Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas, on July 24, 1897. She only had one sister, Murial, in her family. Her mom's and dad's names were Amy and Edwin Earhart. When Amelia was a little girl, she would only participate in boy activities. In 1905, her dad received a promotion that took him and Amy away to Des Moines. For three years, Amelia and her sister lived with their grandparents. In 1908, Amelia and Muriel joined their parents. When Amelia was 11, her dad took her to the state fair. There she saw her first airplane.

When Amelia had spare time, she liked to ride horses with her sister and friends. Amelia worked at a hospital until World War I ended. After that, she worked hard to earn enough money for flying lessons. For her twenty-fifth birthday on July 24, 1922, she had enough money, and a final payment was made.

When Amelia lived in California, she spent many hours flying. On May of 1923, she received a pilot's licence. On April 1928, a man called and challenged Amelia to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. She said that she would. The airplane, Friendship, took off with Amelia in it. The flight took twenty hours and forty minutes.

Amelia's courage to fly across the Atlantic spread rumors all over the world. Now, flying was right in the middle of of Amelia's life. In 1928, she made her first solo trip across the United States. In 1930, Amelia married a young man named George Putman. They spent many years together.

When Amelia was 38 years old, she challenged herself to fly around the world! She asked the Purdue Research Foundation to build an all-metal, twin-engine Lockheed Electra 10E. They built the plane especially for her. Amelia was thrilled with her shiny new plane when she got it.

Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan made their last discussion of the route before they left. On June 1, 1937, the silver plane, Electra, took off in Miami at sunrise. Their first stop was in Carpieto, Venezuela. As they flew around the equator, everything seemed to be fine, but the worst was yet to come.

On July 2, the Electra left New Guinea to go to an island so small, it was difficult to locate. There were coast guard ships to locate the island for the plane to land safely. The ship got signals from Amelia requesting a bearing. They answered but didn't hear back from her until five hours later. Her last call came less than an hour later. She said, "We are running north and south." The crew tried to reach her with every frequency call they had, but they still could not reach her. Then there was a dead silence, and they received no more calls from Amelia. They never found her plane, Amelia, or Fred. Amelia is remembered as someone who was brave and courageous. She is a role model to many because she blazed a trail for women in aviation and other fields that had not been open to women.