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Amelia Earhart

Introduction

This paper looks to argue over the circumstances and mystery of Amelia Earhart's disappearance during her attempt to fly around the world.

By the time the operator heard Earhart's call for help on that morning of July 2, 1937, those closest to her already knew she was in trouble. Traveling with a navigator, Fred Noonan, Earhart was trying to fly her Lockheed Electra around the world. She was late for her landing at Howland Island, a speck of land in the vast South Pacific. If she missed the island, she would run out of gas and crash at sea.

When word spread that Earhart was missing, a huge search was launched. Pilots—including famous pilots and women pilots—had been lost at sea before, but there had never been a response like this. Even so, no trace of Earhart, Noonan, or their plane was ever found. Earhart's disappearance added an element of mystery to a reputation developed through masterful publicity campaigns, genuine achievements in long-distance flying, and personal charm and courage. These factors combined to make Amelia Earhart the best-known woman pilot in aviation history.

Charles Lindbergh made the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean on May 20, 1927, and became instantly famous. An American heiress living in England, Amy Phipps Guest offered to pay the expenses for a woman to fly the Atlantic. The woman, however, had to be "the right sort of girl": pleasant in appearance and well behaved. Mrs. Guest asked a friend, George Palmer Putnam, to find the right sort of girl. Putnam's grandfather had founded a large publishing company, G. P. Putnam's Sons, and Putnam worked for the company. It had published We, Lindbergh's book about his flight, and the book had become a best seller. Through friends of friends, Putnam heard about Amelia Earhart. When they met in April 1928, he saw that Earhart not only met Mrs. Guest's requirements but looked strikingly like Charles Lindbergh. A genius at creating publicity, Putnam began planning to call Earhart "Lady Lindy"(Butler, pp. 231).

Earhart, for her part, was eager to take part in such a "grand adventure," even though she soon learned that the adventure, for her, would be limited. She would receive no pay. Worse still, she would not be allowed to fly the plane, a Fokker trimotor christened the Friendship. Wilmer Stultz, an experienced pilot, would do most of the work. Louis Gordon would assist him as copilot and mechanic. Earhart's only job would be keeping the flight log. Even as a passenger, however, she knew she would be risking her life. Nineteen pilots, including three women, had been lost at sea while trying to cross the Atlantic.

At first Earhart flew through a clear, starry night, but then a storm surrounded her. She had only her instruments to guide her—and one of those, the altimeter, suddenly failed. Without it she could not tell how far above the sea she was. Earhart tried to fly above the storm, but the cold air at the ...