Amelia Earhart born July 24, 1897; disappeared July 2, 1937
Although, this medal is commemorating The 1928 Transatlantic flight and Amelia Earhart is credited for the first woman to cross the Atlantic in flight, she had little to do with the flying the plane.
The pilot was Wilmer Stultz the copilot, Louis Gordon.
The team departed from Trepassey Harbor, Newfoundland, in a
Fokker F.VIIb/3m on June 17, 1928, landing near Burry Port, South Wales, exactly 20 hours and 40 minutes later.
When interviewed after landing, Earhart said,
"Stultz did all the flying, had to. I was just baggage,
like a sack of potatoes."
She added, "maybe someday I'll try it alone."
Still she became quite the celebrity, resembling Lindbergh and was nicknamed "Lady Lindy" and was the "Queen of the Air".
She toured giving lectures, endorsed Lucky Strike cigarettes even started a fashion line of casual "active living" washable clothing. She used the A.E. logo on a line of luggage. She also wrote books.
She married one of the most successful promoters in the United States during the 1930s, George P. Putnam. He had worked with Earhart in her ventures and she finally accepted his sixth marriage proposal.
In May of 1932 she did fly solo across the Atlantic in a
Red Lockheed Vega 5B. On January 11, 1935, Earhart became the first aviator to fly solo from Honolulu, Hawaii to Oakland, California.
(shown is the actual plane on display at The Smithsonian.)In 1937 Amelia Earhart chose Captain Harry Manning as her navigator to Circle the Globe in the
Lockheed Electra 10E.
He had been the captain of the President Roosevelt, the ship that had brought Earhart back from Europe in 1928. Although the Electra was publicized as a "flying laboratory", little useful science was planned and the flight was arranged around Earhart's intention to circumnavigate the globe along with gathering raw material and public attention for her next book.
Earhart and Manning disappeared somewhere around Howland Island in the Pacific.
It is located about or a little more than halfway between Australia and Hawaii. Earhart's flight was intended to be from Lae Airfield in Lae, Papua New Guinea to Howland Island, a trip of 2,556 miles.
This leg was the longest of the planned flight, the length was close to the maximum range of the plane, and the destination was a small island in a large ocean. They were estimating to be only 100 miles from Howland Island when they were lost and communications were one way only from the aircraft.
There are many theories, some bizarre, and some quite possible but none have proven the circumstances and whereabouts of the plane or Amelia Earhart's fate. She was declared legally dead on January 5, 1939.
First Page
Previous Page
Posted 06/06/2018 6:28 pm
