Transcripts For CSPAN3 Amelia Earhart - Legend Legacy 20240713

The Smithsonian Associates hosted this event. Good evening. Im so glad youve joined us for tonights program to our members im glad youre here. Its your ongoing support that makes events like this possible. Now is the perfect time to turn off your cellphones or anything else that might make noise during the program. Thank you for doing that. 85 years ago this month Amelia Earhart became the first aviator to fly solo from honolulu, hawaii, to north carolina. And Charles Lindbergh became if thirst person to fly solo across the atlantic ocean, earhart became the first woman to complete that feat. Dorothy curates the collections of general aviation aircraft, flight material and the history of general aviation and women in aviation. Shes the coauthor of the aviation careers of igor socorsky. She earned her private pilots license in 1884. So now please join me in welcoming dorothy cochran. Well, good evening, everyone. Thank you so much. Its a pleasure to be here. I thank the Smithsonian Associates for inviting me. And i did want to point our book that came out. I guess par for the course about amelia she gets a four page spread in there so shes obviously still very popular and Everyone Wants to know about her, but there are a lot of exciting women in this book, and i just want to encourage you to go online and check it out and see weve got several other women aviators in there and just a breadth of women who have done a lot of things in all kinds of disciplines. So i was happy to be a part of it. So let me see here and that all has to do with the american womens Historical Initiative that the smithsonian is running all this year, which of course is the anniversary of the 19th amendment and women getting the right to vote because of her story. And its on Ongoing Program that youll be seeing all yearlong. So well go on without further ado. When an acknowledged media star disappears off the face of the earth public speculation will run wild. January 1 isth as she mentioned was the 85th anniversary of the first solo flight from hawaii to the u. S. Mainland and Amelia Airhart was the pilot. Few people know this milestone but mention airhart pfrs name and most everyone perks up. Yes, they know who she is, and they probably have an opinion on how or why she disappeared on her 1937 around the world flight. After all her disappearance is one of the great mystery of the 20th century. Airhart was a decorated pilot and a major celebrity during the 1930s, second only to Charles Lindbergh in terms of notoriety. Even after the largest maritime search of the era came up empty and amelia was declared legally dead and even after 83 years people continue to think of her and wonder what really happened to her. With each new theory or book or expedition her name remains in the public arena. But is that the only reason earhart is remembered . Why do people continue to search, and more importantly, why do they care . Amelia airhart is the most famous american female pilot and arguably the most famous one in world history. An accolade due both to her aviation career and her mysterious disappearance. And as we mentioned on may 21st, 1992, she became the first woman and person after Charles Lindbergh to fly solo across the atlantic. I found out years ago there was a gentleman who flew the south atlantic i i think. So i sometimes have to mention that. She left few finland, canada, and landed about 15 hours later near london dairy Northern Ireland. The feat made her an instant worldwide sensation and proved she was a courageous pilot. And then august 25th of that year she made the first solo flight nonstop by a woman from los angeles to newark, establishing a womans record of 19 hours and 5 minutes. And setting a womans distance record of 2,447 miles. To be sure amelia had courage and commitment. It takes courage to embark on a path that is so different from the norm, but airhart felt that tug all her life. She was born the daughter of edwin and amy otis earhart. She was a tomboy no surprise playing cowboys and indians, building and testing a homemade roller coaster, the neighborhood leader and she could handle a gun and sew her own clothes. Her family made moves due to her fatherys spot fathers spotty employment issues. Ler parents separated on and off so she learned to depend on herself. She and mural often spent happy times with her grandparents as well where her grandmother immersed them in typical midwest society. She accepted most proprieties of the era and throughout her life was almost nearly polite and respectful. She was smart and also headstrong and not afraid to speak up for herself, her friends. An avid reader she scoured the newspapers or magazines for articles on accomplished women, cut them out and posted them into a scrapbook. One entry was about a female doctor, however i dont know if that article also mentioned bessica rashe was a pilot and built that airplane with her husband. Well never know. She enrolled the girls in private boarding schools. Amelia went to the school in suburban philadelphia and merial went to a school in toronto. She was moved by the presence of the world war i wounded pilots who were up in toronto, and she decided that she was going to leave just before her graduation and become and work as a nurse and nurses aide in the Military Hospital tending to those who actually suffered from excuse me, this is tongue twister shell shock or ptsd as we know it today. And she took a visit to it flying club there and that ignited a spark in her. She entered her Columbia University Extension Program and taking premed courses in the fall. She stayed for a semester and then at her parents request joined them in los angeles for the summer of 1920. The following months there were air shows at many airfields and she started to learn more about aviation and on Christmas Day 1920 she and her father attended a new opening at rogers field that featured many exhibition acts. Her first and then she took a flight with veteran flier frank hawks and declared as soon as i left the ground i knew i myself had to fly. Her first instructor was anita neta snook whos shown here who gave lessons in a kurdish jenny. However, that didnt last too long. Neta thought amelia was a good student but she soon became p g pregnant and gave up flying. She did very well with him as well. And to pay for her flight lessons she worked as a telephone clerk, photographer and even a truck driver. And she soloed in 121 and took her trials for the National Aeronautic association license at that time. Charactericly in 1922 she felt secure enough to buy a kenner airster flying shows and wasted no time in setting a womens altitude record, get this at 14,000 feet. She barely knew how to fly, right, but she was determined to go up and do this. It was part of the exhibition attitude and what people did in the era, and people were excited to see anybody flying, really, and loved seeing the sport of it all. In 1923 then she passed two flights tell uses and became the 15th woman to receive an official Federation Era international pilotslianc licen. When her parents parted for the final time she sold her airplane to move east and be with her sister a muriel. She wasnt interested in marriage or mother hood but she hadnt figured out what she wanted to do. She took some courses at harvard, did some short jobs here or there, but eventually took some coursework that led then to a job at the house in boston where she began working with immigrant families. And at that time once she was settled into that job and making some money she was able then to locate the local flying school and the flying clubs at denison airport and got herself back into flying joining the National Aeronautic association. So now she was starting to find herself again. She had a job, she had an avocation, she had friends and she was having a good time. However, opportunity came knocking when she was offered the opportunity of a lifetime to become the first woman to fly as a passenger across the atlantic ocean. She passed an interview in new york city with people who had already promoted lindbergh and richard bird. And richard bird was part of the group. She passed it and was sworn to silence then until the group prepared for a flight. I think i keep hitting something here. What am i hitting . Lets try that. There we go. I have to watch what im doing. She was a standin. A new york socialite who owned an s7 french ship and wanted to make it flight herself as a passenger she was a socialite from new york and her family strongly objected. So they set about asking around and looking for someone who could make the flight and they were trying to find the right sort of girl. She had to be smart, have a good background, and then as it turned out with amelia she was a bonus because she already had some womens records. So a. E. Fit the requirements just fine. Before leaving for new finland with the pilots she wrote a philosophical note to her family just in case she might not return. She said, quote, hooray for the grand adventure i wish i had won. She accepted the challenge even though flying the atlantic in 1928 was very risky. 40 of the 1927 attempts failed and 25 proved fatal. And the putnam group wasnt alone. It was a race. Another woman named mabel ball was at harvard grace not far away also waiting out weather and determined to make the flight into columbia. So the race was on. You know the lindbergh era was there. Lindbergh had flown the atlantic. It was just airmindedness and everyone was interested in saveiation. Everyone was involved in the game and the public just loved it. They ate it up. It was just a very exciting time, and it brought about investment and interest and regulation, all the things aviation needed to actually become a form of transportation and grow into of course military flying, airlines and more of what we know today. So on june 17th, 1928, they departed new finland in a plane. Shed been promised time at the wheel, at the controls but it was not to be. During the 20 hour, 40minute flight she got zero flight time, however she was able to pilot the plane from whales to its final stop in south hampton, england. It was a tumultuous reception. She hid her disappointment except for one reference to just being baggage. Stuped by the crowds she managed to find the time to buy an aircraft from british pilot mary young heath. But before she could fly it she was obligated to George Putnam who was writing the publicity to right a book, and within two months she wrote her first book entitled 20 hours and 40 minutes which talked mostly abo about aviation and women and people wanting to fly and a bit about the flight itself. Then she came back and flew her avion from the coast and back. But it also gave her the opportunity to speak with people and learn to interact with them and the media. And most importantly it brought her to the realization this fame she was starting to get might give her the opportunity to actually earn a living in aviation, which is what she wanted to do. Putnam George Putnam of the putnam publishing and publicity family became her manager, and she began lecturing and writing in aviation and learned how to deal with the press while guarding her privacy. One of her first moves was joining the Editorial Staff of cosmopolitan magazine. And her first column came out november 1928 titled try flying yourself. So now she was determined to succeed so she acquired her transcore license in august of 1928 flying very speedy very similar to the one we have in the collection she placed third in the all womens air derby. This was the first transcontinental flight for women, and it was important from santa monica to cleveland, ohio, where the Cleveland Air races were, and it was a race she helped organize. But more importantly it was a race that was closely followed by the press and public, and it proved that women could make a long and dangerous flight. They were capable of making these flights day in and day out, taking care of the airplanes, taking care of themselves, learning how to fly in all kinds of weather, make decisions. And a lot of men, of course, didnt think women could do that. And they were out to prove that they were that they could. Will rogers dubbed the flight the powder puff derby. But luoise said wed rather just be called pilots, thank you. And i forgot to mention then there was the beach nut auto gyro. She also flew that around as well. And that was a new plane that was kind of a short take off and landing plane with the rotor on the top. So that was a whole different design, and that took some time to learn how to fly that, she flew that acrosscountry and back. And the second day she flew it, she wept up and did an altitude record in that. So she wasnt afraid of technology, wasnt afraid of trying something new. She did have crack ups, but so did other people. Shes not afraid of technology, and shes not afraid of a challenge. In fact, shes eager for it. Its what keeps her going. So after the derby, the women who participated in it, they finally found all these other women who were very interested in flying just like them. They really didnt know each other, and there were two Different Levels of flying in the derby. And once they got to know each other they did what all pilots naturally do talk about opportunities and jobs and airplanes. And they decided they needed to have their own group, and so they created a group that would for social and networking purposes, finding jobs, all of the above. Female pilots obviously lacked the social and economic independence that men had, and they were it was harder for them to get aircraft. They couldnt get paid. They couldnt get jobs. Most of the jobs they had were very, very small and didnt pay well. So a group of women organized sent out letters to the 285 license female pilots. 89 women responded and 26 actually showed up at valley stream, new york, to actually organize the club. And thats the image of them here. Amelias in the back there on the left about three or four in. And in the front on the front right is wells. And when i came into his theater i think we spoke here a few years ago, i think wells was also speaking at about about amelia because she knew amelia so well. Shes the one in the flight suit. So, yeah, so thats that. Okay. And then now she was being managed by George Putnam. Flying seemed to be the easy part for earhart. She felt a far more personal risk from a stream of Marriage Proposal from her manager George Putnam. She wasn married when she first met him but they divorced and amelia had nothing to do with that. She had other plans, other interest and she divorced george. George i dont think minded too much because he really liked amelia, and he started proposing to her not long after the divorce. Though she liked him and they were successful business partners, she really valued her independence, and she was afraid it would compromise her life. On the other hand, george was her publicist and he knew what she want today do and he was good at it. So she finally married him on her own terms in 1931 after delivering a letter of mixed emotions inasmuch she dismissed, the quote, medieval code of faithfulness, and she also request adcruel promise that you will let me go in one year if we find no happiness together. Though some called it marriage of convenience, they remained together. And while other husband of women pilots often object today hir wives flying, george kept amelia on the treadmill. She chose the fights, he booked the lectures. Putnam was demanding and not wellliked by any of her friends. I really havent found any of them that liked him. But bobby troud had to admit, she said i might have been famous if id had a promoter like george. So she was still flying with friends. Ruth nichols was quite the competitor. All of them were thaden had won a womens air derby. Nichols had an idea to fly the atlantic and amelia was getting the idea to fly the atlantic. Shed done it as a passenger, but she felt she hadnt done enough flying yet. She was doing a variety of races, doing a variety of shows and things like that. But she felt she really needed to show the discipline and show she could actually accomplish a flight like this. So she bought a different lockheed than the one shed used in the derby, the 5b, the red one we actually have now in the collection of the space museum. She thought a transatlantic flight would bring her respect, something other women saw, too. Ruth nicales had already made an attempt in 1931 crashing in canada. But she recovered and was planning another flight within a few weeks of earhart taking off on her flight. So earhart took off on a nonstop solo flight from harbor grace new finland to Northern Ireland. This is what she said when she got there. She obviously realized when she was flying that the landscape when she reached land it didnt look like france. Shed been thinking she wanted to go to france. She knew shed been drifting off to the north and she realized she was over Northern Ireland and she needed to land, but she still wasnt exactly where she was and so she asked and they said she was in northern dairy. This is 5 years to the day after lindberghs flight and that was no accident buzz George Putnam was her promoter. So she managed to do that well for them, too. On the flight she fought fatigue, nausea from a leaky fuel tank and it was leaking down her neck and a cracked manifold that spewed flames out the side of the engines. Ice formed on the wings and she caused an unstoppable 3,000 foot descent. She returned home to a tickertape parade in new york on honors in washington, d. C. And then by july and august she was back in the vega, her transcontinental flight where she set a record flying nonsfaup. She received the distinguished flying cross from the president , the National Geographic medal and the harmon trophy for women. She said in her flight it was in a measure a selfjustification proving to me and to anyone else who was interested that a woman with an adequate experience could do it. So here is the lockheed 5b. You can see what a gorgeous plane it is. Its just a very beautiful plane, speedy, fast. Its part of the stream lined design of the era. There are no struts going to cause drag, there are wheel pants on it, its got a one piece wing and its got whats called a monocot fuselage and layers of wood glued together into a very hard shell and that then takes the stress of the aircraft and removes all of the ener bracing and wires that were on previous aircraft. And of course its a hard shell so its much stronger than fabric, and its just a terrific airplane in the era, and of course were just delighted to have it in the collection, and its just a beauty. Noi as you may know our museum is undergoing a little restoration down there, and unfortunately this gallery is no longer there. And the vega is in storage. But we will reopen hopefully in three years this gallery. Its going to be a while. Its a lot of restoration. Anyway but this is her plane surrounded by a lot of her objects. We have a flight suit and some other things that ill mention here. Theres a chest. Her trophy chest was on the other side of this. Theres some of her coins and medals shed acquired, things like that and just stories about her life. And were now in the process of refining that, and then well put it back in the gallery in a few years. So she was carving out a highly unusual career at a time when few american women worked and only a few hundred flew airplanes. And its important to understand the era. Most women at this time were tied to their families with little or no selfdetermination. They didnt earn money, and they had no economic or personal dependence. Women had only won the vote in 1920. So these women pilots who were breaking records were breaking barriers, but it was still very tough. They were very few jobs for them and they didnt have a lot of money. Ruth nichols was a socialite, she had some family money. Earhart worked every single day forhair money and loise thaden did, too. She married another gentleman who was designing aircraft, mr. Thaden. So a lot of them ended up mar yg pilots. That helped. Earharts Business Plan was ambitious but simple. Its a routine, i make a record and then i lecture on it. Thats where the money comes from until its time to make another record. She spoke everywhere. Civic and womens groups, colleges, openingings. She promoted new airlines by taking flights where she took a train from new york to columbus, ohio, got on the four trimotor and hopped across the country all the way to california where she met up with the lindberghs and then they flew back. So doing that sort of thing, promoting airlines became a Vice President for the National Aeronautic association and there she lobbied for more contests for women so they could gain experience because obviously they really couldnt compete against the men. The men had bigger airplanes, more money, theyd been flying more. So she lobbied for more contests for women so they could get the experience. So she was a busy woman. She was certainly committed to her own lifestyle and to her own career, but she wanted to bring other women along, all those women from the derby and everyone else she knew. She was very concerned about them. Helen richie was given a chance to be a commercial Airlines Pilot in the mid1930s, but it turned out to be a promotional thing. So amelia she knew gene the doll who was head of the bureau of commerce and she asked him if he couldnt find some ways to employ some of these women pilots. And they came up with something called the earmarkers program. And when youre flying across the country youre flying mostly along railroads or ridges or geographic locations. So this was developed to actually paint the names of towns or cities across the country as airways until while they were starting to develop radio, navigation and that sort of thing. So she was always working with the naa, working with people to help improve aviation, to bring airlines up to speed and use them to and to promote them as a mode of transportation and to help all of her fellow women. So she really had a lot of people in mind. Here in 1935 is a picture of her after shes come back from hawaii. She became the first person to fly solo from honolulu, hawaii, to the california mainland. Other people had flown but in either pairs or more people in the plane. She was the first one to do it sole so. And then after this she was criticized because some people just thought, you know, shes just out there trying to get publicity. Well, its true and shes also trying to earn a living. But they also said this was free advertising for the sugar plantation people and whats the point of her flying an airplane like this, and its just too dangerous. And in fact many people of course had died trying to do this as well. But she said i wanted the flight just to contribute. I could only hope one more passage across that part of the pacific would mark a little more clearly the pathway over which an air service of the future will inevitably fly, and of course she was right. Later that year she made a record of flights from los angeles to mexico city in april, and then from mexico city to newark, new jersey, in may. She won the second harmon trophy. That last flight was at 3,100 miles, and she was the first woman to do this. But she sold a lot of stamps along the way, a lot of first aid covers with stamps and autographs on, and again she was criticized for this even though a lot of other people did the same thing. So its just kind of sour grapes. You wonder shes just trying to make a living basically. Thats all shes trying to do. So her celebrity allowed her to support other passions and interests including the National Womens party and the womens peace organization. She was obviously for the equal rights amendment that the National Womens party was promoting. She was a strong supporter of birth control. She was a pacifist, but she declared if there was going to be a draft that women should be drafted, too. She wanted true equality. After an evening up there you see a picture up there the second from the left of her and eleanor roosevelt. George putnam was known a lot as gp. They got to know the roos velts well from all their different flight and there were Different Things they were interested in together. They got in1r5u6b8ed somewhat in promoting the politics. They went to her for information or things they wanted to impart to the public. It was a mutual friendship, a mutual admiration relationship, but in this particular case theyd been to dinner at the white house and george arranged amelia and they could go flying. So earhart flew from a brief time and then went back and talked to eleanor about it. And eleanor actually really thought about getting a students pilots license but her husband wasnt too excited about that. So that didnt happen. She also seeking to expand their horizons amelia and george created an early version of celebrity branding and after designing a flight suit of suits and jackets for the 99s, earheart designed a line of functional Womens Clothing including pants and jackets available in separates and separate sizes which was very unusual. Sportswear, blouses, and dresses and suits and hats. She was comfortable in pants and leather jackets. And she projected an adrogynus image, but she always wore dresses for public events. She photographed well as you can see here modeling one of her own designs for promotional spreads. And that picture, oskt,in fact, believe was taken by a famous photographer. It wasnt a particularly lucrative and successful business capturing only marginal sales, but she found a better market in a line of lightweight luggage, canvas covered fly wood luggage that was sold by ornstein trucks. Anybody have earhart luggage here . Yeah, okay. And my understanding is it was sold into the 1990s. She traveled on the edges of hollywood, and she was everywhere in print, radio and news reels. But even though shes doing all this, she did not embrace the highlife and she didnt succumb to the false illusion she was anybody special. She was just trying to earn a living and fly. On the top right that is a streamline glass etching of her vega transatlantic flight and of all the buildings at the Rockefeller Center that particular building is the only one not still standing. And no one knows not even the rockefeller historians what happened to it. She obviously spoke at schools. You can see her with children or students there, and then up in the second from the top and the first one those are some of her friends in aviation. Blanch noise on the far left and then herself and loise nichols and thaden and also friends with Jackie Cochran who was a bit younger and an upandcoming racing pilot. They were friends as well. So in 1936 earhart decided that making a world flight would make a difference, would be a good idea for her to do. And she also wanted to fly a route that no one else had flown before, as close to the equator as possible. Most around the world flights you had to do a certain amount of miles to qualify for it. But most people took a northern or southerly route because it was so far and most airplanes, frankly, didnt have the range to go hopping around the world at the equator. And that was a tall order, and it was something she and george really had to work out as to where her landing would be if she did take this route. She ordered a lockheed electra, you see here. Another beautiful lockheed design, called the flying laboratory because purdue helped pay for it quite a bit, and it was equipped with new types of radios and transmitters and things like that, directional finders that she was going to, quote, test out as she was making the flight. And thats what all these pilots did, a lot of the women, the men tested out equipment all the time. This would be powered by two 550 horsepowered engines. And their planned route would require over the water flights and fueling routes across the pacific ocean. They asked for help with permits and weather reports and potential landing sites, and the president directed everyone to help her. Flying west then from california to hawaii george decided that she could next land on one of this was in the planning stage i should say. If she flew west from california to hawaii george decided she could land on three different islands beyond hawaii. She could make it to any 1 of these three. They were already under u. S. Jurisdiction. Because the u. S. Was interested in populating some of these islands that were out in the western pacific because of what was going on with japan and their aggression in asia. So they were already on some of these islands. They were already built planning to build runways and take possession of them. So she decided to land on tiny halland island where a runway was already planned. She flew the electra and placed fifth. Thats a picture of her in front of it. And then on march 17, 1937, she and her crew flew from oakland, california, to honolulu, hawaii. She had with her her flight manager paul manz, a wellknown personality pilot and manning and newman were going to accompany her on the flight from hawaii on. Three days later earhart crashed on take off at lukefield, honolulu, hawaii, ending her westbound flight. The electra was heavily damaged and returned to lockheed corporation in burbank for repairs. Did pall manz thinks maybe she was yaquiing the throttles, other people say no there was debris or things on the runway. It really didnt matter. She was determined to keep going. She and putnam wanted to do the flight, they needed the money, but she did think maybe this would be one of these last big flights, that she didnt need to be doing this anymore because she was nearly 40 years old at this point. Friends and purdue helped pay for some of these repairs. And as she prepared for her second attempt personnel changes and crucial decisions arose. Her intended Radio Operator, manning, had to go back to his regular job, so he couldnt go. So faced with handling the radios herself and a new receiver she received training but really not enough. She was always so busy she never really took enough of the training. She was still making appearances and attending to all the things that have to happen when youre starting a flight like thismism and then paul manz, her flight manager departed as well. He never really got along with g. P. And he had his own business as well. So g. P. Tried to step in as the manager, so now hes the promoter, the manager and hes not really a flight manager. And then most importantly her Communications Plan got terribly flawed and compromised. And it compromised her ability to communicate with ships and most especially the one waiting for her at this tiny island which was several thousand miles from honolulu. So and this time then she decided actually to go the other direction. It had to do with the timing, with the weather. And now shell be leaving through the United States and going around the world that way across africa, across the middle east, across southern asia and then leaving from new guinea to this tiny Little Island out in the middle of nowhere in the pacific. Radio communication provided critical time checks that aided nav dpagz and her radios she didnt understand them as perfectly well as she should, and there was trouble receiving and transmitting. She was constantly getting that look at as she started her way through the flights. And neither she nor newnen could use morse code, and thats a crucial mistake but thats what other military aircraft used in ships. It was a main form of communication. Radio and voice transmission were just not as they werent good enough at the time. And morse code was the way for you to tap out all of your messages and also for your signal to be picked up and homing devices then and wherever youre going they can home in on you and help bring you in following your code thats coming through. So that was a huge mistake that she didnt have that. She dropped a 25 foot trailing wire that would be required that would have helped on this morse code. And when she dropped that and didnt have all the information and all the training that she needed she lost the a lot of ability to use her 500 kilo cycle emergency frequency and homing device. So that made it very, very tough for the people who were waiting for her on halland island to help bring her in on this tiny Little Island in the middle of nowhere. Basically the coast guard ship was waiting for her off the island. Fuel had been stored there for her. There was a runway. She was going to stay there overnight or in a day or two refuel. She would be coming from new guinea to the island and refuel and then to hawaii and then head home to oakland. So at this point in time she had actually already flown 22,000 miles, and she only had 7,000 miles to go. Because they had departed oakland on may 21st. Then they left miami on june 1st. They reached new guinea on june 29th, and then on july 2nd they departed lay new guinea for their next refueling stop. It was supposed to be about a 2,565 mile flight. They estimated somewhere about 20 hours would be the time of the flight. There are reports the airplane could fly a lot further. A lot of these reports have to do with the best type of the best climb or the best cruise, the best fuel consumption, all these things that never really happened in a regular flight. Something is always degrading the best mileage estimates. So she hits squall, she hit head winds. The folks herd her call out her radio calls for the first 7 hours as she went further east. But then they couldnt hear her anymore, and this is kind of a map here of where shes flying. And then noone heard her. There were a couple of other ships out there stationed and hoping to hear her and her transmissions but most of them didnt hear her, and she was finally heard on the morning of july 2nd. Now shes crossed the international dateline. Now its july 2nd where the island is. They started hearing her at 2 45 a. M. And she had an estimated time of arrival at about 6 30 a. M. Orn so the facts of her flight put her within 50 to 100 miles of halland island. When they decided they werent hearing from her and didnt know where she was, but as she got closer and closer her raid yesignals got stronger. The u. S. Coast guard records of her approach including Radio Communications logs and crew reports. Theyre available in the National Archive and theyre available to researchers. She was heard at a strength of 5, meaning she was most likely within 50 miles of halland island. New and nenan felt they were there. And the ships crew were actually out on deck starting to look for her. Shed already said that the fuel was running low and we can only surmise that they just could not locates this very tiny island and its a mile and a half long and a halfmile wide. Its absolutely crazy to try to find this plane in the middle of the ocean like that. But it was blowing smoke. Smoking was going along the water there. Unfortunately most of it stayed on the water. It was supposed to rise up. It didnt. Theyd been flying now since, for 16, 17 hours. They were flying into the morning sun, they were exhausted and they were looking for this tiny Little Island. There was some weather theyd just pin through, and some other cotton ball clouds out there and passing shadows and theyre flying into the sun and just trying to find this tiny Little Island. To show you how tiny it is well, these were her last calls and and this is all record. Were getting some of theories, but this is all fact. This was all taken and recorded by the radio men on the and these are her calls. And they clearly feel theyre nearby and theyre trying to find by the end its more of a desperation we must be on you but cant see you and were running this line of position. And then this is a little hard to read, but this is the coast guards captains analysis of how long they were hearing the radio calls and then how they stopped and then what he estimates happened and how he felt she must have come down somewhere just north or west of halland island. Yeah, theres the picture of the island, too. So you can see that this was a picture that was taken by a woman who flew by linda finch who did a flight in 1996, a comemerative flight. So you can seeites a great picture because it shows the electra she had an electra a, and how big it is in relation to this island. So it was a tiny, small island it was just it was unfortunate they chose this island. It was a refueling stop. So the report was the flight too much . An old friend said she was caught up in a hero stream of fliers compelled to strive for bigger and braver feats necessary to maintenance of her position as the foremost woman pilot of the world. She had worked hard to get there, but they may be weary of the mantle and planning the flight it just didnt work out. In aircraft accidents like many others are often a series of small or accumulating problems, errors, technical issues and ive mentioned some of those. And then in the end sometimes it just comes down to luck, and her luck didnt hold. Fast preparation, advisability of a quick turn around to fly in a different direction, putnam the promoter, financial situation, this risk management, flawed communication plans, no Radio Operator. All of these unfortunately combined to bring what we think was tantalizingly close, but she didnt make it. So earharts disappearance spawned countless theories involving radio problems, which i believe. Poor communications, which i agree with. Navigation of pilots skills. Fred was an excellent navigator. He did have a drinking problem, pbut he was a former panamerican navigator, very well regarded. He didnt drink the night of. He drank the night before they took the flight. So, you know, its just and then there are all the other ideas did she go to other landing sights, was she on a spy mission . Was she in prison, was she killed by the japanese and then there are the more bizarre ones, that she actually survived the war and lived on a rubber plantation in the philippines, and even worse was living quietly in new jersey under the name of irene bolam. And poor irene you see up there was hounlded ded by this one gentleman who saw her at a Cocktail Party and said thats amelia. She said i am not amelia, what are you talking about . She had to finally go to court to get him to stop harassing her. Its just, you know but as i said in the beginning what happens when the most famous woman in the world simply disappears, a female pilot . The movie there flight to freedom featuring Roselyn Russell was a thinly veiled story, supposed story of amelia as a spy and sparked a rash of sightings during the war. And though that died down, the 1960s it kind of all came creeping back with a variety of people writing books. Based on sightings of some people in saipan and other islands, the marshal islands. And some people say she had a tendency when she went off course to go north, and maybe she did go to the marshal islands. So theyre basing it on that, and then capture and either died in prison or was executed. World war ii vets some of them came back saying i saw a twinengine plane and i saw a blonde woman. It could have been anybody. It could have been japanese plants, could have been american plants. But it wasnt earhart as far as im concerned. Some of these firsthand accounts that some of these people gave they were kind of secondhand accounts. There were some people who swore they saw her, there were a few who say they saw her executed. We dont know who they say. No public records held in the National Archives, u. S. Navy archives or coast guard car kiefbs point to a spy mission for her. None of her friends thought she was on a mission. I listened to many reportings and interviews by a man named l. J. Long who was in a program i participated in 25 years ago who has done the Research Using the facts, believing that she knew what she was doing, that fred newnan new what she was doing. Hes an aviator bhoz flown the world himself and she spent the better part after stopped flying basically hes in searching and he has a book out, the mystery solved, Amelia Earhart which is still for sale. So she spent a long time looking at the facts, and then hes given some of this information to a group called nauticos whos specialized in finding wrecks for militaries and other countries. And they found submarines under water, aircraft under water and a whole rash of things they cant tell me about they found under water. So theyre really smart. Theyre using the facts. Theyre feeding them into computers using something calles themselves to an area that they felt was the area of uncertainty and the most probable areas of where she might come down. People talk about drift and fuel consumption. All these Different Things that feed in to the computer, and they spout out and decide, which are the most favorable areas . The first three they have chosen have not worked out, to their dismay and everyone elses dismay. They will go again, they want to go again, but they are not sure if they will be able to or not. It is still out there. I think she crash landed due to lack of proper radio equipment, not having the morse code ability and not having a communications package. There were frequency misunderstandings and timing misunderstandings. They never actually had two way communication from Howland Island to her plane and back. We can talk about some of these, if you want. More about some of these different theories. I firmly believe that she will be found someday. She probably will not be found, but the electra might be. I get tired of all the speculation and i really want to focus more on her legacy. This is one of my favorite pictures. [laughs] how many theories do you see here . laughs i do not even know. Somebody brought this to me. It was two or three years ago. It was a picture found on the dock. You get rid of all those cluttered things there. If move those out of the way and you can see in the middle, there is a picture of someone in a white shirt. That is supposed to be amelia sitting on the dock. Over by the light, it is obscured, but there is a gentleman who is supposed to be nunez. They actually came to myself and tom, who has also worked long and hard on the Amelia Earhart story. They came to us and showed us this picture and everything about it. Some of you may remember this from two or three years ago. They showed it to us and we said, good luck with that. laughs three days after it ran on television, a gentleman in japan found the picture and found it had been taken in 1935. She flew her roundtrip in 1937, so they did not quite do their homework. That is the kind of thing that happens with this. Somebody gave it to me because they knew how much i would enjoy it. To be a little more serious about this, amelia resonated far beyond just being a pilot. Her legacy is clear. Many of the women who later flew domesticly for the Women Air Force service pilots, they flew domestically flying aircraft. They remember when amelia came to their school and to their civic centers. She was certainly an idol and a role model for many of those women who ended up flying. This is 1000 women who ended up doing these flights. They flew 20 million miles or so. She was one for women who had no intention of flying but wanted to be more independent. They wanted to get an education. She encouraged women to do what they could to help themselves, to be educated and maybe find another way to do something, if you want to. If there is something that you want to do, pursue that, as a hobby or something further. We still receive endless queries from media, students, conspiracy theorists and students. Today, aerospace is actively recruiting women as pilots. Still only 7 of the pilot population. Engineers only 9 of the population. It was a great time to be a woman and getting into these fields. The doors are finally wide open. No astronaut or woman commands attention like amelia did. I will say judy has a show in chicago. She included ehrhardt in her painting celebrating mythical and historical women, seated at the table. She is one of the women who is in the periphery of the table. In 1997, the gap Clothing Store awarded her along with ernest hemingway. Steve jobs included her in his very successful apple campaign, think different. There is a bevy of books out there. Everything from doris rich, an autobiography of ehrhardt, several others and books about her feminist attitudes and what she and other women pilots did for feminism. There are many nice biographies and some that are a little crazier. There was one book called, i was Amelia Earhart, written by a woman who ended up on the island that Rick Gillespie thinks she is at. It is a whole thing. We can talk about the International Group for the aircraft recovery. His group has been searching for Amelia Earhart for at least 20 to 30 years. He first started looking for a pair of pilots who had flown the atlantic from europe to the u. S. , who went missing over main. He started looking for them in boggs and lakes over in maine and never found them. Speaking about ehrhardt, he started perking up and became more interested. More money flew flowed in for a recovery effort, so he switched to looking for ehrhardt. 25 years ago, tom and i stood at the National Press club where rick stood up and announced he had found everything for amelia. It included a shoe that was three sizes too big, a bunch of aluminum that could be any aircraft aluminum, and later he found freckle cream, which had to be hers because she had freckles. He continues to believe that she is on an island that was further south than Howland Island. His has got the most she is on that line of position, but the problem is that she was out of fuel over Howland Island and this island is 350 miles south. Back to her legacy. She is just a renowned woman for her courage, for her commitment to aviation, to women, to peace, all these things that were important to her in her life. Presented in 1928, the army air course, the observation squadron. Her disappearance pick remains one of the greatest mysteries and it overshadows her true legacy as a dedicated aviator. In a male dominated world of early aviation, ehrhardt defied gender roles by building a legendary flight career, earning a distinguished flying cross and consistently landing on the womens best dressed and best admired list. A complex combination that allowed her to have real and lasting impact. Her flying career, feminism, life and death continues to inspire. Thank you. applause so, i think that we have time for some questions. Does anyone have . Did she ever acknowledge or Pay Attention to Betsy Coleman . Thats a really good question. Because myself and another fellow at the museum are researching some of that now. Theres a woman at the museum who only recently found out that she has a black aviator in her family history. And a lot of people are disclosing their history and so she has helped me look into black history more and the same plane and they are in that gallery. We are trying to learn more and i actually got another top on a separate angle and i said messy and amelia all started flying and i dont know i dont know if either of them knew each other but betsy was from texas and went to chicago and emilia was in chicago when she was younger. I dont know that amelia knew about betsy and how much of her accomplishment if she had to go to france to get her license she couldnt get a license in the United States because she was African American and couldnt find anyone to train her. She went to france where she knew pilots there and they were black american pilots from the war there. So, i dont know if they knew each other or not, i doubt it. On a decision on choosing the island and the poor radio decisions, where those decisions mutual between her and the manager . Is there any accurate detail about whose decisionmaking to pick the island and chose to not go with the Radio Operator for a proper radio . Thats a couple of questions. They had a Radio Operator after she crashed and i mentioned he had to go back to work and they could have waited, they couldve said we are going to get this plane fixed, well find another radio an operator and will do this right. But, they wanted to get it done and they had some money invested in this flight and how they cracked up the airplane and they would borrow more money and they would repay the debts and needed to get this done so she can go back and watch. So, they decided to go without the radio without the two of them. I dont think it was one or the other and it was simply going to go ahead and do this flight. So, it probably wasnt the best decision and i think it was both of them. They worked pretty well as a Team Together and i know that when they were first picking going west on the islands, gdp had identified and first identified these Three Islands and two others within the range of flying from hawaii and talk to other people who were managing the islands now, but i think in this case, he gave her the option of those options and she chose that one. Thats what i was saying earlier about the mismanaged fight and they did decide to do a fast turn around and not really sit back and planet properly. Get her up to speed and try to find another Radio Operator and manage it all better. Any other questions . Yes. Can you tell anything about postflight . Yeah, obviously they were living in california at that time and he was obviously very upset and devastated. He completely accepted that she had been lost at sea. He didnt buy into any other ideas. There were some radio calls that they thought they heard for a while and if they came down in the water they may have been a radio call but nothing had been sustained or anyone could officially say and so they had this huge surge of coast guard and navy and the largest search ever in time. After that search was over it became apparent that no one had seen any bit of airplane or any idea where she came down. She was declared dead in just a few months and he accepted that. He went on and his life and ended up getting married a couple more times. He ended up promoting other endeavors and the first thing he did was what he took the notes and she was sending back letters and notes from where she was going on her flight because she would be writing in and i forgot to mention when she flew the atlantic when she came back, after that first flight as a passengers she flew and wrote the book for the fun of it which was shoved out the door and published and made a lot of money on. They were looking to do the same thing here and collected all the materials that she had said back to him and then he finished the book for her calling it last flight so they did that right away. He went on with his life but, you know, you know, ive heard an interview from his son who got along his two sons with his first wife and got along great with both of them. Thats son said that they really did love her and care about her and did not buy off on any idea that she had done anything. Any other questions . Okay, thank you all. applause