Amelia Earhart

Who is Amelia Earhart? Amelia Earhart is globally known as one of the most memorable female pilots of all time. However many people don’t know the reason behind why she’s so memorable. She’s most famously known for being the first woman to fly across the Atlantic ocean. Although there are many other accomplishments that Amelia had achieved in her career that should be acknowledged. Amelia was born into a fairly well off family on July 24th in 1987. As a child Amelia was very independent and adventurous. And picked up many masculine activities as a child such as fishing and football.
However when Amelia was 15 years old her grandfather died and her family struggled financially. After Amelia’s mothers received her inheritance Amelia attended the Ogontz school for girls in Rydal Pennsylvania. Then in 1917 Amelia spent her Christmas vacation visiting her sister in Toronto. Since this was the time period of World War 1 wounded soldiers from the war were coming to Toronto back and after Amelia had seen this she decided to volunteer to be a nurse aid for the red cross. Later on after the war had ended Amelia entered the premed program at Columbia University in New York. Sadly Amelia had to quit school and move in with her parents in Los Angeles who had gotten back together.
On Christmas day 1920, twenty three year old Amelia and her father were attending an air show at Long Beach, California. Planes were racing while doing incredible stunts such as wing walking where they were walking on the outside of the plane. Amelia was absolutely mesmerized by it. And she only had one question, how do flying lessons cost? Amelia met a woman named Neta Snook to get flying lessons from. Amelia had gone to attend her practices. And surprisingly Amelia was a great student and Amelia seemed to naturally know what to do. Amelia trained as if her life depended on it like if the weather was good she would fly if not she would be studying about flying. Amelia bought a small airplane from Kinner Airfield which later on was named the canary and painted yellow by Amelia herself. On December 15th in 1921 Amelia had taken the test for her pilot’s license. And a little less than a year later she took her first lesson and she passed!
Amelia had flown in some air shows. But it wasn’t financially enough for her to support herself. So sadly Amelia had sold the Canary and used the money to buy a car. Ironically Amelia went back to Columbia University but once again she dropped out. But in 1927, a man named Charles Lindbergh was the first pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. It had taken him more than 33 hours to fly from Long Island to New York to Paris. George Putman, a book publisher, was looking for a woman to surpass or achieve the same thing as Charles Lindbergh. Putman had owned a big publishing company so he asked a friend to find the right woman, and that friend found Amelia
Unfortunately Amelia wouldn’t actually be getting paid and she wouldn’t even be flying the plane; she would just be a passenger. Shockingly Amelia had agreed because Amelia knew that it was worth the experience and it wouldn’t be very smart to reject this offer. The plane took off from Boston on June 3rd, however they had to land in Canada due to bad weather. Amelia ran into another problem her pilot Wilmer Stultz had gotten drunk. And if he got drunk he couldn’t fly. Amelia had to make a decision and fast if she didn’t take off soon she would have lost the record. Amelia made the decision to have the plane take off. 20 hours and 40 minutes later after taking off from the Canadian coast they had done it. Amelia had become the first woman to fly across the Atlantic ocean.
After a race that Amelia attended and took part in, many women pilots decided it was time for them to begin their own group. In November of 1929, 26 women met in an airplane hangar in Long Island. Amelia thought they should name the group after the amount of women who joined the numbers shifted many times but eventually the name ninety nine just stuck. Amelia worked to try and convince more women to join and by the following summer they had almost two hundred members. Amelia was eventually elected first president of the Ninety nines. Sadly on July 2nd in 1937 Amelia Earhart took her last flight attempting to fly around the entire world, Amelia’s plane was running low on gas and she couldn’t find a place to land. Amelia’s last words were spoken at 8:43 am where she said, “We are running North and South.¨ Thousands of men had searched for her but couldn’t find her bones, not even her plane was ever found.

Bohem Jerome, Kate. Who was Amelia Earhart? New York. Grosset & Dunlap, 2002
Britannica School (https://school.eb.com/levels/middle/article/Amelia-Earhart/274101)
National women’s history museum (https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/amelia-earhart)
Time Magazine (https://time.com/5793474/amelia-earhart-100-women-of-the-year/)
History.com (https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/amelia-earhart)
Biography (https://www.biography.com/history-culture/amelia-earhart)