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Ameilia_Earhart (1)

Page history last edited by AKabodian 12 years, 5 months ago

The Width of the World

Amelia and her sister were adventurous. During the summer, Amelia had a fantastic idea. She found some lumber from in the barn and propped the two-by-fours against the toolshed roof. Amelia was building a rollercoaster. Friends stopped by and some stayed to help. They sawed and hammered the track. One end of the track was nailed to the shed. For the roller coaster car, they fastened roller-skates to the bottom of a crate. Finally, they oiled the skate wheels and greased the track. Amelia climbed up onto the roof of the shed and got into the car. She barely had time to yell “Whee!!” before the wheels hit the grass and the car flipped over. Amelia lay on the grass for a moment, with the wind knocked out of her. Then she began to laugh. “Wasn’t that grand?” she exclaimed. Clearly Amelia Earhart—who would grow up to be a pioneer female aviator—had an early love of speed.

Amelia Earhart was born in 1897 in Atchison, Kansas. Growing up in the Midwest, most young girls were encouraged to participate in quiet activities. But Amelia Earhart was encouraged to be just the opposite. The blonde little girl was adventurous and very physically active. Amelia’s favorite things to do were horseback riding, playing rough games, and being outdoors. She had never even considered flying, though, until 1920.

Amelia’s father, Edwin Earhart, was an alcoholic who had trouble keeping a job and supporting his family. Because of this, the Earhart family moved a lot, living in Iowa, Minnesota, New York, and California. Witnessing the effect of her parents’ unhappy marriage on her mother’s health and financial status had a lasting impact on Amelia. She became determined to remain independent and in control of her own life.

While living in New York in 1919, the 22-year-old Amelia enrolled at Columbia University as a pre-med student. She did very well her first year of college, but family responsibilities drew her to California the next year. Here she took her first plane ride, and immediately knew that flying was for her. Amelia abandoned college and signed up for flying lessons from a pioneer woman pilot, Neta Snook. Soon after, in 1921, Amelia took her first solo flight, and for her 25th birthday, she bought her first plane.

Because flying was still relatively new, the 1920’s were an era of air shows and flying stunts. Participating in these air shows helped Amelia to become well known to the people of the world. Before long, George Putnam, a publicist who managed Lindbergh’s flight across the Atlantic, had heard about the talented Amelia Earhart. Putnam was eager to manage an event similar to Lindbergh’s. In 1928, Putnam chose Amelia to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. Although Amelia was only a passenger, she caught the attention of the public and was crowned “First Lady of the Air.” Amelia Earhart and George Putnam became fast friends and in 1931, they were married. Under Putnam’s guidance, Amelia earned a lot of money through product endorsements and lectures, which she continued throughout her life.

In 1932, tall, attractive, and confident Amelia Earhart flew 2,026 miles across the Atlantic. She also set two transcontinental records flying solo from Hawaii to California, California to Mexico City, and Mexico City to New Jersey. A few years later, Amelia and her navigator set a goal to make a flight around the world—a feat never before achieved. On June 1st, 1937, they flew off from Oakland, California in the direction of the Atlantic Ocean. “The whole width of the world has passed behind us,” Earhart reported, “except this broad ocean. I shall be glad when we have the hazards of its navigation behind us.” But before they had even reached their first destination, radio communications became weak and distorted. The coastguard could barely make out that they were reporting a low fuel tank. Communications were lost and never recovered. Earhart’s plane met with the same fate. Her plane is presumed to have crashed into the ocean, though no wreck has been found. A pilot, navigator, and an entire plane have simply just… disappeared.

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