Biography of Amelia Earhart

Essay by bigcheatsHigh School, 11th gradeA, May 2004

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When 10-year-old Amelia Mary Earhart saw her first plane at a state fair, she was not impressed. It wasn't until Earhart attended a stunt-flying exhibition, almost a decade later, that she became seriously interested in aviation. A pilot spotted Earhart and her friend, who were watching from an isolated clearing, and dove at them. Earhart, who felt a mixture of fear and pleasure, stood her ground. As the plane swooped by, something inside her awakened. On December 28, 1920, pilot Frank Hawks gave her a ride that would forever change her life. Although Earhart's passion was strong, challenging obstacles awaited her. But the former tomboy was no stranger to disbelief. She kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about successful women in mostly male-oriented fields, including film production, law, advertising, management, and mechanical engineering. After graduating from Hyde Park High School in 1915, Earhart worked as a nurse's aide in a military hospital in Canada during WWI, attended college, and later became a social worker.

Earhart took her first flying lesson on January 3, 1921, and in six months managed to save enough money to buy her first plane. The second-hand Kinner Airster was a two-seater biplane painted bright yellow. Earhart named the plane "Canary," and used it to set her first women's record by rising to an altitude of 14,000 feet.

One afternoon in April 1928, a phone call came for Earhart at work. He asked her if she would like to fly over the Atlantic Ocean. She immediately said yes. After an interview in New York with the project coordinators, she was asked to join pilot Wilmer Stultz and co-pilot Louis E. Gordon. The team left Trepassey harbor, Newfoundland, in a Fokker F7 named Friendship on June 17, 1928, and arrived at Burry Port, Wales, in roughly 21 hours...