Ameila Earhart

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorHigh School, 11th grade February 2002

download word file, 1 pages 0.0

Amelia Earhart is America's favorite female aviatrix of all time. She was born on July 24, 1897, in the small town of Atchison, Kansas. Amelia (Millie) and younger sister Muriel (Pidge) were brought up to know privilege and wealth, attending private schools and living the comforts of life. By the age of eight, Amelia had a fascination with many things. Amelia was extremely smart, and somewhat of a tomboy. She built many things including a roller-coaster. After many years Amelia began having an interest in planes, and flying.

Amelia's life became hard when her father became an alcoholic. He could not keep a steady job, so in 1913 the family moved to St. Paul. Amelia had to leave college and become a part time nurse at a hospital. This new life style was rough but Amelia would not give up on her dream of flying. She started taking lessons with the little money left of the family inheritance.

Amelia met Anita Snook (Snooky) a famous flight instructor. Snooky taught Amelia the basics of flying. She taught Amelia what each and every instrument was, and how they worked. Snooky also taught Amelia the techniques of flying. Snooky was very influential in Amelia's flying success.

By October 1922, Amelia was a great aviatrix. She set the women's altitude record of 14,000 feet. Unfortunately, this record was broken a few weeks later by Ruth Nichols. Amelia became a better and stronger flyer every time she took off. She became such an icon, she was asked to be the first women to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.

In her lifetime Amelia did many wonderful things that were triumphant to women's future. She was the first woman to fly the Atlantic solo, and her most famous flight was her last. She wanted to fly around the world, at the equator, because it was the longest possible route. On this flight Amelia and her navigator Fred Noonan vanished. It is uncertain what happened on that flight, but Amelia's famous quote, " I would rather go risking all, attempting to do something that has never been done before, than any other way." sure says a lot about her philosophy on life.