Amelia Earhart: Pioneering Aviator and Force for Women's Rights
In Southampton reporters photographers officials and thousands of fans greeted the trio The only one of the fliers anyone cared about though was Amelia She became an overnight international celebrity because of the voyage It was genuinely surprising what a disproportion of attention was given to the woman member of the crew at the expense of the men Amelia wrote in her book The Fun of It It particularly surprised her because she hadn’t so much as touched the controls of the plane during the transatlantic flight Although Amelia was a licensed pilot she had no experience with this particular type of aircraft That meant she was unable to fly it She had merely been invited along for the ride and for the publicity a woman’s presence on the voyage would generate All the attention embarrassed Amelia She tried to set the record straight every chance she got I was just baggage like a sack of potatoes she told a reporter the day after the flight She quickly added Maybe someday I’ll try it alone Four years later Amelia did just that In 1932 she became the first woman and just the second person ever to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean Ever since my first crossing in the Friendship in 1928 when I was merely a passenger I have wanted to attempt a solo flight Amelia Earhart in The Fun of It 10
Amelia Earhart poses in front of the propeller of the Lockheed Electra 10E aircraft that she used during her attempted round-the-world flight in 1937 As well as being an aviation pioneer Amelia inspired women and girls to become independent and pursue goals that had once been unimaginable in their lives and work She even influenced how they dressed Superstar in the Sky By the time Amelia crossed the Atlantic the second time she was already one of the world’s best-known pilots That’s largely because her husband George Putnam was a world-class promoter From the minute he met Amelia George did everything he could do to keep her name in lights He arranged for her to make lecture tours promote products write books and have her photo taken with celebrities That’s not to say Amelia didn’t deserve fame During the early 1930s she took risks and set record after record in the air She was awarded a Gold Medal from the National Geographic Society and the Distinguished Flying Cross from the United States Army Air Corps The French government gave her the Cross of Knight of the Legion of Honor 11
AmeliA’S ASSociAteS Amelia Earhart was neither the first nor the best female pilot in America She was however the one with the best publicist her husband George Putnam In her day she shared the skies with a number of other women who were flying as high fast and far as Amelia including the following The first American woman to become a licensed pilot was Harriet Quimby in 1911 Born in Michigan in 1875 Harriet was also the first woman to fly across the English Channel Ten weeks later on July 1 1912 she died after being accidentally ejected from her plane during an air meet in Boston Ruth Nichols earned her pilot’s license at age 23 In 1928 she was co-pilot on the first-ever non-stop flight from New York to Miami Florida Along with Amelia she raced in the first air race for women in 1929 Ruth didn’t cross the finish line because she crashed her plane during the race During her flying career she set seven records for speed distance and altitude In 1932 wrote Amelia Ruth has been to date officially higher faster and farther in a straight line than any other woman Ruth died of a drug overdose in 1960 at age 59 In 1928 16-year-old Elinor Smith got her pilot’s license making her the youngest certified pilot in the world By then she had already been flying for eight years She made her first solo flight at 15 When she was 17 she attracted plenty of attention and trouble for herself by flying under all the East River bridges in New York City one Sunday afternoon wrote Amelia of her friend During her career Elinor set many records for altitude and endurance In 1934 she also became the first woman to appear on the Wheaties cereal box Elinor died in 2010 at the age of 98 Elinor Smith Harriet Quimby Ruth Nichols 12
Twenty-three-year-old Louise Thaden won the first ever Women’s Air Derby in 1929 That same year she also set a women’s endurance record by flying for 22 hours without stopping Three years later she broke that record flying for 196 hours straight That’s eight days in the sky without stopping In 1936 Louise with Blanche Noyes as co-pilot became the first woman to win an air race in which men and women competed together She set a speed record during the race Louise died in 1979 just before her 74th birthday Louise Thaden In 1929 Blanche Noyes gave up acting to become an aviator That same year during the Women’s Air Derby race from Santa Monica California to Cleveland her plane caught fire She put out the fire in midair crash landed and resumed the race once repairs to her plane were made Like Amelia she joined the Bureau of Air Commerce in 1936 and for years after World War II was the only female pilot to fly U S government planes Blanche died in 1981 at the age of 81 Blanche Noyes right and Amelia Earhart In 1930 Laura Ingalls whom Amelia called an aerial acrobat performed 980 loops in a row It took her three-and-a-quarter hours and she earned one dollar for each loop she performed Later that year she set a world barrel roll record performing 714 in a row She later became the first American woman to fly over the Andes mountains the first person to fly solo around South America and the first woman to fly from North America to South America Laura died in 1967 at age 73 Laura Ingalls 13
