Why is Amelia Earhart a part of Aviation History?
Why is Amelia Earhart a part of aviation history?
University of Central Florida
Amelia Earhart’s Accomplishments
First Solo Flight
Amelia Mary Earhart made her first solo flight in 1922 and shortly afterward set a
new altitude record of 14,000 feet in her plane. This record was shortly broken by
someone else, but Earhart immediately set out to remake it. She ran into dense fog at
12,000 feet, in a plane with no instruments at all, and almost crashed but was finally able
to land safely.
Setting Records
In 1929 the Lockheed Company presented Earhart with a brand-new Vega, a new
type of single-wing plane that was also flown by Amy Johnson and Beryl Markham. She
flew the Vega in the first Women's Air Derby across the United States and came in third.
In July 1930 she set a new speed record for women and in 1931 she made a tour of the
United States in an autogiro, a forerunner of the helicopter, in which she set an altitude
record.
First Solo Flight Across Atlantic
In 1932 Earhart decided to fly solo across the Atlantic in order to earn the fame
that she had been unjustly given in 1928. She took off from Harbor Grace,
Newfoundland on the evening of 20 May 1932. For the first few hours everything went
well. Then she began to run into difficulties. She ran into a violent electrical storm, the
altimeter failed, the wings iced up and sent the plane into a tailspin for 3,000 feet. Finally,
the exhaust manifold caught on fire. In the face of the problems, Earhart decided to land
in Ireland rather than continuing on to Paris as she had originally planned. She landed in
a pasture outside of Londonderry in Northern Ireland 14 hours and 56 minutes after she
had left Newfoundland. She became the center of public adulation and was feted
throughout Europe and then returned to New York to a giant ticker-tape...
