Amelia Earhart
A ten-minute ride at an air show; she drove a truck and sorted mail to pay for flying lessons.
- Born
- 1897 · Atchison, Kansas, US
- Roots
- White American
- Family
- Middle class
- Railroad-lawyer father whose alcoholism sent the family into decline and frequent moves.
- Education
- Columbia University (pre-med, left); nurse's aide in WWI Toronto
- Started with
- A $10 ride
- A ten-minute flight at a 1920 air show; odd jobs paid for lessons with pioneer aviator Neta Snook.
- Affiliations & societies
- The Ninety-NinesDocumented
- Co-founded the international organization of women pilots in 1929 and served as its first president.
- Information only — claims like these are often unverifiable and may be wrong.
The pathway
- 1920 · age 23The ten-minute flight
"By the time I had got two or three hundred feet off the ground, I knew I had to fly."
- 1921 · age 24Working for lessons
Truck driver, photographer, mail sorter; buys her first plane, a yellow biplane called The Canary, within a year.
- 1928 · age 30Across the Atlantic — as a passenger
The first woman on a transatlantic flight; she calls her own role "a sack of potatoes."
- 1932 · age 34Solo across the Atlantic
The second person after Lindbergh; lands in an Irish pasture.
- 1935 · age 37Hawaii to California
The first person to fly the route solo.
- 1937 · age 39Vanishes over the Pacific
Disappears near Howland Island during the world-flight attempt; the search is the most expensive in US history to that point.
Sources
Compiled from these references and contemporaneous press reporting. Figures are approximate; verify before relying on them.