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Amelia Earhart
a.k.a. Mrs. George Palmer Putnam of Rye, N.Y. Amelia Earhart, daring and determined, was the first woman pilot to make the dangerous solo flight across the Atlantic and the first flyer who ever crossed the Pacific alone in an airplane. She was the most famous woman in America, but behind the glamorous legend, she was a courageous, complex, colorful personality — a poet, photographer, hospital worker, truck hauler, fashion designer, social worker, and student of chemistry, physics, and medicine — who defied limits and followed her own path until she disappeared mysteriously in her airplane somewhere over the Pacific in July 1937. ❉ FLYING RECORDS 1922 1928 1930
Sets unofficial women’s altitude record of 14,000 feet.
1931 1932
Sets women’s autogiro altitude record of 18,415 feet.
First woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean as a passenger. Sets women’s speed record for 100 kilometers with no load and with 500-kilogram load. Sets women’s world speed record of 181.18 miles per hour over a 3-kilometer course. First woman (and second person) to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean,
in 14 hours, 56 minutes. First person to cross the Atlantic Ocean twice in an airplane. First woman to fly nonstop solo coast to coast. Sets women’s transcontinental speed record (Los Angeles, California, to Newark, New Jersey), flying 2,447.8 miles in 19 hours, 5 minutes. Awarded the Army Air Corps Distinguished Flying Cross. Awarded the National Geographic Society’s Gold Medal by President Herbert Hoover.
1933
Breaks her previous transcontinental speed record with flying time of 17 hours, 7 minutes, 30 seconds.
1935
First person to fly solo 2,408 miles across the Pacific Ocean from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Oakland, California. First civilian to fly an airplane carrying a two-way radio. First person to fly solo from Los Angeles to Mexico City, Mexico, in 13 hours, 23 minutes. First person to fly nonstop solo from Mexico City to Newark, in 14 hours, 19 minutes.
1937
First person to fly from the Red Sea to India.
From Amelia Earhart: The Thrill of It by Susan Wels, Running Press, ©2009. THE SCHLESINGER LIBRARY, RADCLIFFE INSTITUTE, HARVARD UNIVERSITY