RP245 The Missing Aviatrix

 RP245 The Missing Aviatrix

The first time Amelia Earhart saw an airplane, at age ten, she wasn't impressed. To her, it was "a thing of rusty wire and wood and not at all interesting. "Years later, one would speak to her, and everything would change.

At an air fair in Toronto, a stunt pilot dove at Earhart and a friend. Earhart stood her ground. As the plane passed, something happened. Flying obsessed her. She took her first flight in 1920, at age 23. She took her first lesson a few days later, and soon saved enough money to buy her own plane. Then, she went on to a life of breaking records.

Earhart had some accidents at first, either through her error or faults in the plane. Some of her contemporaries doubted her skills. However, after only about a year of lessons, Earhart broke the women's altitude record, taking her plane up to 14,000 feet. In 1923, she got her pilot's license.

In 1928, a phone call changed Amelia Earhart's life. George Putnam, her future husband, rang and asked if she'd like to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. It turned out that Earhart didn't do any of the flying on that trip. Her male copilots did.

However, Earhart was inspired to do solo flights. In 1928, she flew solo from the Atlantic to the Pacific, across North America. In 1932, she flew across the Atlantic again—solo, the first woman to do so. That was the start of many firsts. In 1935, she flew solo from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland, from Los Angeles to Mexico City, and from Mexico City to New Jersey.

In 1937, Earhart attempted to fly around the world along the equator. She and her navigator, Fred Noonan, made it about two thirds of the way over a month of flights. Then, between New Guinea and Howland Island, something went wrong. Earhart and Noonan disappeared. Their plane has never been found. Though it is a sad ending to Earhart's life, her legend lives on.