Happy Birthday, Amelia Earhart

Vanished aviatrix Amelia Earhart would be (and maybe is, if she’s still alive on some remote South Pacific island — or New Jersey, depending on who you ask) 112 years old today.

With only 7,000 miles more to go that would have completed an around-the-world flight, Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan went missing somewhere between New Guinea and Howland Island (about 1,700 miles southwest of Hawaii) on July 2nd, 1937.

Because no definitive evidence has ever been found of Earhart, Noonan, or their Lockheed Electra 10E aircraft, the mystery of their disappearance fuels ongoing speculation as to their fate even today, 72 years since their last radio transmission was received. Did they simply run out of fuel and sink into an ocean that descends in some places to more than 30,000 feet? Were they on a mission from the United States government to spy on potentially hostile, pre-World War II Japanese outposts and captured? Did they merely adopt new identities for some unknown reason and live well into the late 20th century? It’s possible we’ll never know for sure.

However intrigued we are by the Amelia Earhart mystery, it’s important to remember that she accomplished a lot of firsts in her almost 40 years of (documented) life on Earth. Wikipedia cites her records and achievements as:

• Woman’s world altitude record: 14,000 ft (1922)
• First woman to fly the Atlantic (1928)
• Speed records for 100 km (and with 500 lb (230 kg) cargo) (1931)
• First woman to fly an autogyro (1931)
• Altitude record for autogyros: 15,000 ft (1931)
• First person to cross the U.S. in an autogyro (1932)
• First woman to fly the Atlantic solo (1932)
• First person to fly the Atlantic twice (1932)
• First woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross (1932)
• First woman to fly non-stop, coast-to-coast across the U.S. (1933)
• Woman’s speed transcontinental record (1933)
• First person to fly solo between Honolulu, Hawaii and Oakland, California (1935)
• First person to fly solo from Los Angeles, California to Mexico City, Mexico (1935)
• First person to fly solo nonstop from Mexico City, Mexico to Newark, New Jersey (1935)
• Speed record for east-to-west flight from Oakland, California to Honolulu, Hawaii (1937)

Amelia Earhart remains an inspiration not only to women, but to anyone who’s ever dared to chase a dream just for “The Fun of It,” as she would say. Happy birthday, wherever you may be, Queen of the Air.

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