Amelia Earhart

Amelia Mary Earhart ( ; born July 24, 1897; disappeared July 2, 1937; declared dead January 5, 1939) was an American aviator and aviation pioneer who became one of the most celebrated figures of early flight.

In 1928, she was the first female passenger to cross the Atlantic by airplane. In 1932, she became the first woman to make a nonstop solo transatlantic flight, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for her achievement.

On July 2, 1937, she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. Since her disappearance, Earhart has become a global cultural figure and numerous films, documentaries, and books have recounted her life.

Early life

Childhood

thumb|[[Amelia Earhart Birthplace|Amelia Earhart's birthplace]]

Amelia Mary Earhart was born on July 24, 1897, in Atchison, Kansas, the daughter of Samuel "Edwin" Stanton Earhart (1867–1930) and Amelia "Amy" Earhart (; 1869–1962). Amelia was born in the home of her maternal grandfather Alfred Gideon Otis (1827–1912), who was a former judge in Kansas, the president of Atchison Savings Bank, and a leading resident of the town. Earhart was the second child of the marriage after a stillbirth in August 1896. She was of part-German descent. Alfred Otis had not initially favored the marriage and was not satisfied with Edwin's progress as a lawyer.

Following family custom, Earhart was named after her two grandmothers, Amelia Josephine Harres and Mary Wells Patton. From an early age Amelia was the dominant sibling while her sister Grace Muriel Earhart (1899–1998), two years her junior, acted as a dutiful follower. Amelia was nicknamed "Meeley" and sometimes "Millie", and Grace was nicknamed "Pidge" and both girls continued to answer to their childhood nicknames into adulthood. Their upbringing was unconventional; Amy Earhart did not believe in raising her children to be "nice little girls". The children's maternal grandmother disapproved of the bloomers they wore, and although Amelia liked the freedom of movement they provided, she was sensitive to the fact the neighborhood's girls wore dresses.

thumb|left|Amelia Earhart as a child

The Earhart children seemed to have a spirit of adventure and would set off daily to explore their neighborhood. As a child, Amelia Earhart spent hours playing with sister Pidge, climbing trees, hunting rats with a rifle, and sledding downhill. Some biographers have characterized the young Amelia as a tomboy. The girls kept worms, moths, katydids and a tree toad they gathered in a growing collection. In 1904, with the help of her uncle, Amelia Earhart constructed a home-made ramp that was fashioned after a roller coaster she had seen on a trip to St. Louis, Missouri, and secured it to the roof of the family tool shed. After her well-documented first flight, she emerged from the broken wooden box that had served as a sled with a bruised lip, a torn dress and a "sensation of exhilaration", saying: "Oh, Pidge, it's just like flying!"

In 1907, Edwin Earhart's job as a claims officer for the Rock Island Railroad led to a transfer to Des Moines, Iowa. The following year, at the age of 10, Amelia saw her first aircraft at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. Their father tried to interest his daughters in taking a flight but after looking at the rickety "flivver", Amelia promptly asked if they could go back to the merry-go-round. She later described the biplane as "a thing of rusty wire and wood and not at all interesting".

Education

Sisters Amelia and Grace, who from her teenage years went by her middle name Muriel, remained with their grandparents in Atchison while their parents moved into new, smaller quarters in Des Moines. During this period, the Earhart girls received homeschooling from their mother and a governess. Amelia later said she was "exceedingly fond of reading" and spent many hours in the large family library. In 1909, when the family was reunited in Des Moines, the Earhart children were enrolled in public school for the first time and Amelia, 12, entered seventh grade.

thumb|Amelia Earhart in evening clothes

The Earhart family's finances seemingly improved with the acquisition of a new house and the hiring of two servants, but it soon became apparent that Edwin was an alcoholic. In 1914 he was forced to retire. He attempted to rehabilitate himself through treatment but the Rock Island Railroad never reinstated him. At about this time Earhart's grandmother Amelia Otis died. She left a substantial estate that placed her daughter's share in a trust, fearing that Edwin's drinking would exhaust the funds. The Otis house was auctioned along with its contents and Amelia later described these events as the end of her childhood.

In 1915, after a long search, Edwin Earhart found work as a clerk at the Great Northern Railway in St. Paul, Minnesota, where Amelia entered Central High School as a junior. Edwin applied for a transfer to Springfield, Missouri, in 1915, but the current claims officer reconsidered his retirement and demanded his job back, leaving Edwin Earhart unemployed. Amy Earhart took her children to Chicago, where they lived with friends. Amelia canvassed nearby high schools in Chicago to find the best science program. She rejected the high school nearest her home, complaining that the chemistry lab was "just like a kitchen sink". She eventually enrolled in Hyde Park High School but spent a miserable semester, for which a yearbook caption noted: "A.E.—the girl in brown who walks alone".

Amelia Earhart graduated from Hyde Park High School in 1916. Throughout her childhood, she had continued to aspire to a future career. She kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about successful women in male-dominated careers, including film direction and production, law, advertising, management, and mechanical engineering.

Nursing career and illness

During Christmas vacation in 1917, Earhart visited her sister in Toronto, Canada, where she saw wounded soldiers returning from World War I. After receiving training as a nurse's aide from the Red Cross, Earhart began working with the Voluntary Aid Detachment at Spadina Military Hospital, where her duties included food preparation for patients with special diets and handing out prescribed medication in the hospital's dispensary. There, Earhart heard stories from military pilots and developed an interest in flying.

In 1918, when the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic reached Toronto, Earhart was engaged in nursing duties that included night shifts at Spadina Military Hospital. In early November that year, she became infected and was hospitalized for pneumonia and maxillary sinusitis. She was discharged in December 1918, about two months later. Her sinus-related symptoms were pain and pressure around one eye, and copious mucus drainage via the nostrils and throat. While staying in the hospital during the pre-antibiotic era, Earhart had painful minor operations to wash out the affected maxillary sinus but these procedures were not successful and her headaches worsened. Earhart's convalescence lasted nearly a year, which she spent at her sister's home in Northampton, Massachusetts. Earhart passed the time reading poetry, learning to play the banjo, and studying mechanics. Chronic sinusitis significantly affected Earhart's flying and other activities in later life, and sometimes she was forced to wear a bandage on her cheek to cover a small drainage tube.

By 1919, Earhart prepared to enter Smith College, where her sister was a student, but she changed her mind and enrolled in a course of medical studies and other programs at Columbia University. Earhart quit her studies a year later to be with her parents, who had reunited in California.

Early flying experiences

alt=Amelia Earhart in her first training plane in 1920|thumb|Earhart in her first training plane, 1920

In the early 1920s, Earhart and a young woman friend visited an air fair held in conjunction with the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto; she said: "The interest, aroused in me, in Toronto, led me to all the air circuses in the vicinity." One of the highlights of the day was a flying exhibition put on by a World War I ace. The pilot saw Earhart and her friend, who were watching from an isolated clearing, and dived at them. "I am sure he said to himself, 'Watch me make them scamper,'" she said. Earhart stood her ground as the aircraft came close. "I did not understand it at the time," she said, "but I believe that little red airplane said something to me as it swished by."

On December 28, 1920, Earhart and her father attended an "aerial meet" at Daugherty Field in Long Beach, California. She asked her father to ask about passenger flights and flying lessons. of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue.]]

The next month, Earhart engaged Neta Snook to be her flying instructor. The initial contract was for 12 hours of instruction for $500 (). Earhart cropped her hair short in the style of other female flyers. Six months later, in mid 1921 and against Snook's advice, Earhart purchased a secondhand, chromium yellow Kinner Airster biplane,

Financial problems and move to Massachusetts

Throughout the early 1920s, following a disastrous investment in a failed gypsum mine, Earhart's inheritance from her grandmother, which her mother was now administering, steadily diminished until it was exhausted. Consequently, with no immediate prospect of recouping her investment in flying, Earhart sold the Canary and a second Kinner and bought a yellow Kissel Gold Bug "Speedster", a two-seat automobile, and named it "Yellow Peril". Simultaneously, pain from Earhart's old sinus problem worsened, and in early 1924, she was hospitalized for another sinus operation, which was again unsuccessful. She tried a number of ventures that included setting up a photography company.

thumb|left|Photo of Earhart from her book [[20 Hrs. 40 Min. (1928)]]

Following her parents' divorce in 1924, Earhart drove her mother in "Yellow Peril" on a transcontinental trip from California with stops throughout the western United States and northward to Banff, Alberta, Canada.

Their journey ended in Boston, Massachusetts, where Earhart underwent another, more-successful sinus operation. After recuperation, she returned to Columbia University for several months but was forced to abandon her studies and any further plans for enrolling at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), because her mother could no longer afford the tuition fees and associated costs.

In 1925, Earhart found employment first as a teacher, then as a social worker at Denison House, a Boston settlement house. At this time, she lived in Medford, Massachusetts.

When Earhart lived in Medford, she maintained her interest in aviation, becoming a member of the American Aeronautical Society's Boston chapter and eventually being elected its vice president. She flew out of Dennison Airport in Quincy, helped finance the airport's operation by investing a small sum of money, and in 1927, she flew the first official flight out of Dennison Airport.

Earhart worked as a sales representative for Kinner Aircraft in the Boston area and wrote local-newspaper columns promoting flying; as her local celebrity grew, Earhart made plans to launch an organization for female flyers.

Aviation career and marriage

First woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 1928

thumb|upright|Amelia Earhart prior to her transatlantic crossing of June 17, 1928

Planning and sponsorship

In early 1928, inspired by Charles Lindbergh's successful solo transatlantic flight in 1927, American heiress Amy Phipps Guest – daughter of philanthropist (and Andrew Carnegie's business partner) Henry Phipps Jr. – announced her intention to become the first woman to cross the Atlantic by air. At the time, she was living in London with her husband, former British Air Minister Frederick Guest.

Using her wealth and social connections, Guest assembled a team of aviation professionals to support her endeavor. She hired pilot Wilmer Stultz from Williamsburg, Pennsylvania, to lead the flight. In March 1928, Stultz had made headlines for completing the first non-stop flight from New York to Havana, accompanied by Oliver LeBoutillier and passenger Mabel Boll, aboard the aircraft Columbia. The previous year, Stultz had also piloted transatlantic attempts for aviator Frances Wilson Grayson.

Guest also recruited mechanic and co-pilot Louis Gordon from Collin County, Texas. For the aircraft, she acquired a Fokker F.VIIb Tri-Motor from famed explorer Commander Richard E. Byrd. Byrd had initially planned to use the plane for an Antarctic expedition, but when his backer, Edsel Ford—son of Henry Ford—suggested using a Ford Tri-Motor instead, Byrd agreed and sold the Fokker. Byrd would later serve as a technical advisor for the transatlantic flight. Guest named the plane Friendship to honor the special relationship between the United States and her new home, Great Britain.

However, upon learning of her plans, Guest's family reacted with alarm. Her sons, Winston and Raymond, even threatened to quit Yale and Cambridge respectively. Under family pressure, Guest reluctantly gave up her dream of making the flight herself. Nevertheless, she remained determined to see a woman achieve the milestone. Instead of flying, she resolved to sponsor the project—and began searching for what she called "the right sort of girl". The candidate would need to be a pilot, well-educated, well-mannered, physically attractive, and American. in Boston. After hearing the criteria outlined by Guest, Belknap immediately replied, "Call Denison House and ask for Amelia Earhart". who formally recognized their achievement. Earhart became the focus of particular public and media attention. Despite her limited role as a passenger during the flight, her status as the first woman to cross the Atlantic by air captured the imagination of the American public.

Earhart, Stultz, and Gordon we given receptions at Boston and Chicago, where they were welcomed by civic leaders and large crowds. Earhart received numerous awards and honors during this period.

Her modesty and charisma further endeared her to the American public, and her fame quickly surpassed that of her fellow crew members.

The flight marked the beginning of Earhart's rise to international prominence. With the help of publisher and publicist George Palmer Putnam, she began a successful lecture tour and endorsed various products.

Celebrity status

When Earhart became famous, the press dubbed her "Lady Lindy", because of her physical resemblance to fellow aviator Charles Lindbergh, and "Queen of the Air". Immediately after her return to the United States, Earhart undertook an exhausting lecture tour in 1928 and 1929. Putnam had undertaken to heavily promote Earhart in a campaign that included publishing a book she wrote, a series of new lecture tours, and using pictures of her in media endorsements for products including luggage. Wanting to contribute to support Richard Evelyn Byrd's imminent expedition to the South Pole, Earhart accepted a Lucky Strike cigarettes endorsement deal with the money redirected to Byrd. After the Lucky Strike ads, McCall's magazine retracted their offer for Earhart to become their aviation editor.

The marketing campaign by both Earhart and Putnam was successful in establishing the Earhart mystique in the public psyche. Rather than simply endorsing the products, Earhart became involved in the promotions, especially in women's fashions. The "active living" lines that were sold in stores such as Macy's were an expression of Earhart's new image. Her concept of simple, natural lines matched with wrinkle-proof, washable materials was the embodiment of a sleek, purposeful, but feminine "A.E.", the familiar name she used with family and friends. Celebrity endorsements helped Earhart finance her flying.

Promoting aviation

thumb|upright=0.7|Studio portrait of Amelia Earhart, . Putnam instructed Earhart to disguise a "gap-toothed" smile by keeping her mouth closed in formal photographs.

Earhart accepted a position as associate editor at Cosmopolitan and used it to campaign for greater public acceptance of aviation, especially focusing on the role of women entering the field. In 1929, Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) appointed Earhart and Margaret Bartlett Thornton to promote air travel, particularly for women, and Earhart helped set up the Ludington Airline, the first regional shuttle service between New York and Washington, D.C. Earhart was appointed Vice President of National Airways, which operated Boston-Maine Airways and several other airlines in the northeastern US, and by 1940 had become Northeast Airlines. In 1934, Earhart interceded on behalf of Isabel Ebel (who had helped Earhart in 1932) to be accepted as the first woman student of aeronautical engineering at New York University (NYU).

Competitive flying

In August 1928, Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the North American continent and back. Her piloting skills and professionalism gradually grew, and she was acknowledged by experienced professional pilots who flew with her. General Leigh Wade, who flew with Earhart in 1929, said: "She was a born flier, with a delicate touch on the stick."

Earhart made her first attempt at competitive air racing in 1929 during the first Santa Monica-to-Cleveland Women's Air Derby (nicknamed the "Powder Puff Derby" by Will Rogers), which left Santa Monica, California, on August 18 and arrived at Cleveland, Ohio, on August 26. During the race, Earhart settled into fourth place in the "heavy planes" division. At the second-to-last stop at Columbus, Earhart's friend Ruth Nichols, who was in third place, had an accident; her aircraft hit a tractor and flipped over, forcing her out of the race. At Cleveland, Earhart was placed third in the heavy division.

In 1930, Earhart became an official of the National Aeronautic Association, and in this role, she promoted the establishment of separate women's records and was instrumental in persuading the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) to accept a similar international standard. On April 8, 1931, Earhart set a world altitude record of flying a Pitcairn PCA-2 autogyro she borrowed from the Beech-Nut Chewing Gum company.

During this period, Earhart became involved with Ninety-Nines, an organization of female pilots providing moral support and advancing the cause of women in aviation. In 1929, following the Women's Air Derby, Earhart called a meeting of female pilots. She suggested the name based on the number of the charter members, and became the organization's first president in 1930. Earhart was a vigorous advocate for female pilots; when the 1934 Bendix Trophy Race banned women from competing, Earhart refused to fly screen actor Mary Pickford to Cleveland to open the race.

Marriage to George Putnam

thumb|upright=0.7|left|Earhart and Putnam in 1931

Earhart married her public relations manager George P. Putnam on February 7, 1931, in Putnam's mother's house in Noank, Connecticut, in what has been described as a marriage of convenience. Earhart gained a tireless promoter and Putnam—heir to a publishing company—gained an opportunity for cultural dominance. Earhart had been engaged to Samuel Chapman, a chemical engineer from Boston, but she broke off the engagement on November 23, 1928. Earhart reportedly spent the summer of 1928 writing her first book at the home of Putnam and his first wife, while having an affair with Putnam. Putnam, who was known as GP, was divorced in 1929 and sought out Earhart, proposing to her six times before she agreed to marry him. Earhart referred to her marriage as a "partnership" with "dual control"; in a letter to Putnam and hand-delivered to him on the day of the wedding, she wrote: <blockquote>

I want you to understand I shall not hold you to any midaevil code of faithfulness to me nor shall I consider myself bound to you similarly ... I may have to keep some place where I can go to be by myself, now and then, for I cannot guarantee to endure at all times the confinement of even an attractive cage.</blockquote>

Earhart's ideas on marriage were liberal for the time; she believed in equal responsibilities for both breadwinners and kept her own name rather than being referred to as "Mrs. Putnam". When The New York Times referred to her as "Mrs. Putnam", she laughed it off. Putnam also learned he would be called "Mr. Earhart". There was no honeymoon for the couple because Earhart was involved in a nine-day, cross-country tour promoting autogyros and the tour's sponsor Beech-Nut chewing gum. Earhart and Putnam never had children but Putnam had two sons—the explorer and writer David Binney Putnam (1913–1992), and George Palmer Putnam Jr. (1921–2013)—from his previous marriage to Dorothy Binney (1888–1982), an heir to her father's chemical company Binney & Smith.

Transatlantic solo flight in 1932

left|thumb|Earhart walking with President Herbert Hoover in the grounds of the White House on January 2, 1932

On May 20, 1932, 34-year-old Earhart set off from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, with a copy of the Telegraph-Journal, given to her by journalist Stuart Trueman to confirm the date of the flight. Her technical advisor for the flight was the Norwegian-American aviator Bernt Balchen, who helped prepare her aircraft and played the role of "decoy" for the press because he was ostensibly preparing Earhart's Vega for his own Arctic flight. After a flight lasting 14 hours, 56 minutes, during which she contended with strong northerly winds, icy conditions and mechanical problems, Earhart landed in a pasture near Culmore, north of Derry, Northern Ireland. The landing was witnessed by Cecil King and T. Sawyer. When a farm hand asked, "Have you flown far?" Earhart replied, "From America."

As the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic, Earhart received the Distinguished Flying Cross from Congress, the Cross of Knight of the Legion of Honor from the French Government, and the Gold Medal of the National Geographic Society from President Herbert Hoover. As her fame grew, Earhart developed friendships with many people in high office, most notably First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who shared many of Earhart's interests, especially women's causes. After flying with Earhart, Roosevelt obtained a student permit but did not further pursue her plans to learn to fly. Earhart and Roosevelt frequently communicated with each other. Another flyer, Jacqueline Cochran, who was said to be Earhart's rival, also became her confidante during this period.

Additional solo flights

thumb|Newsreel of Earhart flying from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Oakland, California in 1935

On January 11, 1935, Earhart became the first aviator to fly solo from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Oakland, California. This time, Earhart used a Lockheed 5C Vega. Although many aviators had attempted this flight, including the participants in the 1927 Dole Air Race, which flew the opposite direction, and resulted in three deaths, Earhart's flight was mainly routine with no mechanical breakdowns. In her final hours, she relaxed and listened to "the broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera from New York".

On April 19, 1935, using her Lockheed Vega aircraft that she had named "old Bessie, the fire horse", Earhart flew solo from Los Angeles to Mexico City. Earhart's next record attempt was a nonstop flight from Mexico City to New York. After she set off on May 8, her flight was uneventful, although large crowds that greeted her at Newark, New Jersey, were a concern, because she had to be careful not to taxi into them.

Earhart again participated in the 1935 Bendix Trophy long-distance air race, finishing fifth, the best result she could manage because her stock Lockheed Vega, whose maximum speed was , was outclassed by purpose-built aircraft that reached more than . The race had been difficult because a competitor, Cecil Allen, died in a fire at takeoff, and Jacqueline Cochran was forced to pull out due to mechanical problems. In addition, "blinding fog" and violent thunderstorms plagued the race.

Between 1930 and 1935, Earhart set seven women's speed-and-distance aviation records in a variety of aircraft, including the Kinner Airster, Lockheed Vega, and Pitcairn Autogiro. By 1935, recognizing the limitations of her "lovely red Vega" in long, transoceanic flights, Earhart contemplated a new "prize ... one flight which I most wanted to attempt—a circumnavigation of the globe as near its waistline as could be." For the new venture, she would need a new aircraft.

Move from New York to California

thumb|left|Earhart In a [[Stearman-Hammond Y-1]]

In late November 1934, while Earhart was away on a speaking tour, a fire broke out at the Putnam residence in Rye, destroying many family treasures and Earhart's personal mementos. Putnam had already sold his interest in the New York-based publishing company to his cousin Palmer Putnam. Following the fire, the couple decided to move to the west coast, where Putnam took up his new position as head of the editorial board of Paramount Pictures in North Hollywood.

At Earhart's urging, in June 1935, Putnam purchased a small house in Toluca Lake, a San Fernando Valley celebrity enclave community between the Warner Brothers and Universal Pictures studio complexes, where they had earlier rented a temporary residence.

In September 1935, Earhart and Paul Mantz established a business partnership they had been considering since late 1934, and established the short-lived Earhart-Mantz Flying School, which Mantz controlled and operated through his aviation company United Air Services, which was based at Burbank Airport. Putnam handled publicity for the school, which primarily taught instrument flying using Link Trainers. Also in 1935, Earhart joined Purdue University as a visiting faculty member to counsel women on careers and as a technical advisor to its Department of Aeronautics.

World flight in 1937

thumb|Amelia Earhart standing in front of the Lockheed Electra in which she disappeared in July 1937

Planning

Early in 1936, Earhart started planning to fly around the world; if she succeeded, she would become the first woman to do so. Although others had flown around the world, Earhart's flight would be the longest at 29,000 miles (47,000 km) because it followed a roughly equatorial route. Earhart planned to court publicity along the route to increase interest in a planned book about the expedition.

Purdue University established the Amelia Earhart Fund for Aeronautical Research and gave $50,000 () to fund the purchase of a Lockheed Electra 10E airplane. In July 1936, Lockheed Aircraft Company built the airplane, which was fitted with extra fuel tanks and other extensive modifications. Earhart dubbed the twin-engine monoplane her "flying laboratory". The plane was built at Lockheed's plant in Burbank, California, and after delivery, it was hangared at the nearby Mantz's United Air Services.

Earhart chose Harry Manning as her navigator; he had been the captain of the , the ship that had transported Earhart from Europe in 1928. Manning was also a pilot and a skilled radio operator who knew Morse code.

thumb|upright=0.75|Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan

The original plan was a two-person crew: Earhart would fly and Manning would navigate. During a flight across the US that included Earhart, Manning, and Putnam, Earhart flew using landmarks; she and Putnam knew where they were. Manning did a navigation fix that alarmed Putnam, because Manning made a minor navigational error that put them in the wrong state; they were flying close to the state line, but Putnam was still concerned. Sometime later, Putnam and Mantz arranged a night flight to test Manning's navigational skill. Under poor navigational conditions, Manning's position was off by . Elgen M. and Marie K. Long considered Manning's performance reasonable, because it was within an acceptable error of , but Mantz and Putnam wanted a better navigator.

Through contacts in the Los Angeles aviation community, Fred Noonan was chosen as a second navigator, because there were significant additional factors that had to be dealt with while using celestial navigation for aircraft. Noonan, a licensed ship's captain, was experienced in both marine and flight navigation; he had recently left Pan American World Airways (Pan Am), where he established most of the company's China Clipper seaplane routes across the Pacific. Noonan had also been responsible for training Pan American's navigators to fly the route between San Francisco and Manila. Under the original plans, Noonan would navigate from Hawaii to Howland Island—a difficult portion of the flight—then Manning would continue with Earhart to Australia, and she would proceed on her own for the remainder of the project.

Abandoned first attempt

On March 17, 1937, Earhart and her crew set out on the first leg of her round-the-world flight, but they abandoned this attempt after a non-fatal crash that damaged the aircraft. The first leg of this attempt was between Oakland, California, and Honolulu, Hawaii. The crew were Earhart, Noonan, Manning, and Mantz, who was acting as Earhart's technical advisor. The propeller hubs' variable pitch mechanisms had problems, so the aircraft was taken to the U.S. Navy's Luke Field facility at Pearl Harbor for servicing. The flight resumed three days later from Luke Field, with Earhart, Noonan and Manning on board. The next destination was Howland Island, a small island in the Pacific. Manning, the radio operator, had made arrangements to use radio direction finding to home in to the island. The flight never left Luke Field; during the takeoff run, there was an uncontrolled ground-loop, the forward landing gear collapsed, both propellers hit the ground, and the plane skidded on its belly. The cause of the crash is not known; some witnesses at Luke Field, including an Associated Press journalist, said they saw a tire blow. Earhart earlier thought the Electra's right tire had blown and the right landing gear had collapsed. Some sources, including Mantz, cited an error by Earhart. With the aircraft severely damaged, the attempt was abandoned and the aircraft was shipped to Lockheed in Burbank, California, for repairs.

Second attempt

right|thumb|The planned flight route

While the Electra was being repaired, Earhart and Putnam secured additional funds and prepared for a second attempt, in which they would fly west to east. The second attempt began with an unpublicized flight from Oakland to Miami, Florida, and after arriving there, Earhart announced her plans to circumnavigate the globe. The flight's opposite direction was partly the result of changes in global wind-and-weather patterns along the planned route since the earlier attempt. Putnam pressed for the removal of important navigational, communication, and safety equipment to lighten the aircraft.!! Arrival city !! Nautical miles !! Notes

| || Oakland, California || Burbank, California ||style="text-align:right"| 283 ||

| May 21, 1937 || Burbank, California || Tucson, Arizona ||style="text-align:right"| 393 ||

| May 22, 1937 || Tucson, Arizona || New Orleans, Louisiana ||style="text-align:right"| 1070 || Arrived at Lakefront Airport

| May 23, 1937 || New Orleans, Louisiana || Miami, Florida ||style="text-align:right"| 586 ||Arrived at Miami Municipal Airport.

| June 1, 1937 || Miami, Florida || San Juan, Puerto Rico ||style="text-align:right"| 908 ||

| June 2, 1937 || San Juan, Puerto Rico || Caripito, Venezuela ||style="text-align:right"| 492 || Out of Isla Grande Airport

| June 3, 1937 || Caripito, Venezuela || Paramaribo, Surinam ||style="text-align:right"| 610 ||

| June 4, 1937 || Paramaribo, Surinam || Fortaleza, Brazil ||style="text-align:right"| 1142 ||

| June 5, 1937 || Fortaleza, Brazil || Natal, Brazil ||style="text-align:right"| 235 ||

| June 7, 1937 || Natal, Brazil || Saint-Louis, French West Africa (now Senegal) ||style="text-align:right"| 1727 || Transatlantic flight

| June 8, 1937 || Saint-Louis, Fr.W. Africa || Dakar, Fr.W. Africa (now Senegal) ||style="text-align:right"| 100 ||

| June 10, 1937 || Dakar, Fr.W. Africa || Gao, French Sudan ||style="text-align:right"| 1016 ||

| June 11, 1937 || Gao, French Sudan || Fort-Lamy, French Equatorial Africa (now N'Djamena, Chad) ||style="text-align:right"| 910 ||

| June 12, 1937 || Fort-Lamy, Fr.Eq. Africa || El Fasher, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan ||style="text-align:right"| 610 ||

| June 13, 1937 || El Fasher, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan || Khartoum, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan ||style="text-align:right"| 437 ||

| June 13, 1937 || Khartoum, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan || Massawa, Italian East Africa (now Eritrea) ||style="text-align:right"| 400 ||

| June 14, 1937 || Massawa, Italian East Africa || Assab, Italian East Africa (now Eritrea) ||style="text-align:right"| 241 ||

| June 15, 1937 || Assab, Italian East Africa || Karachi, British India ||style="text-align:right"| 1627 || First ever non-stop flight from the Red Sea to India

| June 17, 1937 || Karachi, British India || Calcutta, British India ||style="text-align:right"| 1178 ||

| June 18, 1937 || Calcutta, British India || Akyab, Burma ||style="text-align:right"| 291 ||

| June 19, 1937 || Akyab, Burma || Rangoon, Burma ||style="text-align:right"| 268 ||

| June 20, 1937 || Rangoon, Burma || Bangkok, Siam ||style="text-align:right"| 315 ||

| || Bangkok, Siam || Singapore, Straits Settlements ||style="text-align:right"| 780 ||

| June 21, 1937|| Singapore, Straits Settlements || Bandoeng, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) ||style="text-align:right"| 541 ||

| June 25, 1937 || Bandoeng, Dutch East Indies || Soerabaia, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) ||style="text-align:right"| 310 || Delayed due to monsoon

| June 25, 1937 || Soerabaia, Dutch East Indies || Bandoeng, Dutch East Indies ||style="text-align:right"| 310 || Returned for repairs, Earhart ill with dysentery

| June 26, 1937 || Bandoeng, Dutch East Indies || Soerabaia, Dutch East Indies ||style="text-align:right"| 310 ||

| June 27, 1937 || Soerabaia, Dutch East Indies || Koepang, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) ||style="text-align:right"| 668 ||

| June 28, 1937 || Koepang, Dutch East Indies || Darwin, Australia ||style="text-align:right"| 445 || Direction finder repaired, parachutes removed and sent home

| June 29, 1937 || Darwin, Australia || Lae, New Guinea (now Papua New Guinea) ||style="text-align:right"| 1012 ||

| July 2, 1937 || Lae, New Guinea || Howland Island, American Equatorial Islands ||style="text-align:right"| 2223 || Did not arrive

| July 3, 1937 || Howland Island || Honolulu, Hawaii ||style="text-align:right"| 1900 || Planned leg

| July 4, 1937 || Honolulu, Hawaii || Oakland, California ||style="text-align:right"| 2400 || Planned leg

Flight between Lae and Howland Island

thumb|Earhart's flight was intended to be from [[Lae Airfield to Howland Island, a trip of .]]

On <time datetime="1937-07-02T00:00Z">July 2, 1937,</time> at 10:00 am local time (12:00 am GMT), Earhart and Noonan took off from Lae Airfield in the heavily loaded Electra. Their destination was Howland Island, a flat sliver of land 6,500 ft (2,000 m) long and 1,600 ft (500 m) wide, 10 ft (3 m) high and away. The expected flying time was about 20 hours; accounting for the two-hour time-zone difference between Lae and Howland, and the crossing of the International Date Line, the aircraft was expected to arrive at Howland the morning of the next day, 2 July. The aircraft departed Lae with about of gasoline.

In preparation for the trip to Howland Island, the U.S. Coast Guard had sent the cutter to the island to offer communication and navigation support for the flight. The cutter was to communicate with Earhart's aircraft via radio, transmit a homing signal to help the aviators locate Howland Island, use radio direction-finding (RDF), and use the cutter's boilers to create a dark column of smoke that could be seen over the horizon. A similar call asking for a bearing was received at <time datetime="1937-07-02T06:45-11:30" title="18:15Z">6:45 am</time>, when Earhart estimated they were away.

An Itasca radio log at 7:30–7:40 am states the aircraft had only a half hour of fuel remaining. A further radio log states they thought they were near Itasca but could not locate it and were flying at . In her transmission at <time datetime="1937-07-02T07:58-11:30" title="19:28Z">7:58 am</time>, Earhart said she could not hear Itasca and asked them to send voice signals so she could try to take a radio bearing. Itasca reported this signal as the loudest possible signal, indicating Earhart and Noonan were in the immediate area. The ship could not send voice at the frequency she asked for so they sent Morse code signals instead. Earhart acknowledged receiving these but said she was unable to determine their direction.

thumb|left|USCGC Itasca was at Howland Island to support the flight.

The last voice transmission received on Howland Island from Earhart indicated she and Noonan were flying along a line of position running north-to-south on 157–337 degrees, which Noonan would have calculated and drawn on a chart as passing through Howland. After all contact with Howland Island was lost, attempts to reach the flyers with voice and Morse code transmissions were made. Operators across the Pacific and in the United States may have heard signals from the Electra but these were weak or unintelligible.

A series of misunderstandings, errors or mechanical failures are likely to have occurred on the final approach to Howland Island. Noonan had earlier written about problems affecting the accuracy of RDF in navigation. Another cited cause of possible confusion was that Itasca and Earhart planned their communication schedule using time systems set a half-hour apart; Earhart was using Greenwich Civil Time (GCT) and Itasca was using a Naval time-zone designation system.

Sources have noted Earhart's apparent lack of familiarity with her direction-finding system, which had been fitted to the aircraft just prior to the flight. The system was equipped with a new receiver from Bendix Corporation. Earhart's only training on the system was a brief introduction by Joe Gurr at the Lockheed factory. A card displaying the antenna's band settings was mounted so it was not visible. The Electra expected Itasca to transmit signals the Electra could use as an RDF beacon to find the ship. In theory, the plane could listen for the signal while rotating its loop antenna; a sharp minimum indicates the direction of the RDF beacon. The Electra's RDF equipment had failed due to a blown fuse during an earlier leg flying to Darwin; the fuse was replaced. Near Howland, Earhart could hear the transmission from Itasca on 7500 kHz, but she was unable to determine a minimum so she could not determine a direction to the ship. Earhart was also unable to determine a minimum during an RDF test at Lae.

Disappearance

thumb|[[Pathé News|Pathe newsreel detailing her 1937 disappearance]]

The U.S. government investigated the aircraft's disappearance and, in its report, concluded Earhart's plane ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean. During the 1970s, retired United States Navy (USN) captain Laurance Safford began a lengthy analysis of the flight. His research included the intricate radio-transmission documentation. Safford concluded the flight had suffered from poor planning and worse execution.

Many researchers believe Earhart and Noonan died during or shortly after the crash. In 1982, retired USN rear admiral Richard R. Black, who was in administrative charge of the Howland Island airstrip and was present in the radio room on Itasca, said: "the Electra went into the sea about 10 am, July 2, 1937, not far from Howland." Earhart's stepson George Palmer Putnam Jr. has said he believes "the plane just ran out of gas". According to Earhart biographer Susan Butler, the aircraft went into the ocean out of sight of Howland Island and rests on the seafloor at a depth of . Tom D. Crouch, senior curator of the National Air and Space Museum, has said the Electra is "18,000 ft. down" and compared its archaeological significance to that of RMS Titanic.