km}} away.{{cite gnis |id=1393033 he |name=Howland Island |access-date = February 24, 2009}} The expected flying time was about 20 hours; accounting for the two-hour time-zone difference between Lae and Howland, and the crossing of the International Date Line, the aircraft was expected to arrive at Howland the morning of the next day, 2 July. The aircraft departed Lae with about {{convert|1100|USgal|l|abbr=off|sp=us}} of gasoline.{{sfn|Chater|1937}}

In preparation for the trip to Howland Island, the U.S. Coast Guard had sent the cutter {{USCGC|Itasca|1929}} to the island to offer communication and navigation support for the flight.{{Cite web|url=https://www.history.uscg.mil/Browse-by-Topic/Assets/Water/All/Article/2489592/itasca-1930|title=Itasca, 1930|website=United States Coast Guard}} The cutter was to communicate with Earhart's aircraft via radio, transmit a homing signal to help the aviators locate Howland Island, use radio direction-finding (RDF), and use the cutter's boilers to create a dark column of smoke that could be seen over the horizon. All of the navigation methods failed to guide Earhart to Howland Island.

Around 3 pm Lae time, Earhart reported her altitude as {{cvt|10000|feet}}, but that they would reduce altitude due to thick clouds. Around 5 pm, Earhart reported her altitude as {{cvt|7000|ft}} and speed as {{cvt|150|kn}}.{{sfn|Collopy|1937}} During Earhart's and Noonan's approach to Howland Island, Itasca received strong, clear voice transmissions from Earhart identifying as KHAQQ, but she was unable to hear voice transmissions from the ship.

The first calls received from Earhart were routine reports stating the weather was cloudy and overcast at 2:45 am and just before 5 am on July 2. These calls were broken up by static, but at this point, the aircraft was a long distance from Howland.{{sfn|Fleming|2011|p=2}} At 6:14 am, another call was received stating that the aircraft was within {{convert|200|miles|km}} and requesting that the ship use its direction finder to provide a bearing for the aircraft. Earhart began whistling into the microphone to provide a continuous signal for the ship's crew to use.{{sfn|Fleming|2011|p=3}} At this point, the radio operators on Itasca realized their RDF system could not tune into the aircraft's signal on 3105 kHz; radioman Leo Bellarts later commented he "was sitting there sweating blood because I couldn't do a darn thing about it".{{Cite web|url=https://penguinrandomhouselibrary.com/book/?isbn=9780307980212|title=Amelia Lost|website=Penguin Random House Library Marketing}} A similar call asking for a bearing was received at 6:45 am, when Earhart estimated they were {{convert|100|miles|km}} away.{{sfn|Fleming|2011|p=4}}

An Itasca radio log at 7:30–7:40 am states the aircraft had only a half hour of fuel remaining. A further radio log states they thought they were near Itasca but could not locate it and were flying at {{cvt|1000|feet}}.{{cite web |url=https://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/Bulletins/37_ItascaLogs/pos2page2.pdf |title=Radio Entries and Times |access-date = November 20, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161021164910/http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/Bulletins/37_ItascaLogs/pos2page2.pdf |archive-date = October 21, 2016 |df=mdy-all}} In her transmission at 7:58 am, Earhart said she could not hear Itasca and asked them to send voice signals so she could try to take a radio bearing. Itasca reported this signal as the loudest possible signal, indicating Earhart and Noonan were in the immediate area. The ship could not send voice at the frequency she asked for so they sent Morse code signals instead. Earhart acknowledged receiving these but said she was unable to determine their direction.Jacobson, Randall S., PhD. [http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Research/ResearchPapers/Worldflight/finalflight3.html "The Final Flight. Part 3: At Howland Island."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716011358/http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/ResearchPapers/Worldflight/finalflight3.html |date=July 16, 2012 }} tighar.org, 2009. Accessed: July 10, 2010.

File:USCGC Itasca.jpg

The last voice transmission received on Howland Island from Earhart indicated she and Noonan were flying along a line of position running north-to-south on 157–337 degrees, which Noonan would have calculated and drawn on a chart as passing through Howland.{{sfn|Safford|2003|p=145}} After all contact with Howland Island was lost, attempts to reach the flyers with voice and Morse code transmissions were made. Operators across the Pacific and in the United States may have heard signals from the Electra but these were weak or unintelligible.{{cite web |url= https://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/ResearchPapers/Brandenburg/signalcatalog2.html |title=Catalog and Analysis of Radio Signals During The Search for Amelia Earhart in July 1937 |last1=Brandenburg |first1=Bob |last2=Gillespie |first2=Ric |website=tighar.org |accessdate=November 18, 2024}}

A series of misunderstandings, errors or mechanical failures are likely to have occurred on the final approach to Howland Island. Noonan had earlier written about problems affecting the accuracy of RDF in navigation. Another cited cause of possible confusion was that Itasca and Earhart planned their communication schedule using time systems set a half-hour apart; Earhart was using Greenwich Civil Time (GCT) and Itasca was using a Naval time-zone designation system.Hoversten 2007, pp. 22–23.

Sources have noted Earhart's apparent lack of familiarity with her direction-finding system, which had been fitted to the aircraft just prior to the flight. The system was equipped with a new receiver from Bendix Corporation. Earhart's only training on the system was a brief introduction by Joe Gurr at the Lockheed factory. A card displaying the antenna's band settings was mounted so it was not visible.{{sfn|Long|Long|1999|p=116}} The Electra expected Itasca to transmit signals the Electra could use as an RDF beacon to find the ship. In theory, the plane could listen for the signal while rotating its loop antenna; a sharp minimum indicates the direction of the RDF beacon. The Electra's RDF equipment had failed due to a blown fuse during an earlier leg flying to Darwin; the fuse was replaced.Abbott, 1937, {{cite web |url=https://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Documents/Letters/Abbott8_3_37.pdf |title=Enclosure No.2 to Despatch No.507 from the American Consulate General, Sydney, Australia, dated August 21, 1937, entitled "Round-the-world Flight of Miss Earhart" COPY. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA. Northern Territory Administration, File No. 37/477. Darwin. 3rd August, 1937. |access-date = November 19, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161019053024/http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Documents/Letters/Abbott8_3_37.pdf |archive-date = October 19, 2016 |df=mdy-all}} Near Howland, Earhart could hear the transmission from Itasca on 7500 kHz, but she was unable to determine a minimum so she could not determine a direction to the ship. Earhart was also unable to determine a minimum during an RDF test at Lae.{{sfn|Chater|1937}}

= Disappearance =

File:Amelia Earhart Disappears (1937).webm detailing her 1937 disappearance]]

The U.S. government investigated the aircraft's disappearance and, in its report, concluded Earhart's plane ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean.{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/story/the-disappearance-of-amelia-earhart | title=The Disappearance of Amelia Earhart | Britannica }} During the 1970s, retired United States Navy (USN) captain Laurance Safford began a lengthy analysis of the flight. His research included the intricate radio-transmission documentation. Safford concluded the flight had suffered from poor planning and worse execution.{{sfn|Strippel|1995|p=20}}

Many researchers believe Earhart and Noonan died during or shortly after the crash. In 1982, retired USN rear admiral Richard R. Black, who was in administrative charge of the Howland Island airstrip and was present in the radio room on Itasca, said: "the Electra went into the sea about 10 am, July 2, 1937, not far from Howland."{{sfn|Strippel|1995}} Earhart's stepson George Palmer Putnam Jr. has said he believes "the plane just ran out of gas".Kleinberg, Eliot.

[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.obituaries/8-SuGX6ATRg "Amelia Earhart's disappearance still haunts her stepson, 83."] {{webarchive|url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20110122130054/https://groups.google.com/forum/ |date=January 22, 2011 }} Palm Beach Post, December 27, 2004. accessed: July 1, 2013. According to Earhart-biography author Susan Butler, the aircraft went into the ocean out of sight of Howland Island and rests on the seafloor at a depth of {{convert|17000|ft|km|0|abbr=on}}.[https://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/video/706_ameliaearhart.html "Amelia Earhart: Susan Butler interview."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090731132917/http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/video/706_ameliaearhart.html |date=July 31, 2009 }} History Detectives, Season 7 video. PBS. accessed: July 26, 2010. Tom D. Crouch, senior curator of the National Air and Space Museum, has said the Electra is "18,000 ft. down" and compared its archaeological significance to that of RMS Titanic.

British aviation historian Roy Nesbit interpreted evidence in contemporary accounts and Putnam's correspondence and concluded Earhart's Electra was not fully fueled at Lae.{{sfn|Strippel|1995|p=58}} William L. Polhemous, the navigator on Ann Pellegreno's 1967 flight that followed Earhart and Noonan's original flight path, studied navigational tables for July 2, 1937, and thought Noonan may have miscalculated the "single line approach" to Howland.{{sfn|Strippel|1995|pp=58, 60}}

=Search efforts=

Beginning approximately one hour after Earhart's last recorded message, Itasca undertook an unsuccessful search north and west of Howland Island based on initial assumptions about transmissions from the aircraft. The U.S. Navy joined the search and over about three days sent available resources to the search area near Howland Island.{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=251}} Official search efforts lasted until July 19, 1937.{{sfn|Safford|2003|pp=61–62, 67–68}} At $4 million (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|4|1937}} million in {{Inflation/year|US}}), the air-and-sea search by the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard was the costliest and most intensive in U.S. history up to that time. Despite the unprecedented search, no physical evidence of Earhart, Noonan, or the Electra 10E was found.{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|pp=245–254}}{{sfn|King|Jacobson|Burns|Spading|2001|pp=32–33}}

On the mornings of July 3 and July 6, 1937, an Oakland radio amateur was reported to have heard emergency transmissions, seemingly from Earhart.{{Cite web |date=July 6, 1937 |title=Amateur picks up message from Earhart |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1937/07/06/Amateur-picks-up-message-from-Earhart/3431821501408/ |access-date=2024-03-31 |work=United Press International |language=en}}{{efn|The reputed July 3 transmission was an SOS message in Earhart's voice, accompanied by her plane's call letters. The alleged July 6 message, heard on one of Earhart's bands, was in a faint voice and its gender was unidentifiable. It said, "Cannot hold out much longer". Putnam believed the messages to be authentic because they were within five minutes of the half hour, the expected interval of SOS messages.}} In the days after their last confirmed transmissions, further transmissions purporting to be from Earhart were reported, many of which were determined to be hoaxes. The captain of {{USS|Colorado|BB-45|6}} later said: "There was no doubt many stations calling the Earhart plane on the plane's frequency, some by voice and others by signals. All of these added to the confusion and doubtfulness of the authenticity of the reports."{{sfn|Gillespie|2006|p=146}}

Immediately after the end of the official search, Putnam financed a private search by local authorities of nearby Pacific islands and waters. In late July 1937, Putnam chartered two small boats and, while he remained in the United States, directed a search of other islands.{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=257}} Putnam acted to become the trustee of Earhart's estate so he could pay for the searches and related bills. In probate court in Los Angeles, Putnam asked to have the "declared death in absentia" seven-year waiting period waived so he could manage Earhart's finances. As a result, Earhart was declared legally dead on January 5, 1939.{{sfn|Van Pelt|2005|p=205}}

In 2003 and 2006, David Jourdan, through his company Nauticos, extensively searched a {{convert|1200|sqmi|km2|adj=on}} area north and west of Howland Island with deep-sea sonar devices. The searches cost $4.5 million but did not find any wreckage. The search locations were derived from the line of position (157–337) broadcast by Earhart on July 2, 1937.

In 2024, Deep Sea Vision, a Charleston, South Carolina, company that operates unmanned underwater vehicles, found via sonar what it said could be the remains of Earhart's airplane on the ocean floor.{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=Stephen |date=2024-01-29 |title=Amelia Earhart's long-lost plane possibly detected by sonar 16,000 feet underwater, exploration team claims |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amelia-earhart-plane-possibly-detected-sonar-underwater-deep-sea-vision/ |work=CBS News |language=en-US}}{{cite news |last=Kim |first=Juliana |date=January 29, 2024 |title=Amelia Earhart's long-lost plane possibly spotted in the Pacific by exploration team |url=https://www.npr.org/2024/01/29/1227574179/amelia-earharts-lost-plane-howland-island |access-date=January 29, 2024 |work=NPR}} The object, which was {{cvt|16000|ft|km}} deep and about {{convert|100|mi|km|abbr=on}} from Howland Island, turned out to be a rock formation.{{Citation | vauthors=((Deep Sea Vision)) | year=2024 | title=Deep Sea Vision - Services | url= https://www.deepseavision.com/service-details | access-date=11 August 2024}}{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/science/environment/an-adventurer-thought-he-found-amelia-earharts-plane-now-he-says-it-was-rock-466309d2?st=3GWrWb&reflink=article_copyURL_share|title=An Adventurer Thought He Found Amelia Earhart's Plane. Now He Says It Was a Rock|first=Nidhi|last=Subbaraman|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|date=November 5, 2024|accessdate=November 9, 2024}}{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-11-08/he-thought-hed-found-amelia-earharts-plane-it-was-a-pile-of-rocks|title=He thought he'd found Amelia Earhart's plane. It was a pile of rocks|first=Thomas|last=Curwen|work=Los Angeles Times|date=8 November 2024|accessdate=9 November 2024}}

Speculation on disappearance

{{main|Speculation on the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan}}

File:Nikumaroro Atoll 2014.jpg) Island in 2014. "Seven Site" is a focus of the search for Earhart's remains.]]

While most historians believe Earhart crashed and sank in the Pacific Ocean, a number of other possibilities have been proposed, including several conspiracy theories. The Gardner Island hypothesis supposes Earhart and Noonan were unable to find Howland Island and continued south. Gardner island, one of the Phoenix Islands that is now known as Nikumaroro, has been the subject of inquiry as a possible crash-landing site but, despite numerous expeditions, no link between Earhart and the island has ever been found.{{Cite news|date=October 14, 2019|title=The Amelia Earhart Mystery Stays Down in the Deep|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/science/amelia-earhart-robert-ballard.html|access-date=June 26, 2024}}

The Japanese capture theory assumes Japanese forces captured Earhart and Noonan after they navigated to the Japanese South Seas Mandate. A number of Earhart's relatives have been convinced the Japanese were somehow involved in her disappearance, citing unnamed witnesses including Japanese troops and Saipan natives.{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|pp=244, 266}}Henley, David C. [http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20091031/NEWS/910319978/1001/ "Cousin: Japanese captured Amelia Earhart"]. Nevada Appeal, October 31, 2009. accessed: November 7, 2009. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005021033/http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20091031/NEWS/910319978/1001/ |date=October 5, 2013}}

The New Britain theory assumes Earhart turned back mid-flight and tried to reach the airfield at Rabaul, New Britain, northeast of mainland Papua New Guinea, approximately {{convert|2200|mi|km}} from Howland Island."The Enduring Mystery of Amelia Earhart's Disappearance Maybe Finally Coming To an End". The Atlantic Flyer, September 2007, p. 3. In 1990, Donald Angwin, a veteran of the Australian Army's World War II New Britain campaign, reported that in 1945 he had seen a wrecked aircraft in the jungle that may have been Earhart's Electra.Billings, David. [http://www.wingsoverkansas.com/earhart/article.asp?id=850 "Aircraft Search Project in Papua New Guinea."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104062733/http://www.wingsoverkansas.com/earhart/article.asp?id=850 |date=November 4, 2012 }} Wings Over Kansas, 2000. accessed: March 27, 2012.[http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/Veteran.aspx?serviceId=A&veteranId=762092 "Angwin, Donald Arthur."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304003206/http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/Veteran.aspx?serviceId=A&veteranId=762092 |date=March 4, 2016 }} Commonwealth of Australia: Military Forces, 2002. accessed: March 27, 2012. Subsequent searches of the area failed to find any wreckage.

In November 2006, National Geographic Channel aired an episode of its series Undiscovered History that supposed Earhart survived the world flight, changed her name, remarried, and became Irene Craigmile Bolam. This claim had originally been published in the book Amelia Earhart Lives (1970), which is based on the research of Joseph Gervais.{{Cite web |last=Gillespie |first=Richard |title=Is This Amelia Earhart? |url=http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Books/BookReviews/earhartsurvive.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100907000705/http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Books/BookReviews/earhartsurvive.html |archive-date=September 7, 2010 |access-date=April 10, 2025 |website=The Earhart Project}} Shortly after the book's publication, Bolam filed a lawsuit requesting $1.5 million in damages (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|1.5|1970}} million in {{Inflation/year|US}}) and the book's publisher McGraw-Hill withdrew it from the market; court records indicate the company reached an out-of-court settlement with her.

Legacy

File:Folded Wings Shrine portal.jpg.]]

During her life, Earhart embraced celebrity culture and women's rights, and since her disappearance, she has become a global cultural icon.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/why-amelia-earhart-still-fascinates|title=Why does Amelia Earhart still fascinate us?|date=October 19, 2019|website=National Geographic}} Countless tributes and memorials have been made in Amelia Earhart's name, including a 2012 tribute by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said at a State Department event celebrating the ties of Earhart and the United States to its Pacific neighbors: "Earhart ... created a legacy that resonates today for anyone, girls and boys, who dreams of the stars".[http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2012/03/201203202478.html "Earhart broke social and aviation barriers, Clinton say.."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014132529/http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2012/03/201203202478.html |date=October 14, 2013 }} U.S. Department of State, March 20, 2012. In 2013, Flying magazine ranked Earhart No. 9 on its list of the "51 Heroes of Aviation".[http://www.flyingmag.com/photo-gallery/photos/51-heroes-aviation?pnid=41846 "51 Heroes of Aviation: Amelia Earhart."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150615031723/http://www.flyingmag.com/photo-gallery/photos/51-heroes-aviation?pnid=41846 |date=June 15, 2015 }} Flying, September 2013.

Earhart was a widely known, international celebrity during her lifetime. Her shyly charismatic appeal, independence, persistence, coolness under pressure, courage and goal-oriented career, along with the circumstances of her disappearance at a comparatively early age, have driven her lasting fame in popular culture. Hundreds of articles and scores of books have been written about her life, which is often cited as a motivational tale, especially for girls. Earhart is generally regarded as a feminist icon.{{sfn|Hamill|1976|p=49}}

Earhart's accomplishments in aviation inspired a generation of female aviators, including more-than 1,000 female pilots of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), who served during World War II.{{sfn|Regis|2008|pp=102–105}}{{sfn|Haynsworth|Toomey|1998}}

The home where Earhart was born is now the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum and is maintained by Ninety-Nines, an international group of female pilots of which Earhart was the first elected president.[http://theyellowbrickroadtrip.blogspot.com/2009/04/amelia-earhart-birthplace-museum.html "The Yellow Brick Road Trip."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007022626/http://theyellowbrickroadtrip.blogspot.com/2009/04/amelia-earhart-birthplace-museum.html |date=October 7, 2011 }} theyellowbrickroadtrip.blogspot.com. accessed: July 2, 2009. The Amelia Earhart Festival has taken place in Atchison, Kansas, every year since 1996.{{Cite web|url=https://visitatchison.com/highlight/amelia-earhart-festival|title=Amelia Earhart Festival|date=March 22, 2024}}

=Tributes and memorials=

File:Amelia Earhart Statue by Mark and George Lundeen.jpg, by Mark and George Lundeen, represents Kansas in the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection]]

==Tributary flights==

In 1967, Ann Pellegreno flew a similar aircraft to Earhart's, a Lockheed 10A Electra, to complete a round-the-world flight that followed Earhart's flight plan. On the 30th anniversary of her disappearance, Pellegreno dropped a wreath over Howland island in Earhart's honor.Van Pelt, Lori. Amelia Earhart: The Sky's No Limit (American Heroes). New York: Macmillan, 2005. {{ISBN|0-7653-1061-9}}, pp. 219–220.

In 1997, on the 60th anniversary of Earhart's round-the-world flight, San Antonio businesswoman Linda Finch retraced the final flight path, flying a restored 1935 Lockheed Electra 10, the same make and model of aircraft as Earhart's.[https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/transportation/may97/earhart_5-28a.html "Wings of Dreams – May 28, 1997" (transcript).] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130910005723/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/transportation/may97/earhart_5-28a.html |date=September 10, 2013 }} PBS. accessed: June 19, 2008.

In 2001, another commemorative flight retraced the route Earhart flew in her August 1928 transcontinental record flight; Carlene Mendieta flew an original Avro Avian, the same type of aircraft that was used in 1928.

==Buildings and structures==

In 1942, a United States Liberty ship named {{SS|Amelia Earhart}} was launched; it was wrecked in 1948.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}} USNS Amelia Earhart was named in her honor in May 2007.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

In 1964, Purdue University opened Earhart Hall in honor of her legacy and contribution to the university during her time as a career counselor for female students and technical advisor for the aeronautics department. In 2009, Purdue erected a bronze statue of Earhart holding a propeller in front of the residence hall named after her.{{Cite web|url=https://www.purdue.edu/uns/x/2009a/090415BlackwelderEarhart.html|title=Purdue unveils Amelia Earhart sculpture|date=April 16, 2009}} The university board recently approved plans to name the new Purdue University Airport terminal the Amelia Earhart Terminal.{{Cite web|url=https://www.purdueexponent.org/campus/article_a576afd8-c39d-11ee-a0cd-df29af0c15e1.html|title=Earhart's Purdue legacy resurfaces|date=February 4, 2024}}

File:Amelia Earhart, 8c airmail, 1963 issue.jpg

The Earhart Light, also known as the Amelia Earhart Light, is a navigational day beacon on Howland Island, where she was due to land before she went missing. It is no longer operational.[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19630817&id=wpYzAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DOMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6634,3172509 "Earhart beacon shines from lonely island."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191201011221/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19630817&id=wpYzAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DOMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6634%2C3172509 |date=December 1, 2019 }} Eugene Register-Guard, August 17, 1963. accessed: March 20, 2012. Amelia Earhart Airport in Atchison, Kansas, was named in her honor.[https://books.google.com/books?id=JMvnAAAAMAAJ "Kansas City Airport."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112001638/https://books.google.com/books?id=JMvnAAAAMAAJ |date=January 12, 2024 }} Kansas Government Journal, Volume 44, 1958, p. 20. accessed: June 25, 2010.

Amelia Earhart Dam on Mystic River in eastern Massachusetts is named in her honor. The "Earhart Tree" on Banyan Drive in Hilo, Hawaii, was planted by Earhart in 1935.{{Cite news |url=https://www.sfgate.com/hawaii/alohafriday/article/Amelia-Earhart-Hawaii-celebrates-the-great-2463264.php |title=Amelia Earhart: Hawaii celebrates the great aviator |last=Cooper |first=Jeanne |date=2010-07-23 |work=San Francisco Chronicle |access-date=2018-06-30 |df=mdy-all |archive-date=June 30, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180630214317/https://www.sfgate.com/hawaii/alohafriday/article/Amelia-Earhart-Hawaii-celebrates-the-great-2463264.php |url-status=live }}

==Other tributes==

The Amelia Earhart Commemorative Stamp (8¢ airmail postage) was issued in 1963 by the United States Postmaster-General.{{Cite web|url=https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/women-on-stamps-part-2-aviatrixes-and-athletes-inspiring-lives-aviatrixes/amelia-earhart|title=Amelia Earhart|website=postalmuseum.si.edu}}

Earhart was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1992.{{Cite web|url=https://www.mshf.com/hall-of-fame/inductees/amelia-earhart.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324151639/http://www.mshf.com/hall-of-fame/inductees/amelia-earhart.html|url-status=dead|title=Amelia Earhart|archivedate=March 24, 2019|website=www.mshf.com}}

A full-sized bronze statue of Amelia Earhart was placed at the Spirit of Flight Center in Lafayette, Colorado, in 2008.{{Cite web|url=https://www.aero-news.net/aNNTicker.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=7BD5560C-A4C3-44D2-8655-CCEAC6F5A1F6|title=Spirit Of Flight Center Welcomes New Addition | Aero-News Network|website=www.aero-news.net}} A statue by Ernest Shelton was erected circa 1971 in Los Angeles, California.{{cite web |title=Amelia Earhart Statue (c. 1971) |url=https://www.publicartinpublicplaces.info/amelia-earhart-c-1971-by-ernest-shelton |website=Public Art In Public Places |access-date=21 March 2024}}{{cite web |title=Amelia Earhart Statue Is Fully Restored |url=https://cd2.lacity.gov/news/amelia-earhart-statue-fully-restored |website=Council District 2 |access-date=8 February 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241009072929/https://cd2.lacity.gov/news/amelia-earhart-statue-fully-restored |archive-date=9 October 2024 |date=1 August 2024 |url-status=live}}

A small section of Earhart's Lockheed Electra starboard engine nacelle that was recovered following the March 1937 Hawaii crash has been confirmed as authentic and is now regarded as a control piece that will help authenticate possible future discoveries.[https://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigations/706_ameliaearhart.html "Amelia Earhart's plane."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091207055342/http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigations/706_ameliaearhart.html |date=December 7, 2009 }} History Detectives, 2009. accessed: July 24, 2010.

The Amelia Earhart Fellowship was established by Zonta International in 1938. It awards US$10,000 annually to up to 30 women pursuing Ph.D. degrees in aerospace engineering and space sciences. Since the program’s inception in 1938, Zonta has awarded 1,764 Amelia Earhart Fellowships, totaling more than US$11.9 million, to 1,335 women from 79 countries.{{Cite book |last=Macmillan |first=Palgrave |url=https://www.google.co.il/books/edition/The_Grants_Register_2025/-wocEQAAQBAJ?hl=iw&gbpv=1&pg=PA1081&printsec=frontcover |title=The Grants Register 2025: The Complete Guide to Postgraduate Funding Worldwide |date=2024-08-23 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-1-349-96110-8 |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Amelia Earhart Fellowship |url=https://www.zonta.org/Web/Web/Programs/Education/Amelia_Earhart_Fellowship.aspx |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250222012900/https://www.zonta.org/Web/Web/Programs/Education/Amelia_Earhart_Fellowship.aspx |archive-date=2025-02-22 |access-date=2025-05-04 |website=Zonta |language=en}}

In popular culture

Amelia Earhart's life has been the subject of many writers; the following collection of examples make no claims of completeness:

=Novels and plays=

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 to fight against the Nazis in World War II.{{Cite web|url=https://www.fantasticfiction.com/t/harry-turtledove/or-even-eagle-flew.htm|title=Or Even Eagle Flew by Harry Turtledove|website=www.fantasticfiction.com|access-date=April 22, 2021|archive-date=April 22, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422222006/https://www.fantasticfiction.com/t/harry-turtledove/or-even-eagle-flew.htm|url-status=live}}
The events surrounding Earhart and Noonan's disappearance are dramatized in the 1996 novel I Was Amelia Earhart by Jane Mendelsohn.{{cite magazine |last1=Merkin |first1=Daphne |title=Earhart Ever After |url=https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1996-05-20/flipbook/096/ |magazine=The New Yorker |date=May 20, 1996}}{{subscription required}}
In 2011, the Great Canadian Theatre Company hosted a musical play titled Amelia: The Girl Who Wants To Fly.{{cite web |url=http://www.gctc.ca/plays/season11-12/amelia |title=Amelia: The Girl Who Wants to Fly |access-date = October 6, 2011 |url-status = bot: unknown |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111230055337/http://www.gctc.ca/plays/season11-12/amelia |archive-date = December 30, 2011 |df=mdy}}. Great Canadian Theatre Company. accessed: October 6, 2011. This is one of numerous plays on the subject.

=Film and television=

The Rosalind Russell film Flight for Freedom (1943) was derived from a treatment of "Stand by to Die", a fictionalized treatment of Earhart's life.{{sfn|Strippel|1995|p=20}}
"Amelia Earhart: The Price of Courage" (1993) is an American Experience television documentary.[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/earhart/ "Amelia Earhart: The Price of Courage (1993)."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100222072821/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/earhart/ |date=February 22, 2010 }} American Experience. accessed: February 23, 2010.
Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight (1994) starring Diane Keaton, Rutger Hauer, and Bruce Dern, was initially released as a television movie and subsequently rereleased as a theatrical feature.McCallion, Bernadette. [https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/149352/Amelia-Earhart-The-Final-Flight/overview "Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight (1994)."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130520205259/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/149352/Amelia-Earhart-The-Final-Flight/overview |date=May 20, 2013 }} The New York Times. accessed: December 26, 2011.
The events surrounding Earhart and Noonan's disappearance are dramatized in the science fiction television show Star Trek: Voyager, episode "The 37's" (1995), with Sharon Lawrence portraying Earhart.
In the biopic film Amelia (2009), Earhart is portrayed by Hilary Swank.Fleming, Michael. [https://variety.com/2008/film/markets-festivals/hilary-swank-to-play-amelia-earhart-1117980470/ "Hilary Swank to play Amelia Earhart: Mira Nair to direct biopic from Ron Bass script."] Variety, February 7, 2008. accessed: December 8, 2008.
In the 2009 American fantasy comedy film Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian Earhart is portrayed by Amy Adams.{{cite web |last1=Py-Lieberman |first1=Beth |title=Q and A: Amy Adams |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/q-and-a-amy-adams-130251964/ |website=Smithsonian |access-date=18 February 2025 |date=June 2009}}

=Music=

Plainsong released a tribute album, In Search of Amelia Earhart (Elektra K42120), in 1972. Both the album and the Press Pak released by Elektra have become collectables and have gained a cult status.[http://www.andyrobertsmusic.com/plains.html "In Search of Amelia Earhart/Now We Are Three."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061014132758/http://www.andyrobertsmusic.com/plains.html |date=October 14, 2006 }} andyrobertsmusic.com. accessed: July 2, 2010.
Singer Joni Mitchell's song "Amelia" appears on her album Hejira (1976) and it also features in the video of her 1980 live album Shadows and Light (1980) with clips of Earhart. Commenting on the origins of the song, which interweaves the story of a desert journey with aspects of Earhart's disappearance, Mitchell said: "I was thinking of Amelia Earhart and addressing it from one solo pilot to another ... sort of reflecting on the cost of being a woman and having something you must do".[https://web.archive.org/web/20041001000211/http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12-96/12-07-96/b01ae065.htm "News Archive: Your link to SouthCoast Massachusetts and beyond."] The Times Standard, October 1, 2004 (archived). accessed: February 21, 2012.
The 2024 Public Service Broadcasting album The Last Flight tells the story of Earhart's final flight.{{Cite web |last=Ewingpublished |first=Jerry |date=2024-07-09 |title=New Public Service Broadcasting album The Last Flight tells the story of Amelia Earhart's last doomed flight |url=https://www.loudersound.com/news/new-public-service-broadcasting-album-the-last-flight-tells-the-story-of-amelia-earharts-last-doomed-flight |access-date=2024-10-28 |website=louder |language=en}}

=Other=

Lego produced a limited run of Amelia's "Little Red Bus" Lego Model Number 40450.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/amelia-earhart-tribute-40450|title=Amelia Earhart Tribute 40450|website=www.lego.com|access-date=March 22, 2021|archive-date=March 22, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210322020732/https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/amelia-earhart-tribute-40450|url-status=live}}
Earhart was one of several inspiring women who are represented in a line of Barbie dolls introduced on March 6, 2018.{{cite web |url=https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/06/us/barbie-dolls-inspiring-women-trnd/index.html |title=Barbie unveils dolls based on Amelia Earhart, Frida Kahlo, Katherine Johnson and Chloe Kim |last1=Leguizamon |first1=Mercedes |last2=Ahmed |first2=Saeed |work=CNN |date=March 7, 2018 |access-date=April 4, 2018 |archive-date=March 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180323044417/https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/06/us/barbie-dolls-inspiring-women-trnd/index.html |url-status=live }}
Team Fortress 2 features Amelia Earhart in their comic A Cold Day in Hell. The mercenaries find her plane crashed in Sibera.{{cite web|url=https://wiki.teamfortress.com/w/images/3/3c/Acolddayinhell18.jpg|title=A Cold Day in Hell - Team Fortress 2 Comics|author=Valve|access-date=August 16, 2024}}
Earhart was profiled in the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibit, ONE LIFE: Amelia Earhart{{Cite web |title=One Life: Amelia Earhart {{!}} National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution |url=https://npg.si.edu/exhibit/earhart/index.html |access-date=2025-05-08 |website=npg.si.edu}}{{Cite web |title=At the Portrait Gallery: “One Life: Amelia Earhart” Opens 75 Years After Her Disappearance |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/at-the-portrait-gallery-one-life-amelia-earhart-opens-75-years-after-her-disappearance-85014/ |access-date=2025-05-08 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}.

Records and achievements

File:Amelia-dressed-to-fly (cropped).jpg.[https://web.archive.org/web/20140223115528/http://museumofwomenpilots.com/MusuemNews.html "Museum News & Events"] Museum of Woman Pilots, Oklahoma City (archived). accessed: September 24, 2017.]]

Woman's world altitude record: 14,000 ft (1922)
First woman to fly the Atlantic Ocean (1928)
Speed records for 100 km (and with {{convert|500|lb|abbr=on}} cargo) (1931)
First woman to fly an autogyro (1931)
Altitude record for autogyros: 18,415 ft (1931)
First woman to cross the United States in an autogyro (1931)
First woman to fly the Atlantic solo (1932)
First person to fly the Atlantic twice (1932)
First woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross (1932)
First woman to fly nonstop, coast-to-coast across the U.S. (1932){{Cite web|url=http://collections.lib.purdue.edu/aearhart/timeline.php|title=Amelia Earhart Collection|website=collections.lib.purdue.edu|access-date=November 1, 2020|archive-date=November 26, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201126163245/http://collections.lib.purdue.edu/aearhart/timeline.php|url-status=live}}
Women's speed transcontinental record (1933)
First person to fly solo between Honolulu, Hawaii, and Oakland, California (1935){{cite web | url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/earhart-flies-from-hawaii-to-california | title=Amelia Earhart flies from Hawaii to California | January 11, 1935 }}
First person to fly solo from Los Angeles to Mexico City (1935)
First person to fly solo nonstop from Mexico City to Newark, New Jersey (1935)
Speed record for east-to-west flight from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii (1937){{sfn|Sloate|1990|pp=116–117}}
First person to fly solo from the Red Sea to Karachi (1937){{Cite web |last=Morton |first=Michael Quentin |date=December 2021 |title=They Couldn't Stop Amelia Earhart |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/they-couldnt-stop-amelia-earhart-180979368/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240207102453/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/they-couldnt-stop-amelia-earhart-180979368/ |archive-date=2024-02-07 |access-date=2024-06-02 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}

Books by Earhart

Earhart was a successful and heavily promoted writer who served as aviation editor for Cosmopolitan from 1928 to 1930. She wrote magazine articles, newspaper columns, and essays, and published two books based upon her experiences as a flyer during her lifetime:

20 Hrs. 40 Min. (1928) is a journal of her experiences as the first woman passenger on a transatlantic flight.
The Fun of It (1932) is a memoir of her flying experiences and an essay on women in aviation.
Last Flight (1937) features the periodic journal entries she sent to the United States during her round-the-world flight attempt, and was published in newspapers in the weeks prior to her departure from New Guinea. The journal was compiled by Earhart's husband GP Putnam after her disappearance over the Pacific. Many historians consider this book to be only partially Earhart's original work.

Notes

References

= Works cited =

{{cite book |last=Backus |first=Jean L. |title=Letters from Amelia, 1901–1937 |year=1982 |publisher=Beacon Press |isbn=978-0-8070-6702-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/lettersfromameli00amel }}
{{cite book |last=Blau |first=Melinda |title=Whatever Happened to Amelia Earhart? |year=1977 |publisher=Contemporary Perspectives |isbn=978-0-8172-1057-1}}
{{cite book |last1=Bryan |first1=C. D. B. |title=The National Air and Space Museum |date=1979 |publisher=Abrams |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8109-0666-2 |edition=1st |url=https://archive.org/details/internationalair00brya }}
{{cite book |last=Butler |first=Susan |title=East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart |year=1997 |publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=978-0-201-31144-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/easttodawnlifeof00butl }}
{{cite web |last=Chater |first=Eric H. |title=Letter to M. E. Griffin |date=July 25, 1937 |location=Lae, New Guinea |url=https://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Documents/Chater_Report.html |access-date=November 9, 2017 |archive-date=November 10, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171110114757/https://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Documents/Chater_Report.html |url-status=live }}
{{cite book |last=Cochran |first=Jacqueline |title=Stars at Noon |url=https://archive.org/details/starsatnoon00coch |url-access=registration |location=Boston |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |year=1954 }}
{{cite letter |last=Collopy |first=James A. |date=August 28, 1937 |subject=Amelia Earhart |recipient=Civil Aviation Board |location=Lae, New Guinea |url=https://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Documents/Collopy_Letter.html |access-date = December 2, 2017}}
{{cite book |last1=Corn |first1=Joseph J. |title=The winged gospel: America's romance with aviation, 1900–1950. |url=https://archive.org/details/wingedgospelamer00corn |url-access=registration |date=1983 |publisher=Oxford Univ. Pr. |location=New York |isbn=978-0-19-503356-4 }}
{{cite book |last=Earhart |first=Amelia |title=The Fun of It |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OVeXAwAAQBAJ |date=1932 |publisher=Chicago Review Press |isbn=978-0-89733-658-1 |access-date=October 16, 2017 |archive-date=January 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112001639/https://books.google.com/books?id=OVeXAwAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}
{{cite book |last=Earhart |first=Amelia |title=Last Flight |edition=1st |year=1937 |publisher=Harcourt, Brace and Company}}
{{cite book |last=Fleming |first=Candace |title=Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart |year=2011 |publisher=Schwartz & Wade Books |isbn=978-0-375-84198-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/amelialostlifean00flem }}
{{cite book |last=Garst |first=Shannon |title=Amelia Earhart: Heroine of the Skies |year=1947 |publisher=Julian Messner, Inc. |location=New York}}
{{cite book |last=Gillespie |first=Ric |title=Finding Amelia: The True Story of the Earhart Disappearance |year=2006 |publisher=Naval Institute Press |isbn=978-1-59114-319-2}}
{{cite journal |last=Glines |first=C.V. |title='Lady Lindy': The Remarkable Life of Amelia Earhart |journal=Aviation History |date=July 1997 |url=http://www.historynet.com/lady-lindy-the-remarkable-life-of-amelia-earhart-july-97-aviation-history-feature.htm |access-date=October 17, 2017 |archive-date=October 17, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171017203558/http://www.historynet.com/lady-lindy-the-remarkable-life-of-amelia-earhart-july-97-aviation-history-feature.htm |url-status=live }}
{{cite book |last1=Goldstein |first1=Donald M. |last2=Dillon |first2=Katherine V. |title=Amelia: The Centennial Biography of an Aviation Pioneer |url=https://archive.org/details/ameliacentennial0000gold |url-access=registration |year=1997 |publisher=Brassey's |isbn=978-1-57488-134-9 }}
{{cite book |last=Grooch |first=William Stephen |title=Skyway to Asia |url=https://archive.org/details/skywaytoasia0000groo |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Longmans, Green and Co. |year=1936 }}
{{cite journal |last1=Hamill |first1=Pete |title=Leather and Pearls: The Cult of Amelia Earhart |journal=Ms. |date=September 1976}}
{{cite book |last1=Haynsworth |first1=Leslie |last2=Toomey |first2=David |title=Amelia Earhart's daughters: the wild and glorious story of American women aviators from World War II to the dawn of the space age |year=1998 |publisher=Perennial |location=New York |isbn=978-0-380-72984-5 |edition=1st Perennial}}
{{cite book |last=Jessen |first=Gene Nora |title=The Powder Puff Derby of 1929: The First All Women's Transcontinental Air Race |year=2002 |publisher=Sourcebooks |isbn=978-1-57071-769-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/powderpuffderbyo00gene }}
{{cite book |last=Kerby |first=Mona |title=Amelia Earhart: Courage in the Sky |year=1990 |publisher=Viking |isbn=978-0-670-83024-4}}
{{cite book |last1=King |first1=Thomas F. |last2=Jacobson |first2=Randall S. |last3=Burns |first3=Karen R. |last4=Spading |first4=Kenton |title=Amelia Earhart's shoes: is the mystery solved? |date=2001 |publisher=AltaMira Press |location=Walnut Creek, California |isbn=978-0-7591-0130-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/ameliaearhartssh00thom }}
{{cite book |last=Lauber |first=Patricia |title=Lost Star: The Story of Amelia Earhart |year=1989 |publisher=Scholastic |isbn=978-0-590-41159-2}}
{{cite book |last1=Leder |first1=Jane |title=Amelia Earhart: opposing viewpoints |date=1989 |publisher=Greenhaven Press |location=San Diego, Calif. |isbn=978-0-89908-070-3 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ameliaearhartopp0000lede }}
{{cite book |last1=Long |first1=Elgen M. |last2=Long |first2=Marie K. |title=Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved |url=https://archive.org/details/ameliaearhart00elge |url-access=registration |year=1999 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-7432-0217-6 }}
{{cite book |last=Lovell |first=Mary S. |title=The Sound of Wings: The Life of Amelia Earhart |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780312587338 |url-access=registration |year=1989 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=978-1-4668-6648-5 }}
Lubben, Kristen and Erin Barnett. Amelia Earhart: Image and Icon. New York: International Center of Photography, 2007. {{ISBN|978-3-86521-407-2}}.
{{cite journal |last1=Marshall |first1=Patti |title=Neta Snook |journal=Aviation History |date=January 2007 |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=21–22 |url=http://www.historynet.com/anita-neta-snook.htm |access-date=October 17, 2017 |archive-date=October 17, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171017203601/http://www.historynet.com/anita-neta-snook.htm |url-status=live }}
{{cite book |last1=Morey |first1=Eileen |title=Amelia Earhart |date=1995 |publisher=Lucent Books |location=San Diego, CA |isbn=978-1-56006-065-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781560060659 }}
Morrissey, Muriel Earhart. Amelia Earhart. Santa Barbara, California: Bellerophon Books, 1992. {{ISBN|0-88388-044-X}}.
{{cite book |last=Morrissey |first=Muriel Earhart |title=Courage is the Price: The Biography of Amelia Earhart |year=1963 |publisher=McCormick-Armstrong, Pub. Division}}
{{cite book |last=Oakes |first=Claudia M. |title=United States women in aviation, 1930–1939 |year=1985 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press |isbn=978-0-87474-709-6}}
{{cite book |last1=Parsons |first1=Bill |title=The challenge of the Atlantic: a photo-illustrated history of early aviation in Harbour Grace, Nfld. |date=1983 |publisher=Robinson-Blackmore |location=St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada |isbn=978-0-920884-06-5}}
{{cite book |last=Pearce |first=Carol A. |title=Amelia Earhart |year=1988 |publisher=Facts on File |isbn=978-0-8160-1520-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/ameliaearhart00pear }}
Pellegrino, Anne Holtgren. World Flight: The Amelia Trail. Ames, Iowa: The Iowa State University Press, 1971. {{ISBN|0-8138-1760-9}}.
{{cite book |last1=Post |first1=Wiley |last2=Gatty |first2=Harold |title=Around the world in eight days: the flight of the Winnie Mae |year=1931 |publisher=Rand, McNally & Company}}
The Radio Amateur's Handbook. West Hartford, Connecticut: American Radio Relay League, 1945. No ISBN.
{{cite book |last1=Randolph |first1=Blythe |title=Amelia Earhart |date=1987 |publisher=F. Watts |location=New York |isbn=978-0-531-10331-9 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ameliaearhart0000rand }}
{{cite book |last=Regis |first=Margaret |title=When Our Mothers Went to War: An Illustrated History of Women in World War II |year=2008 |publisher=NavPublishing |isbn=978-1-879932-05-0}}
{{cite book |last=Rich |first=Doris L. |title=Amelia Earhart: A Biography |url=https://archive.org/details/ameliaearhartbio00dori |url-access=registration |year=1989 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press |location=Washington, DC |isbn=978-1-56098-725-3 }}
{{cite book |last1=Safford |first1=Laurance F. |title=Earhart's flight into yesterday: the facts without the fiction |date=2003 |publisher=Paladwr Press |location=McLean, Va. |isbn=978-1-888962-20-8}}
Safford, Laurance F. with Cameron A. Warren and Robert R. Payne. Earhart's Flight into Yesterday: The Facts Without the Fiction, McLean, Virginia: Paladwr Press, 2003. {{ISBN|1-888962-20-8}}.
{{cite book |last1=Sloate |first1=Susan |title=Amelia Earhart: challenging the skies |date=1990 |publisher=Fawcett Columbine |location=New York |isbn=978-0-449-90396-4 |edition=1st |url=https://archive.org/details/ameliaearhartcha00sloa }}
{{cite journal |date=November 1995 |volume=31 |issue=11 |journal=Air Classics |title=Researching Amelia: A detailed summary for the serious researcher into the disappearance of Amelia Earhart |last=Strippel |first=Richard G.}}
{{cite book |last=Thames |first=Richard |title=Amelia Earhart |location=New York |publisher=Franklin Watts |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-531-10851-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/ameliaearhart00tame }}
{{cite book |last1=Van Pelt |first1=Lori |title=Amelia Earhart: the sky's no limit |date=2005 |publisher=Forge |location=New York |isbn=978-0-7653-1061-3 |edition=1. |url=https://archive.org/details/ameliaearhartsky0000vanp }}
{{cite journal |last1=Van Pelt |first1=Lori |title=Amelia's Autogiro Adventures |journal=Aviation History |date=March 2008}}

External links

[http://www.ameliaearhart.com/ The Official Website of Amelia Earhart (The Family of Amelia Earhart)]
[http://www.ameliaearhartmuseum.org/ Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum]
Papers

:* [https://www.archives.gov/news/topics/earhart Records Relating to Amelia Earhart] – National Archives

:* [http://www.lib.purdue.edu/spcol/aearhart/ George Palmer Putnam Collection of Amelia Earhart Papers] at Purdue University Libraries

:* [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/wright:@field(DOCID+@lit(wright002423)) General Correspondence: Earhart, Amelia, 1932–1934], The Wilbur and Orville Wright

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Category:1930s missing person cases

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Category:American women aviation record holders

Category:American women aviators