Amelia Earhart
On this day in 1928, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.
Wanda Langley, author of Women of the Wind wrote:
On June 17, 1928, Earhart left from Boston on the plane Friendship with pilot Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon, copilot and mechanic. They planned to fly from Newfoundland to the United Kingdom, the most direct route across the Atlantic. Earhart had the job of keeping the flight log and taking notes on the ride. After a flight of twenty hours and forty minutes, Friendship touched down at Burry Port, Wales, on June 18, 1928.
She became famous after that trip. “When she appeared in public, people reached out to touch her skin, pat her hair, and tug at her clothes,” Langley wrote.
Earhart would go on to fly across the Atlantic by herself in 1932. Earhart wanted to prove that air travel was safe. Her achievements in the sky paved the way for commercial aviation to prosper.
Next month, a group of scientists will launch a half million dollar exhibition to discover what happened to Earhart after she disappeared seventy-five years ago.
Adrianne Loggins
Associate Editor
For more information about Amelia Earhart and other women pilots, check out Women of the Wind by Wanda Langley (ISBN 9781931798815)
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