SubscribeGoogle PodcastsStitcherPodcast TranscriptAmelia Earheart was an early pioneer in aviation. She was the first woman to fly solo across Atlantic. She was the first solo pilot to fly from Hawaii to California.She set off on her greatest adventure in 1937. She would fly the longest single flight ever recorded and travel around the globe.She took off from Papua New Guinea on July 2, 1937 and was never seen again.This episode of Everything Everywhere Daily explains more about Amelia Earheart's disappearance and what may have happened to her.-Scottevest sponsored this episode.Let me ask you a question: When is the best time to buy a snowblower in the year? Answer: Summer, when you don't need it. Everything will go up in flames when a blizzard strikes.The summer is also a great time for buying clothing for fall and winter. Do not wait to get it. It is best to get it now.Scottevest offers a wide range of jackets and clothing for men and women, both in fall and winter. It will keep you warm and can also store your technology and gear.Scottevest clothing has been my everyday wear for many years. I can attest its comfort, style, and practicality.Scottevest.com offers 15% off all Scottevest products. Use the coupon code EverythingEverywhere at checkout. Scottevest.com is the place to go again.-Even if Amelia Earhart had not disappeared so famously, she would have been remembered as one the pioneers in aviation and one the most important figures of the 1920s & 1930s.She was born in Abeline, Kansas and moved to St. Paul with her parents, then to Chicago. Based on the science labs, she chose Chicago as her high school.In 1917, she was a nurse in Toronto. She then contracted the Spanish Flu and was then enrolled at Columbia University for one year in 1919. In her initial plans, she wanted to study medicine.Her life was forever changed when she flew with Frank Hawks, a noted air-racer, in an airplane in Long Beach, California on December 28, 1920.The $10-dollar flight took her 10 minutes and set her on a course that would change the course of history.She knew immediately that flying was her passion and set out to learn how.To save $1,000, she took on a variety of odd jobs.Mary Neta Snook, a female aviation pioneer, taught her how to fly at the Kinner Airfield near Long Beach.She set records almost immediately. She bought a second-hand biplane in 1921. She flew to 14,000 feet in 1922 and set a record for women's altitude.She became the 16th woman to be licensed as a pilot in the United States in 1923.She briefly returned to Columbia in 1924 and planned to attend MIT. However, her financial difficulties prevented her from continuing her studies.She moved to Boston in the company of her mother, where she was active in local aviation.Charles Lindbergh, the first solo pilot to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 1927, captured the attention of the entire world.A team wanted to make the first woman cross the Atlantic the next year. Earheart was chosen because she could handle all the media attention and the required skills.On the June 1928 flight, she was with pilot Wilmer Sultz and Louis Gordon (co-pilot/mechanic). She was a passenger because she had not been trained in the instrumentation of the aircraft.She told the media that Stultz had done all of the flying when she landed in Wales. I was nothing more than baggage, like a bag of potatoes.She then added the prophetic statement that maybe one day Ill do it all by myself.Earheart and his crew returned to America and were treated to a ticker tape parade and met the president. Earhart was instantly a celebrity. Her nickname was Lady Lindy.She went on a lecture tour across the country, which was what it took back then to make money. She was awarded endorsement deals, published a book and became an associate editor of Cosmopolitan magazine. George Putnam, publisher and publicist, arranged almost all of it.Despite her fame, one thing nags at her. She wasn't the one who crossed the Atlantic. She was a passenger. She wanted to make her own records.She became the first woman to fly solo across North America and back in August 1928, two months after her transatlantic flight.She started competitively racing in air. She was a member of the National Aeronautic Association's board.She set the world altitude record at 18,415 feet in 1931. She was also married to George Putnam, which was something almost unheard-of at the time. She retained her last name.She became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic on May 20, 1932, fulfilling a prediction she had made four years before.She was the first solo pilot to fly from Honolulu, Hawaii to Oakland in 1935. Later, she became the first solo pilot to fly from Mexico City in Mexico to New York.She held seven world speed records and altitude records by the end of 1935.But she had a bigger plan. She wanted to fly the longest distance in history and circumnavigate the Earth, while remaining as close as possible to the Equator.Although it wouldn't be the first circumnavigation of the globe, it would be the longest at 29,000 miles (47,000 km).In 1936, she began to plan the flight. It would take a lot planning. The plane was custom-built for her. She also had to plan a route that included fuel stops. This was not an easy task.She made her first attempt to fly westward in March 1937. However, the flight was halted at Honolulu by mechanical problemsShe tried again later that year. She decided to fly east this time. Fred Noonan was her navigator and the only member of her crew.They flew from Oakland to Miami. They flew to Miami, Brazil, Venezuela, and Africa.They were to cross the Pacific in Papua New Guinea, which was the most difficult and dangerous part of the voyage.Earhart and Noonan flew to Howland Island on July 2, 1937 from Lae, Papua New Guinea.Howland was an uninhabited island, but it had a small American crew to refuel transpacific flights.The Itasca, a coast guard ship, was located off Howland Island in support of the flight.Earheart, Noonan were last to be in touch with the radio operators from the Ithica. They had been receiving radio transmissions stating that they were running low on fuel. At 8:45 AM July 6, they received their final transmission. They didn't arrive at Howland Island.Within one hour of receiving the last radio transmission, search efforts began almost immediately. Itasca was the only vessel in the area, and it began to search. In four days, other navy ships were deployed.Search efforts eventually centered on the island of Nikumaroro, in the Phoenix Islands. It is now in the nation Kiribati. Nikumaroro lies approximately 350 miles south from Howland.The search efforts continued for nearly two weeks. It was the largest rescue and search operation in American history.Search efforts were eventually abandoned. Fred Noonan and Amelia Earheart had just vanished.Earheart's disappearance sparked an entire industry of theories. The mystery was the subject of many articles, books, and films.Most people believe that the plane crashed into the ocean after running out of fuel.Others have argued that she did manage to land the plane. She would have looked for a place to land if she ran out of fuel. They think she may have landed on Nikumaroro.1940 found a skull and bones of a human being on the island. Also, there was a box with a magnifying glass. An analysis of the bones revealed that they were male bones.There has been some progress over the past several decades, or at the very least, new evidence.1998. Forensic anthropologists performed an analysis of the 1940 Nikumaroro bones and concluded that they likely belonged to a woman of European descent.Another study in 2018 reported that the 1940 bones matched the profile of Amelia Earhart at an astounding 99% rate, compared to 2,700 Americans from the same time period.These studies were also criticised because they did not inspect the bones, as they had been lost when they were sent to Fiji. They had only the original measurements.There are theories that Earhart or Noonan were taken by the Japanese to be American spies. Later, they were executed on an island remote from Japan.Other theories suggest she was Tokyo Rose. Others believe she assumed an identity and moved to New Jersey.Truth is that there is no hard evidence to support the story of Amelia Earheart. We might never find out the truth unless someone finds the plane's wreckage at the bottom of Pacific after 84 years.Her life has been overshadowed by the disappearance Amelia Earheart, which is too tragic. Regardless of her death, her contributions to aviation, which eventually cost her her life, would have been a part of history.Thor Thomson is the associate producer of Everything Everywhere Daily.Listener MScott224 from Apple Podcasts in America contributed today's review. They wrote:AmazingThe best podcast that I listen to every day!Thank you, MScott. Is MScott for Montgomery Scott? Montgomery Scott was the chief engineer on the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 and he traveled back to the 1980s in search of a humpback Whale. He then tried to use an old Macintosh computer, but couldn't use it. Is that MScott? What is MScott?You can leave a review on the show, even though you're not an officer on a Federation Starship.
