Amelia Earhart Essay Example For Students

Amelia Earhart Essay Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not, knows no release from little things. Knows not the vivid loneliness of fear nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear the sound of wings. How can life grant us boon of living, compensate for dull gray ugliness and pregnant hate, unless we dare the souls dominion? Each time we make a choice, we pay with courage to behold the restless day and count it fair. Those were the words of Amelia Earhart in a poem she wrote, entitled Courage. Amelia Earhart knew a lot about courage. Even when faced with impossible odds, she always had the courage to try and overcome them. She had a never give up attitude that made her so attractive to the public and took the science community by surprise. Without that attitude, she would never have been invited to make her first flight across the Atlantic ocean on June 3rd 1928. Because she had the courage to be one of the only women pilots at the time, she was invited by her future husband, George Putnam, to make the 20 hour 14 minute journey across the Atlantic. Although she was just a passenger on the flight, she was still promoted to celebrity status for being the first woman to cross the Atlantic by plane. Although her fame was set with her first flight, she wanted to promote aviation in women. In 1929, she organized a cross-country air race for women pilots named the Power Puff Derby. She also formed the Ninety Nines a now famous women pilots organization. In addition to forming organizations for women pilots, she occupied her four year break from flying with writing her first book, 20 hours, 40 minutes on her first flight, became assistant to the general traffic manager of TWA and served as vice president for public relations of the New York, Washington, and Philadelphia Airways. Amelia enjoyed public relations, but missed flying greatly during her four year sabatical. In 1932, no one else had ever flown solo over the Atlantic since Charles Lindberg, and Amelia set out to change that. On May 20th, 1932, exactly five years after Lindbergs flight, she set off for her 2nd journey across the Atlantic. She sucessfully completed her flight, breaking several records. She was the first woman to fly the Atlantic and the only person to fly it twice. She flew the longest nonstop distance by a woman, and set a record for crossing in the shortest time. After this amazing record setting flight, her name became known in every household across the country as she won the Outstand Woman of the Year award. She accepted the award on behalf of all women, demonstrating to the world that women can accomplish almost anything. For the next two years, she toured Europe and America giving speeches to various groups and promoting aviation. In autumn of 1934, her ambitious nature and love for flying caught up with her again, and she announced to her husband, George Putnam that her next venture would be a trans-Pacific flight flight from Hawaii to California. This was her most courageous flight yet, as ten pilots had already lost their lives trying to fly the same course she was about to set forth upon. On January 4th, 1935, Amelia took off from Hawaii and later that day landed in Oakland California to a cheering crowd of thousands. For the next few months, she went back to promoting aviation through lecture tours almost nonstop. In later 1935, Amelia began to make plans for what was to be her longest flight yet: around the world. On March 17th of the same year, she took off from Oakland to Hawaii. The Importance of Education to My Life EssayLater in 1935, Amelia began to make plans for an around the world flight. Thisflight would be two major firsts. She would be the first woman to fly around the worldand she would travel the longest possible distance, 29,000 miles, following a route aroundthe equator. Frederick Noonan, a former Pan Am Airlines navigator was chosen as theflight’s navigator because he was familiar with the Pacific area. The plane chosen for theflight was the Lockheed Electra 10E. The first leg of their journey would be fromOakland, California to Hawaii on March 17, 1935. In Hawaii, Amelia had an accidentduring take-off from Luke Field near Pearl Harbor. A great deal of damage was done tothe plane. On June 1, 1937, Amelia and Frederick Noonan left Miami, Florida to once againbegin their around the world flight. After many stops in South America, Africa, the India,and Southeast Asia, they arrived at Lae, New Guinea on June 29. About 22,000 miles ofthe journey had been completed and there were 7,000 miles more to go, all of them overthe Pacific Ocean. Photos taken at Lae show Amelia looking very tired and ill. On July 2, 1937 at 00:00 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), Amelia and Fredericktook off from Lae with 1,000 gallons of fuel, allowing for 20-21 hours of flying time. Their intended destination was Howland Island, a tiny piece of land a few miles long,twenty feet high, and 2,556 miles away. The Coast Guard cutter Itasca was stationed nearHowland Island and was assigned to communicate with Amelia’s plane and guide her tothe island. Several short radio transmissions were received by the Itasca, but they wereunable to get a fix on her location because the radio contact had been too brief. At 19:30GMT, almost twenty hours into the flight, the following transmission was received fromthe Electra; â€Å"KHAQQ calling Itasca. We must be on you, but cannot see yougasrunning low† . After six hours of trying to communicate with the Electra, all contactwas lost. A search by the Navy and Coast Guard was organized and no physical evidence ofthe Electra or of Amelia Earhart or Frederick Noonan was ever found. Over the years,many unconfirmed sightings have been reported and there are many theories of their fate. Some of those theories are that Amelia was a on a spy mission authorized by PresidentRoosevelt and was captured; that she purposely dove her aircraft into the Pacific; theywere captured by the Japanese, Noonan was executed and Earhart was forced tobroadcast to the American GI’s as â€Å"Tokyo Rose† during World War II; and anothertheory is that Amelia lived for years on an island in the South Pacific with a nativefisherman. In 1961 it was thought that the bones of Earhart and Noonan had been foundon the island of Saipan, but they turned out to be those of Saipan natives. In 1992, asearch party reported finding remnants of the Electra at Nikumaroro, Kiribati, but thoseclaims were disputed by people who worked on Earhart†™s plane. Researches believe thatthe plane ran out of fuel and that Earhart and Noonan died at sea. Amelia Earhart spent most of her lifetime establishing the permanent role ofwomen in aviation. She became an international heroine overnight as the first woman tofly across the Atlantic Ocean. Amelia’s disappearance is still a mystery, but her enduringlegacy remains. Book Reports