Contemporary World Issues

Biography Paper

Boaz 3B

By: Jerome Bircumshaw

Even to this day some people believe women are not capable of achieving what the male can do. However one women in 1928 changed the image of the face of women forever.

Soon to be an American aviator, Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897, in Atchison, Kansas. She was the daughter of a successful railroad attorney. Because of her father’s occupation, Amelia spent her childhood growing up in many different towns. Her fascination for adventure and thrill seeking started off at a young age where Amelia and her big sister Muriel decided one day that they wanted to make a plane. There was a lack in material, so they decided to make a rollercoaster instead. Even though neither one of the girls knew how to make a roller coaster, they got some wood from an old wooden fence they tore down. First, they made the “car” by placing the bottoms of roller skates under a big piece of wood and the rest of the wood was used to make a slide that went from the top of a woodshed to the ground. With Amelia and her bravery, she went first and rolled quickly down the unstable slide. The “car” hit the ground and Amelia bounced into the air and turned into a somersault, luckily escaping injury.

Years after the family moved to Des Moines, Iowa where they attended a state fair. That is when Amelia got to see her first airplane which did not impress Amelia. The airplane was made of wood and wires and reminded Amelia of a “big orange crate.” Because of this, she thought she would never own an airplane. Even though she was young at the time Amelia knew she wanted to do something fun in the future. One night in 1910 Amelia’s father took both of the girls out to see Halley’s comet which passes by once every 76 years. She was really impressed by the sight and pointed out one specific star and asked if it had a name. “That is Vega,” her father told her. “It is one of the most beautiful stars of all.” Amelia shut her eyes and wish on “Vega” that she could do exciting things when she grew up. This wish certainly came true.

The following years were good ones for Amelia, as she learned how to swim and ride horses. After she finished her high school education, she attended a school in Toronto, Canada where she visited her sister and took a course in the Red Cross First Aid. She thought being a nurse was going to be her occupation growing up as she loved helping the wounded soldiers and everyone loved her help.Years after however, she left and furthered her education as a premedical student at the Columbia University in New York. It was going well for Amelia, but her parents insisted she should move back to California with them.

Shortly after, Amelia was living in California with her parents when she read in a newspaper that there was an “air meet” near Los Angeles. Amelia went to the air meet, with her father and they watched the planes do stunts and daredevil tricks. That was the beginning of Amelia’s aviation adventure. She decided she wanted to fly, but her parents could not afford lessons for her, so Amelia got a job to cover the expenses. Her teacher was a women, and one of the only women in the world who knew how to fly. This gave Amelia more hope that one day she would be able to fly by herself. One day she finally got to fly solo as her instructor watched. She was not the best pilot and had a rough landing, but she could say she flew an airplane. Amelia’s mom was proud of her and helped her to buy her own small airplane. Amelia soon became a good pilot and was reminded by men and women constantly how good her aviation skills were. Planes did not fly very high back in the early 1900’s but that never stopped Amelia from setting a women’s record for high flying. She flew 14,000 feet in the air, almost three miles high.

With the knowledge we know now of Amelia’s great achievements, it is surprising to think that she had a hard time deciding on what she wanted to do. Of course she wanted to fly, but she also wanted to do some useful work. It was at Denison House in Boston where she found a social center. This is where she taught the children how to play games. She looked after them while their mothers were working, it was like a daycare. If Amelia was not taking care of the kids, she was flying. All the children were proud of her and looked up to her.

In 1927, Amelia read the newspaper and learned that Charles A. Lindbergh had flown an airplane from New York to Paris. It was a major accomplishment because flying airplanes across the Atlantic was not only a hard task to accomplish but no one had ever successfully made the journey until then. Lindbergh was the first man who accomplished the flight in history. Several women had tried to make the journey, but none had made it. Three young women lost their lives trying. It was in Boston Massachusetts where Amelia received a call to be the first female passenger on a transatlantic flight, in 1928. Amelia asked to be a pilot, but she did not know how to use instruments which were a new invention in planes to help them from getting lost. She soon after promised herself that she would learn how to use aviation instruments.

The weeks following, Amelia was sent to New York where she met her future husband and book publisher George Putnam. He was the manager of the ocean flight, and they quickly realized they had a handful of similar interests. Amelia got her first glance at the plane named “Friendship” that was chosen for the trip and she was pleased to say the least. The Friendship had three motors, and instead of wheels it had pontoons which meant it could float, but taking off in water was no easy task since wind was the main component to take off. The friendship had gold wings which Amelia thought was beautiful but she was informed that the gold was not for looks but instead it make the aircraft easier to spot in case the pilot had to go down in the ocean, so the plane would be spotted.

One early morning in 1928, Amelia thought the weather seemed right, so the pair jumped in the plane, started the engine, and sped off across the water. The first destination was Trepassy Harbor, in Newfoundland, off the coast of Canada so the airplane could be refueled before the long journey. After they refueled and planned to head to Europe, the weather became extremely bad with thick fog and rain. Days went by, and the weather seemed to keep up. Amelia started losing hope, and then she heard the news about another young women who had flown from New York to Newfoundland. She and her pilot were staying in a town nearby. Her name was Mabel Boll, and her plane was named the “Columbia.” Both of the women agreed that the trip was not a race, but secretly both women wanted to be the first to complete the transatlantic journey. Back in the United States, the newspapers called it a race. Headlines read “Rival Women Flyers Still Held by Bad Weather,” and “Columbia ready for take off,” then in big print “Friendship Takes Off.”

On June 17, 1928, Mabel said the weather was too bad to take off, and Amelia would be the first to reach Europe. Quickly into their flight, Amelia and her pilot rode into heavy fog and were hoping to reach the coast of England before they ran out of gas. After several of hours, there was little gasoline left, but the fog life savingly lifted, and a boat was seen in the distance. However, the radio was not working properly and after several attempts to contact the boat, they simply flew on hoping to find land. Shortly after, fishing boats were seen in the distance which meant there must be land nearby but the direction was not known, so they flew forward, hoping to find something, and luckily, they spotted land in the distance and Stultz brought the plane down in the Burry Port, on the coast of Wales.

Amelia was a heroine. As the first women to fly across the Atlantic, she was treated as a national idol and hero. She had a positive impact on society giving hope to children and adults of both genders proving that women could do anything a man could do, or even better because her flight beat Lindbergh in the total time it took of twenty hours and forty minutes. When the crew returned to America Amelia along with the help of George Putnam published a book called “20 Hrs. 40 Min.”

While in America, Amelia flew across the country and became a better pilot than she had ever been before in her life and learned how to fly safely with instruments. She changed the female view of flying positively and became a role model to people all over the globe. Around this time Amelia purchased her own airplane and named it “Vega.” She was set out to fly the transatlantic solo and be the first women to do so. On May 20, 1932, the trip to Europe alone began. Although she did not have an easy flight with ice forming on the wings and fire leaking out of the exhausts, she managed to reach Europe in a historical fifteen hours and eighteen minutes. Amelia was invited to many parties. One of which included a dance with the “soon to be” King of England. After their marriage George and Amelia were invited to have dinner with the President Hoover and his wife at the White House. Amelia proved that women had as much courage as men and was soon the most famous woman alive. She took the President and his wife on a short ride in a plane above Washington while wearing a evening gown and slippers.

Time went by and Amelia became a teacher at Purdue University in Indiana when she decided she really wanted to make history. Amelia told George, she wanted to fly the globe, It wasn’t an impossible task, but she wanted to fly around the equator which was the hardest and longest way to fly. Amelia did have a downfall and it was not knowing when to quit. With the help of George she set off on the flight from California one morning in March of 1937. She reached Hawaii in less than sixteen hours but spun into a ground loop and crashed the plane which cost eighty-thousand dollars. The plane was shipped back in pieces and fixed, and on June 1, 1937, Amelia decided to try the flight again but this time she sat off the other direction.She flew over many countries such as Africa, India and New Guinea. It was when she was supposed to stop on a small island call “Howland Island” that people started worrying since Amelia never reached the Island or her final destination. July 2, 1937, would be a day remembered forever, because that is the day Amelia set off from New Guinea to Howland and was never seen again. Many reports claimed she was captured or stranded in the ocean or on an uninhabited island somewhere. But the truth, however, was never discovered.

I believe Amelia was one of the greatest feminist role models by changing the face of women across the globe. She was nothing short of impressive, and I would recommend this book to anyone of any age or gender because Amelia had a life that is a real eye opener and proves the there is no dream that can not be accomplished.