N
E W S L E T T E R
 |
Amelia
Earhart
(1897-1937)
|
|
1897
- 1920
Growing Up
Amelia
Earhart was born on July 24, 1897, at her
grandparent's home in Atchison, Kansas, a
small town overlooking the Missouri River.
She spent much of her childhood in Atchison
with her grandparents and attended private
schools there. Amelia's father, Edwin Earhart,
worked with the Rock Island Railroad as a
claims manager. When he was transferred, the
family moved to Des Moines, Iowa.
It was at the Iowa State Fair that Amelia saw
her first airplane. She described it as "a
thing of rusty wire and wood and not at all
interesting". Keep in mind that this was
only five years after the famous Wright Brother's
flight at Kitty Hawk.
After a series of moves, Amelia's parents separated
and Amelia, her sister, Muriel, and their mother
moved to the Chicago area where the two sisters
were enrolled at Hyde Park High School. Amelia
graduated in 1916. In her senior class yearbook,
her portrait was captioned, "the girl in
brown who walks alone."
While Muriel went to Saint Margaret's School
in Toronto to begin studies to enter the teaching
field, Amelia enrolled in Orgontz School, a
college preparatory school, in Philadelphia.
Amelia sought out challenging authors such as
Shaw and Dostoyevsky and saw reading as an adventure.
She enjoyed her studies and excelled in her
class assignments. However, she chafed at the
limitations put upon her to study what was suitable
for young ladies. Her leadership qualities began
to emerge and she was elected vice president
of her class.
During the Christmas holidays of 1917, Amelia
visited Muriel in Toronto. Canada had already
been engaged in World War I for years and it
was here that Amelia saw the shocking effects
of war. At this point, U. S. involvement was
too new to have produced the types of casualties
she saw in Toronto. She returned to Orgontz
as scheduled, but soon left school despite parental
opposition to return to Toronto to train to
become a nurses' aide. She worked with the V.
A. D. (Volunteer Aid Detachment) at Spadina
Hospital in Toronto until Armistice in November
of 1918. Her duties ranged from serving meals
and scrubbing floors to playing tennis with
recovering patients. She also worked in the
pharmacy because of her strong background in
chemistry.
Not
long after Armistice, Amelia succumbed to the
influenza epidemic in December of 1918. The
long hours and tiresome work had taken their
toll and it was nearly a year before she recovered,
leaving her with a recurring sinus problem that
plagued her much of her life.
In the fall of 1919, Amelia enrolled at Columbia
to study premed."I had acquired a yen for
medicine and I planned to fit myself for such
a career..." It took her only a few months
to learn that she was not cut out to be a physician,
although she excelled at her studies. She then
considered studying to do medical research.
Earlier that year, Amelia's parents reconciled.
With considerable pressure from her parents,
Amelia moved with them to California in the
spring of 1920.
1920
- 1921
Learning to Fly
When
Amelia moved to California, she was 23 years
old, tall and slim, with waist length hair.
Her parents had reunited and her father had
already set up a legal practice. Shortly after
her arrival, Edwin took her to an aerial meet
at Daugherty Field in Long Beach. She wrote
of the meet, "The interest aroused in me
in Toronto led me to all the air circuses in
the vicinity." She also wrote that she
might like to fly.
She asked her father to inquire about a flight
and the cost of flying lessons and was booked
for a flight the very next day at Rogers Field,
an open space on Wilshire Boulevard. The cost
was $10 for a 10 minute flight with Frank Hawks.
Hawks later became a high speed flight record
breaker. Amelia commented of her father, "I
am sure he thought that one ride would be enough
for me." But she knew, "As soon as
we left the ground I knew I myself had to fly."
Amelia would have sat in the front seat of an
open cockpit Canuck or Jenny with goggles and
a leather helmet. The pilot flew from the rear
seat. The ten minute flight probably circled
downtown Los Angeles and then included a spectacular
sweep over the Pacific with a breathtaking view
of Catalina Island. In December of 1920, the
skies were probably smooth and clear.
That
evening she told her parents, "I think
I'd like to fly."
The family did not take her inspiration to fly
seriously. She made her own inquiries and found
a woman pilot to instruct her. The female flight
instructor quieted any possible objections of
impropriety made by her parents. She hired Anita
Snook, also known as 'Neta' or 'Snooky,' for
$500 for the first 12 hours of instruction.
Neta was based out of Kinner Field, in the South
Gate area of Los Angeles near Huntington Park.
The field was owned by Bert Kinner, who was
in the process of building a small biplane prototype
called the 'Kinner Airster.' He was convinced
that soon every family in America would own
one, just as they owned an automobile.
Neta's
recollection of her first encounter with
Amelia Earhart was as:"...a tall,
slender young lady and a elderly man approaching.
She was wearing a brown suit, plain but
of good cut. Her hair was braided and
neatly coiled around her head, there was
a light scarf around her neck and she
carried gloves...
"I'm Amelia Earhart and this is my
father... I want to learn to fly and I
understand you teach students... Will
you teach me?'" |
Amelia
and Anita "Neta" Snook
|
The
two women became immediate friends. For the
first two months, most of Amelia's instruction
was ground based, but she managed to log in
nearly four hours of air time. She read books
on aerodynamics at the library, helped in
her father's office, worked at the telephone
company and several other odd jobs to pay
for her flight instruction. After six months,
she had become a reasonably accomplished pilot.
Yet Neta felt that she lacked the instincts
to become a 'natural' - a really great pilot.
At
this point, Amelia insisted on buying one of
the Kinner Airsters against Neta's advice. Neta
thought that there were some inherent problems
with the airplane and that it was not a plane
for beginners. It was underpowered, lacked stability
and the engine was often unreliable. Amelia
liked the aircraft because it was air cooled,
which meant it had a simpler system and it weighed
less. She was able to pick it up herself by
the tail and move it around without using a
dolly or having a man to help her. On July 24th,
1922 (her 25th birthday), she purchased the
prototype Kinner Airster for $2000 and named
it "the Canary" because of the bright
chromium yellow paint job.
At this time there were less than 100 female
pilots in the United States.
| One
of the more memorable events for any pilot
is the first 'unscheduled landing.' Neta
records Amelia's first crash as follows:
"A grove of Eucalyptus trees grew at
the far end of the runway. On takeoff, the
Kinner Airster didn't gain altitude fast
enough to quite clear those trees--that
pesky oil-clogged third cylinder. There
was nothing to do. To nose down for more
flying speed meant slamming into the trees.
To pull up meant a stall. Amelia pulled
up--I would have done the same--the plane
stalled [and] on ground contact the propeller
was broken and the landing gear damaged.
That was Amelia's first crash. She [had
bitten] her tongue but had the presence
of mind to cut the switch. |
|
|
When
I looked back, she was powdering her nose.
"We have to look nice when the reporters
come," she reminded me. Even minor
aircraft crashes were headlines at this
point in aviation history. |
After
the crash, Amelia also took extra instruction
from John 'Monte' Montejo, a pilot more experienced
with the Airster. She wanted to learn some stunting
to know how to get herself out of unexpected
circumstances she might encounter in the air.
Finally, she felt ready to solo. She had to
abort her first attempt due to a broken shock
absorber. On the second attempt, her takeoff
was unremarkable, she took her Airster to 5,000
feet and finished with a "thoroughly rotten
landing."
She celebrated her success with a new leather
flying coat. Because of the obvious newness
of the coat, she was subjected to much teasing.
So she aged her coat by sleeping in it and staining
it with a little aircraft oil. Now she looked
the part, but her piloting skills were still
in doubt.
1922-1927
Although financial constraints forced Amelia
to work a variety of jobs to continue flying,
she was able to gain valuable experience as
a pilot. In the summer of 1922 she was featured
in the Los Angeles Examiner in an interview
where she stated that she would like to fly
across the continent. By October, her flying
skills had improved to the point that she engaged
in several record breaking activities. She began
by setting the women's altitude record at 14,000
feet. This record, however, lasted only a few
weeks. Some weeks later, she attempted to regain
her record even though the weather conditions
were less than perfect. At 10,000 feet she encountered
thick clouds with snow, sleet and zero visibility.
Because her flight experience had all been in
the Los Angeles basin, it was very unlikely
that she was prepared to fly in these conditions.
After reaching the desired altitude, she stated
that she put her plane into a deliberate spin
as the quickest way out of the situation. In
the meantime, the ceiling had deteriorated from
10,000 feet to just a few thousand feet, leaving
very little distance to recover from the spin.
In
March of 1923, she participated as one of the
advertised attractions in an Air Rodeo at the
Glendale Airport. She was billed as part of
the "Ladies Sportsplane Special featuring
Miss Amelia Earhart flying a Kinner Airster
and Miss Andree Pyre flying a Sport Farman."
| On
May 16, 1923, Amelia was granted her flying
certificate from the FAI, Federation Aeronautique
Internacionale. Although flying licenses
were not required at this time, the certificate
was necessary in order to make attempts
on FAI held records. |
 |
It was at this point in time that the Earhart
family finances were in critical state and Amelia
felt obligated to help. She reluctantly sold
her Kinner Airster to a young man who had done
some flying during the war. He immediately got
a friend to go along with him on his first flight
in his new purchase. At nearly one hundred feet,
the pilot began stunting. As all the bystanders
watched in horror, the plane slipped off a vertical
bank and nosed into the ground, killing pilot
and passenger. Her 'Canary' was gone.
The Earhart family was in shambles by this time
and by late spring of 1924, Edwin filed for
an uncontested divorce. Amelia, her mother and
Muriel decided to move to Massachusetts. Muriel
went ahead by train to begin summer classes
at Harvard and established a home near Boston.
Amelia and her mother remained behind for a
time.
It
was at this time that Amelia bought her Kissel.
She did not like the idea of traveling by train
across the country and thought that the car
excursion would be second only to her dream
of flying across the continent. She often called
her car the "Kizzle," but later referred
to it as the "Yellow Peril." The name
seemed quite apt. Those who knew her said she
was quite the speedster around town. Amelia
confessed that she learned how to fly before
she learned how to drive a "motorcar."
The
drawers in front of the back fender pull out and
become
a passenger seat with fold up back and arm rests.
Imagine the ride!
Amelia
and her mother left Los Angeles for Boston in
May 1924, traveling through Sequoia, Yosemite,
Lake Louise and Banff. They drove across Canada
and arrived in Boston 6 weeks later. Considering
the condition of roads at that time and the
rarity of mechanical help, especially in the
more remote areas, this was a daring adventure
covering 7,000 miles and covering the car with
tourist stickers. Cross-continental travel by
automobile was still a novelty, so Amelia and
her mother were continually stopped by people
and asked many questions. She found the bright
yellow car, unremarkable in Los Angeles, to
be an attention drawer across the country. "The
fact that my roadster was a cheerful canary
color may have caused some of the excitement.
It had been modest enough in California, but
was a little outspoken for Boston, I found."
In Boston, Amelia worked as a social worker
for the Denison House. She often taught English
and other subjects to foreign born men and women.
She also kept in contact with local pilots and
joined the Boston chapter of the National Aeronautic
Association and was able to fly on occasion.
At this time, to the distress of some of her
more stuffy relatives, her name began to appear
in print. Amelia began to realize the value
of publicity. There was much attention when
she 'bombed' the city with leaflets that advertised
a fundraising event. When the Boston Globe interviewed
her in June of 1927, she took advantage of the
occasion to promote aviation, especially for
women. After this article, she was often the
subject of articles where she was described
as "one of the best women pilots in the
United States.
Amelia
and children of Denison House with the "Yellow
Peril"
It was in April of 1928, however, that Amelia's
life changed forever. She answered a phone call
in her office from Captain H. H. Riley, who
asked her to be the first woman to fly across
the Atlantic.
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