Birthday quote 24th July

Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart was an American aviation pioneer and author Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She received the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross for this accomplishment. She set many other records, wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences and was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines, an organisation for female pilots. In 1935, Earhart became a visiting faculty member at Purdue University as an adviser to aeronautical engineering and a career counsellor to women students. She was also a member of the National Woman's Party and an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment.

In Long Beach, on December 28, 1920, Earhart and her father visited an airfield where Frank Hawks gave her a ride that would forever change Earhart's life. "By the time I had got two or three hundred feet off the ground," she said, "I knew I had to fly." Working at a variety of jobs, she managed to save $1,000 for flying lessons. Earhart had her first lessons, beginning on January 3, 1921, at Kinner Field, near Long Beach. Six months later, Earhart purchased a secondhand bright yellow Kinner Airster biplane she nicknamed "The Canary". On October 22, 1922, Earhart flew the Airster to an altitude of 14,000 feet (4,300 m), setting a world record for female pilots. On May 15, 1923, Earhart became the 16th woman to be issued a pilot's license.

While at work one afternoon in April 1928, Earhart got a phone call from Capt. Hilton H. Railey, who asked her, "Would you like to fly the Atlantic?" The project coordinators interviewed Earhart and asked her to accompany pilot Wilmer Stultz and copilot/mechanic Louis Gordon on the flight, nominally as a passenger, but with the added duty of keeping the flight log. The team departed from Trepassey Harbour, Newfoundland landing at Pwll near Burry Port, South Wales, exactly 20 hours and 40 minutes later.

Although Earhart had gained fame for her transatlantic flight, she endeavoured to set an "untarnished" record of her own.68 Shortly after her return, piloting Avian 7083, she set off on her first long solo flight that occurred just as her name was coming into the national spotlight. By making the trip in August 1928, Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the North American continent and back. In 1931, she set a world altitude record of 18,415 feet (5,613 m). On the morning of May 20, 1932, 34-year-old Earhart set off from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland with the aim of flying solo across the Atlantic. After a flight lasting 14 hours, 56 minutes, Earhart landed in a pasture at Culmore, north of Derry, Northern Ireland.

During an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937 in a Purdue-funded Lockheed Model 10-E Electra, Earhart disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island. Fascination with her life, career and disappearance continues to this day.

Born 24th July 1897 in Atchison, Kansas, U.S.
Disappeared 2nd July 1937 in the Pacific Ocean, en route to Howland Island from Lae, Papua New Guinea

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