What do you know about Amelia Erhart?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bFgxKov8Ts I love heroes.

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by Sharona Life is a Tale Told by an Idiot on September 23rd, 2009

thank you

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by what on September 23rd, 2009

Makes sense, since she disappeared and all! But she did have brass balls.

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by Sharona Life is a Tale Told by an Idiot on September 27th, 2009

Well, I dunno... I'm not sure.

There is a fine line between brass balls and no common sense.

Having gotten a pilots license in my misspent youth, all I can say is you plan a landing and then you plan on how you get there.

When you plan a trip, and then plan your stops… well, the outcome can be different.

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by That Guy Again on September 27th, 2009

Now we don't know that much about this to start judging her sense. She was quite bright or she never could have even flown the damned plane.

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by Sharona Life is a Tale Told by an Idiot on September 27th, 2009

Well, being a pilot I can say that flying isn't rocket science, it starts as a matter hand and eye coordination, you need more to be good. Stick and rudder makes the important basics...

However, Flying is much more than stick and rudder when going cross country.

All of the preperation, preflight, navigation, pilotage, dead reckoning, radio navigation and of course situational awareness require intense concentration and although she was strong on the the basic stick and rudder she apparently lacked the other required abillities or at least competence in them. She was no Jackie Cochran.

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by That Guy Again on September 27th, 2009

Basicly, I don't see her as a valid role model for any young woman that wants to fly. Pancho Barnes or Jackie Cochran are certainly better and deserve to be role models, yet unfortunatley unknown role models.

Pancho is actually my hero.

When one 'overinflated' aviator bragged to the newsreel cameras that he "Could do anything a bird could do"... Pancho yelled "Let's see you take a shit while standing on a barbed wire fence!".

Pancho was quite a pilot, and quite a woman. Her 'drinking buddies' included: Wright, Armstrong, Yeager, Shepard, Hughes, Arnold, Doolittle, LeMay, Louis Mayer and most Hollywood pilots from Jimmy Stewert to Tyrone Power.

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by That Guy Again on September 27th, 2009

I in no way am comparing her to anyone else. She is an historical figure. I'm sure there were better pilots, and you being one would know this. I do think she is wiser than you give her credit though.

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by Sharona Life is a Tale Told by an Idiot on September 27th, 2009

Amelia Earhart endures in the American consciousness as one of the world's most celebrated aviators. Amelia remains a symbol of the power and perseverance of American women, and the adventurous spirit so essential to the American persona.

Born in Atchison, Kansas on July 24, 1897, the daughter of a railroad attorney, she spent her childhood in various towns, including Atchison and Kansas City, Kansas and Des Moines, Iowa. At age 19, Amelia attended Ogontz School near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Two years later, after visiting her sister, Muriel, in Toronto, Canada, Amelia felt compelled to leave school. Taking a course in Red Cross First Aid, Amelia enlisting as a nurse's aide at Spadina Military Hospital in Toronto, Canada, tending to wounded soldiers during World War I. The following year, Amelia enrolled as a premedical student at Columbia University in New York. Shortly thereafter, Amelia's parents insisted she move to California where they were living.

Learning to fly in C

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by Sharona Life is a Tale Told by an Idiot on September 27th, 2009

Learning to fly in California, she took up aviation as a hobby, taking odd jobs to pay for her flying lessons. In 1922, with the financial help of her sister, Muriel, and her mother, Amy Otis Earhart, she purchased her first airplane, a Kinner Airster.

Following her parent's divorce, Amelia moved back east where she was employed as a social worker in Denison House, in Boston, Massachusetts. It was there she was selected to be the first female passenger on a transatlantic flight, in 1928, by her future husband, the publisher, George Palmer Putnam.

George P. Putnam -- Amelia's Husband
George had already published several writings by Charles Lindbergh, and he saw Amelia's flight as a bestselling story for his publishing house. With pilot Wilmer Stultz and mechanic Lou Gordon, Amelia flew from Newfoundland to Wales aboard the trimotor plane Friendship . Amelia's daring and courage were acclaimed around the world. Upon the flight's completion, Amelia wrote the book 20 Hours - 40

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by Sharona Life is a Tale Told by an Idiot on September 27th, 2009

Hours - 40 Minutes .

In 1931, Amelia married George, but continued her aviation career under her maiden name. Amelia and George formed a successful partnership. George organized Amelia's flights and public appearances, and arranged for her to endorse a line of flight luggage and sports clothes. George also published two of her books, The Fun of It , and Last Flight .


Fashion
After a series of record-making flights, she became the first woman to make a solo transatlantic flight in 1932. That same year, Amelia developed flying clothes for the Ninety-Nines. Her first creation was a flying suit with loose trousers, a zipper top and big pockets. Vogue advertised it with a two-page photo spread. Then, she began designing her own line of clothes "for the woman who lives actively."

She dressed according to the occasion whether it was flying or an elegant affair. She was most conscious of the image she projected. Several New York garment manufacturers made an exclusive Amelia E

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by Sharona Life is a Tale Told by an Idiot on September 27th, 2009

Amelia Earhart line of clothes which were marketed in 30 cities, with one exclusive store in each city, such as Macy's in New York and Marshall Field's in Chicago.


Firsts
Amelia made great strides in opening the new field of aviation to women. In 1935, Amelia became the first person to fly from Hawaii to the American mainland. By doing so, Amelia became not only the first person to solo anywhere in the Pacific, but also the first person to solo both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Also in 1935, Amelia joined the faculty of Purdue University as a female career consultant. It was the purchase of a Lockheed Electra, through Purdue University, that enabled Amelia to fulfill her dream -- circumnavigating the globe by air.


Final Flight
In June 1937, Amelia embarked upon the first around-the-world flight at the equator. On July 2, after completing nearly two-thirds of her historic flight -- over 22,000 mi

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by Sharona Life is a Tale Told by an Idiot on September 27th, 2009

Final Flight
In June 1937, Amelia embarked upon the first around-the-world flight at the equator. On July 2, after completing nearly two-thirds of her historic flight -- over 22,000 miles -- Amelia vanished along with her navigator Frederick Noonan. They took off from Lae, New Guinea, bound for tiny Howland Island in the vast Pacific Ocean. The distance from Lae to Howlan

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by Sharona Life is a Tale Told by an Idiot on September 27th, 2009

was about equal to a transcontinental flight across the U.S. A great naval, air and land search failed to locate Amelia, Noona

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by Sharona Life is a Tale Told by an Idiot on September 27th, 2009

Well, I hope you read this because it was a pain the the ass to copy.

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by Sharona Life is a Tale Told by an Idiot on September 27th, 2009

Yes, I read it... Knew most of it... Still, Pancho is my Flight Lady and then would come Jackie Cochran... Amelia, is a distant 3rd.

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by That Guy Again on September 27th, 2009

I agree. I didn't put this in here to debate you on that. I agree with you. But this is kind of her story, Amelia's and why she is famous. She was a business woman first and foremost and she was not without foresight as to how to market, eh?

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by Sharona Life is a Tale Told by an Idiot on September 27th, 2009

Well yes, she knew that with the power of Putnam's publishing she could be a wedge entering women into the mainstream of aviation.

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by That Guy Again on September 27th, 2009

Oh... and Pancho kicked her ass on the speed record!!! :)

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by That Guy Again on September 27th, 2009

I gotta read about this Pancho chick, she sounds really awesome. Thanks for that one.

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by Sharona Life is a Tale Told by an Idiot on September 27th, 2009

If you saw "Right Stuff" she and her Happy Bottom Riding Club were portrayed in the movie. She was the barmaid that said "You got your hot shit pilots and you got your pudknockers...So, what do you pudknockers want?". and when asked as to what you have to do to get their pictures on the wall... " You gotta die!".

The real Chuck Yeager did a part in that scene BTW.

She taught pilots for the U.S. Army Air Corp durring WWII... She flew as a stunt pilot for Howard Hughes... She was special, apparently not a very good wife or mom though, that just wasn't her thing.

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by That Guy Again on September 27th, 2009

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancho_Barnes

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by That Guy Again on September 27th, 2009

Never saw that movie. But I am interested in her now.

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by Sharona Life is a Tale Told by an Idiot on September 27th, 2009

Thanks for the site. I'm reading it. She sure was a firecracker.

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by Sharona Life is a Tale Told by an Idiot on September 27th, 2009

I sited it already in the other answer. Now I have a prayer writeen by Mother Theresa instead of that song, to paste, so if you like, take a listen to it on answer number one. Yours truely.

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by Sharona Life is a Tale Told by an Idiot on September 23rd, 2009

I watched it before I answered

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by evandad on September 23rd, 2009

Very nice. I never heard the story of her being supposedly captured. I sure hope not. She was no spy. That just doesn't even make sense. Why would a spy run out of gas anyway.

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by Sharona Life is a Tale Told by an Idiot on September 23rd, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bFgxKov8Ts Listen to this it's great.

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by Sharona Life is a Tale Told by an Idiot on September 23rd, 2009

She was supposedly doing a favor for Roosevelt. She wasn't supposed to die, just get 'lost' so the Navy could steam around 'looking' for her, and checking out the Japanese in the process. But later on, AE's personal effects were found in a safe in a Japanese camp office.

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by LarryH54 on September 24th, 2009

Thank you that is something I had no clue about. I appreciate the history lesson.

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by Sharona Life is a Tale Told by an Idiot on September 24th, 2009

I think that is what keeps her alive in the media more than her whole career, the mystery.

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by Sharona Life is a Tale Told by an Idiot on September 24th, 2009

Could very well be.

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by Normal guy on September 25th, 2009