Today in Technology History
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May 21
Last week we told you the stories of the first airline stewardesses and the first woman to fly faster than sound. Today, we offer the story of the most famous woman pilot of all time.
Born in Kansas in 1897, Amelia Mary Earhart was a military nurse in Canada during the first world war. She began taking flying lessons in 1920, just days after she first rode in an airplane.
Earhart received a medal from U.S. President Herbert Hoover in honor of her second transatlantic flight. Click to enlarge. In 1928, the publisher George Putnam needed a woman for a publicity stunt: To prove that women were tough enough to fly across the Atlantic, he was asked to pick a woman to be a passenger on a transatlantic flight. He picked Earhart -- in part because her face reminded him of Charles Lindbergh, the renowned aviator. Although Earhart never spent a moment at the controls during that flight, she immediately became world famous. (Soon thereafter, Putnam divorced his wife so he could marry Earhart.)
Earhart immediately began preparing for another trip. Only Charles Lindbergh had flown across the Atlantic alone, and Earhart wanted to be the second to make the trip solo. So on the fifth anniversary of Lindbergh's flight, she flew by herself from Newfoundland to Northern Ireland -- a flight of over 2,000 miles -- in about 15 hours. She took off on May 20 and landed on May 21, 1932.
Earhart earned several other aviation records over the years, including more historic solo flights. She is best remembered, however, for the mystery of her disappearance and death.
Related links:
Use these links to read about and see a picture of the plane Earhart flew across the Atlantic.
Click here to read a biography of Earhart.
Click here and here to visit other sites related to Amelia Earhart.
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