Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart was an American pilot who became famous in the 1920s and 1930s for setting flying records. She was the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean. She was also the first person, man or woman, to fly alone from Hawaii to California. In 1937, she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while trying to fly all the way around the world. Her body was never found.

Earhart was born in Kansas in 1897. She first sat in an airplane at age 23, after watching a stunt pilot at an air show. The ride lasted only ten minutes, but she knew right away she wanted to fly. She took flying lessons, saved money by working odd jobs, and bought her first plane in 1921. She painted it bright yellow and named it The Canary.

In 1928, Earhart became the first woman to cross the Atlantic by plane. On that trip, she was only a passenger. The two men with her did the flying. She felt she had not really earned the fame. So in 1932, she flew across the Atlantic again, this time alone. She took off from Newfoundland and landed in a field in Northern Ireland about 15 hours later. After that, presidents invited her to dinner and crowds met her at every airport.

Earhart used her fame to push for more rights for women. She wrote books, gave speeches, and helped start an organization for women pilots called the Ninety-Nines. She told girls that they could do any job a boy could do, including flying.

In 1937, Earhart tried to fly around the world along the equator. The trip would cover about 29,000 miles, longer than any flight ever attempted. With her navigator Fred Noonan, she made it most of the way. Then, on July 2, they took off from New Guinea heading for a tiny dot of land called Howland Island. They never arrived. Their last radio messages said they could not find the island and were running low on fuel.

The United States Navy searched a huge area of ocean for two weeks. They found nothing. Earhart was declared dead in 1939.

What happened to her is still one of the great mysteries of the twentieth century. Most experts think the plane ran out of fuel and crashed into the sea. Other researchers believe she may have landed on a deserted island and survived for a short time. Search teams keep looking. So far, no one has found a clear answer.