REFLEKTOR / SPOTLIGHT
ing Cross, a military decoration awarded for “heroism or extraordinary achieve- ment during aerial flight”. She was the first woman to receive such an honour. Later that same year, Earhart com- pleted the first nonstop solo flight across the United States by a woman. She de- parted from Los Angeles and landed in New Jersey 19 hours later. She also be- came the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland in 1935. However, no amount of success could prepare her for what followed in 1937: her most ambitious journey. It was in June of that year that Ame- lia took off from Miami in a specially prepared twin-engine Lockheed Electra, accompanied by navigator Fred Noonan. The plan was to circumnavigate the globe along the equator – a journey of some 29,000 miles (47,000 km). After com- pleting 22,000 miles across South Amer- ica, Africa and Asia, they were left with a narrow stretch of the Pacific between Lae in New Guinea and the tiny How- land Island. In the early hours of 2 nd Ju- ly, 1937, Amelia contacted the Coast Guard for the last time. She said that the plane was “moving north-south” and that fuel was running low — and then she disappeared without a trace. Despite the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard launch- ing what was then the largest search in naval history, Amelia and Noonan were never found. They were declared “lost at sea” on 19 th July, 1937. She left behind the legend of a fas- cinating woman, but also a mystery that still inspires enthusiasts to search for the remains of that ill-fated Lockheed Elec- tra. It is unknown whether the plane crashed or they survived and ended up deserted on an island, or were captured by the Japanese as rumoured, but specu- lation exists to this day. The U.S. archives recently released thousands of pages of documents about the search for Ame- lie and theories about her fate. And the search continues today – with sonar and underwater robots being used to try to locate the remains of the Electra. But even without a definitive con- clusion, Earhart’s legacy extends beyond her mysterious ending. She proved with her life that even the sky isn’t the limit, paving the way for all the women of the world to fly. And the sky was never the same again because of what she did.
THE UNFORGETTABLE AMELIA EARHART
The first woman to conquer the skies A pioneer among aviators, she was dubbed the “Queen of the Air” for her revolutionary, record-breaking flights. The first woman to complete a solo transatlantic flight, this global icon of women’s rights and aviation disappeared over the Pacific while attempting to circumnavigate the globe...
A melia Mary Earhart was born on 24 th July, 1897 in a small town in the U.S. state of Kansas — a place with rolling plains and endless skies that were seemingly made for big dreams. Already as a child, she dis- played one special quality: fearlessness, but also inclinations considered unusu- al for girls of the time. She played basket- ball and even completed a car mechan- ics course. While many of her peers lived peaceful lives, Amelia felt that her life was meant for something that couldn’t be confined to the ordinary world. She served as a Red Cross nurse’s aide in Toronto during World War I, where she spent time watching Royal Flying Corps pilots train at the local airfield. After the war, she returned to the States and en- rolled in New York’s Columbia Universi- ty as a medical student. She experienced her first flight in California in December 1920, operated by famous World War I pi- lot Frank Hawks, and instantly fell hope-
lessly in love with aviation. She started at- tending pilot classes in January 1921 and bought her first plane later that year, a second-hand Kinner Airster that she nick- named “The Canary” because of its bright yellow colour. She received her pilot’s li- cense from the National Aeronautics As- sociation in December 1921. That marked the start of the incred- ible story of this unique woman’s career. She set numerous aviation records dur- ing her very short career. The first came as early as 1922, when she became the first woman to fly solo above an altitude of 14,000 feet (approx. 4,300 metres). It was ten years later that she became the first woman (and only the second per- son, after Charles Lindbergh) to fly so- lo nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean. She departed from Newfoundland on 20 th May in a red Lockheed Vega 5B air- craft and arrived a day later, landing in a field near Londonderry, Northern Ire- land. Upon returning to the U.S., Con- gress awarded her the Distinguished Fly-
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