The Mystery Of Amelia

Legend never dies.

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On the 2nd of July, not a cloud was in the sky. Amelia Erhart went flying high that day. ith her partner, Capt. Noone, She sailed off into the sky, And fell into the ocean, far away. Here’s to you, here’s to you, Amelia Erhart, America’s first lady of the air.

A few lines, from many variants, that celebrate the Spirit of Amelia.

In truth, she wasn’t really “America’s first lady of the air”. That title could go to any of many many young lady aviators of that era. Many of them as good or better than Amelia. They were all young, sassy, fearless, and all just as qualified as Amelia to be considered, “America’s first lady of the air”.

Sixteen-year-old Elinor Smith Sullivan was named in 1929 as the best female pilot in the country, beating out her friend, Amelia Earhart - Katherine Stinson, known as the “flying schoolgirl” was celebrated for record-setting flights of distance and endurance - Jacqueline Cochran set more aviation records than any of her contemporaries.

There were many, many others that might have been first ladies of the air.

Somehow, with so many to choose from, Amelia got most of the attention.

Another colorful flyer of those times, Pancho Barnes, lacked the physical sleekness of the other flyers but compensated with flamboyant character.

The 1982 film, The Right Stuff, finally gave Pancho Barnes her rowdy due as proprietor of the Happy Bottom Riding Club - a bar and restaurant in California's Mojave Desert. The bar was a hot spot for celebrities, aviators, and test pilots from nearby Edwards Air Force Base - Chuck Yeager was a regular.

Notoriety isn’t the best sort of fame, and then too, the camera favored Amelia - but good looks can only take you so far - it was marketing that made her famous.

In 1928, Earhart became the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean in an airplane. Publisher, publicist, and future husband, George P. Putnam coordinated the flight project.

Immediately after touchdown in the United States, Putnam begin a promotional campaign that included a book, lecture tours, photo and articles supplied to newspapers. The months-long campaign established the Earhart mystique in the public psyche.

Earhart became famous.

Then, at the height of her fame, she disappeared. In 1937, Amelia Earhart, piloting a Lockheed Model 10-E Electra airplane, made an attempt to become the first woman to complete a circumnavigational flight of the globe. Amelia and her navigator Fred Noonan lost radio contact near Howland Island in the central Pacific Ocean. They were known from earlier radio contact to have been low on fuel.

They might have ditched in the ocean and drowned, or they might have made a forced landing on one of the many small, isolated islands in the region.

Some romantics say Amelia might have become queen of an indigent tribe on that small island. Others, more dour, speculate they were captured by the Japanese. The “maybes” continue to this day.

Her unfinished story became legend.

Legend never dies

Here’s to you, here’s to you, Amelia Erhart, America’s first lady of the air. Amelia Erhart - 1897– ?

By K. L. Shipley

From: United States

Website: https://www.eclecticessays.com