Amelia Mary Earhart was born on July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas. Growing up as a fearless and adventurous teenager, she developed a strong admiration for aviation and the idea of becoming a pilot gained motion in her early days as independent and career minded woman. A dream of flying turns into reality that later transformed the courageous woman to a legendary person in civil aviation history.

In 1920, at a Long Beach air show, Amelia Earhart took a plane ride that changed her life. The flight lasted only 10 minutes, but when she landed, she knew she had to learn to fly. On May 15, 1923, at the age of 26, she became the 16th woman to receive a pilot's license. In 1927, Amelia Earhart became a member of the Boston chapter of American Aeronautical Society. On June 17, 1928, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1931, Earhart set a world altitude record by flying at 18.415 feet high.

First Transatlantic Flight

After Charles Lindbergh's solo flight from New-York to Paris in May 1927, the interest of having a woman fly across the Atlantic Ocean grew significantly. On June 17, 1928 Amelia Earhart took off from Trespassey Harbor, Newfoundland and about 20 hours and 40 minutes later, she landed at Burry Point, Wales, UK with her co-pilot.

First Solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean

On the fifth anniversary of Charles Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic on May 20, 1932, Amelia took off from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland. After 12 hours into the flight, the weather conditions started to get worse and the plane began to experience mechanical problems. She knew she wasn't going to make it to Paris as Lindbergh did, so Amelia found a pasture outside a small village of Culmore, North Ireland and successfully landed there. The nearly 15 hours flight established her as an international hero, as she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

Celebrity status

Amelia Earhart became a magnet for public attention and many endorsements. She accepted a position of Associate Editor at the Cosmopolitan magazine, where she used her publications to run campaigns for commercial air travel companies. From this platform, Amelia became a promoter for Transcontinental Air Transport which afterwards changed its name to Trans World Airlines (TWA). Later, she was elected as the Vice President of National Airways, which flew routes in the northeast. In 1935, Amelia Earhart joined Purdue University as a female career consultant and technical advisor for the Department of Aeronautics.

Earhart's final flight

On June 1, 1937, Amelia Earhart embarked on a mission to fly for the first time around the globe along the equator with her fellow navigator, Fred Noonan. The specially equipped plane, the Lockheed Electra L-10E was chosen for that dangerous, one of a kind flight. They took off from Miami with much fanfare and publicity. The plane flew forwards Central and South America, and then turned east to Africa. From there, they flew across the Indian Ocean and finally made a stop in Lae, New Guinea on June 29, 1937. About 22,000 miles of the entire journey had been covered. The remaining 7,000 miles were to be flown over the Pacific Ocean. Amelia's plan was to head to Howland Island, which was 2,556 miles away and situated between Hawaii and Australia. Earhart and Noonan set out from Lae on July 2, 1937 heading east towards Howland Island. From what is believed, a series of navigation mistakes and mechanical problems led to the disappearance of Earhart's plane the next day, July 3, 1937. People have proposed many theories, however, no one knows what exactly happened and what went wrong, and it remains an unsolved mystery to this day.

Legacy

With her passion for flying, Amelia Earhart amassed a number of distance and altitude world records. But beyond her accomplishments as a pilot, she also wanted to make a statement about the role of women in aviation. She dedicated much of her life to prove that, like men, women can excel in their chosen professions, and that they have equal value in all aspects of life. All this contributed to her widespread popularity and international celebrity status. Her mysterious disappearance, added to all of this, has etched Earhart's name in the history as one of the world's most famous pilots and greatest aviation personalities of all time.