Amelia Earhart was a writer and an American aviation pioneer, she was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
Earhart had no interest in flying until a short 10 minute trip on a plane at a Long Beach air show in 1920. As soon as Earhart was two or three hundred feet off the ground she knew she had to fly. She worked various jobs to earn enough money to take flying lessons from pioneer female aviator Anita “Neta” Snook.
Earhart bought her first plane in 1921, a second-hand Kinner Airster biplane painted bright yellow nicknamed “The Canary”. On October 22, 1922, she flew her plane to 14,000 feet, setting the first world altitude record for female pilots. On May 15, 1923, she became the 16th woman to be issued a pilot’s license by The Federation Aeronautique.
In 1928 Earhart flew across the Atlantic with Wilmer “Bill” Stultz and co-pilot/mechanic Louis E. “Slim” Gordon. They arrived at Burry Port, Wales around 21 hours later. Earhart was unable to fly due to the weather and vowed to make the journey on her own next time.
Earhart identified as a feminist and was a member of the National Woman’s Party and an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment. She was involved with the Ninety-Nines, an organisation of female pilots advancing the cause of women in aviation and became their president in 1930.
In 1932 she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and in 1935 she completed a solo trip from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Oakland, California, making her the first person to fly across the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. In April 1935, Earhart flew solo from Los Angeles to Mexico City, and a month later she flew from Mexico City to New York. Between 1930 and 1935, Earhart set seven women’s speed and distance aviation records in a variety of aircraft.
Earhart made her first attempt to fly around the world in March 1937 but the flight was called off due to damage to her plane when it crashed during takeoff in Hawaii. Later that year she made a second attempt and during a 2,556-mile segment from New Guinea to a tiny speck in the mid-Pacific called Howland Island, Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared.