Today in Technology History
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July 2
On July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart and her navigator disappeared.
Earhart (1897-1937?) was the world's most famous woman pilot, and the owner of several memorable aviation records. In 1932, for instance, she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.
Earhart planned to cap her career with a fantastic stunt: a flight around the world, close to the equator. "I have a feeling that there is just about one more good flight left in my system, and I hope this trip is it," she said. After an aborted westward attempt, Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan took off eastward on May 20, 1937.
The planned trip was 29,000 miles. They left California, flew across the U.S. and south to Brazil. Then they crossed the Atlantic, Africa, Arabia and Asia, where bad weather slowed them. Then, on to Australia and New Guinea.
The next leg of the journey would bring them to Howland Island, a tiny speck halfway to Hawaii. American ships were positioned to help guide them, but Earhart's radio transmissions became weaker. One of the last messages told that "gas is running low."
Within two hours of that message, a massive search operation began. Dozens of ships and airplanes scoured the ocean for any trace of Earhart. The search lasted more than two weeks and cost millions of dollars -- all in vain.
In the past six decades, several theories have been proposed relating to Earhart's disappearance, including speculation that her flight was actually a secret mission to spy on pre-war Japan. No evidence for that theory exists, however. To this day, there are still people searching for clues to Earhart's fate.
Related links:
Click here to read what we wrote about Earhart's historic solo flight across the Atlantic.
Click here to see a map of Earhart's route on her last flight.
Click here to read a detailed account of Earhart's final flight.
Click here to read the Encyclopedia Britannica entry for Earhart.
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