Amelia Earhart and husband George Palmer Putnam, an influential New York book publisher who made sure Earhart received much—and only the best kind of—publicity.

She virtually defined the strong presence women were to have in aviation, even though there were many great women aviators before and since. Even during her life-time, many of the same people who idolized her regarded her as an enigma; it is somehow fitting that her death should constitute the greatest and most enduring mystery in the history of aviation.

In the years that followed, Earhart made a determined effort to prove her piloting skills and to show the world that she could have flown the Friendship across the Atlantic. She worked to promote women’s aviation and became an eloquent and forceful proponent of including women in exhibition and racing events. Although both men and women pilots questioned Earhart’s flying abilities throughout her life, she proved her mettle in dozens of flights and in setting many records.

On May 21, 1932, Earhart flew a Lockheed Vega solo across the Atlantic, from Newfoundland to Northern Ireland. The flight encountered serious obstacles—a storm, a troublesome leak in the engine, a broken altimeter—and only a flier of skill would have made it. Later in the year, she set women’s distance and speed records when she became the first woman to fly solo non-stop cross the United States. A series of trans-Pacific flights brought her fame, but her most important flying achievement was probably her solo flight from Hawaii to San Francisco in January 1935—she was the first person to make the flight, after many others had failed.

Amelia Earhart’s  Vega

After Wiley Post’s two flights around the world, aviators began looking forward to someone attempting a round-the-world flight along a route closer to the equator. Post had skirted the North American and Eurasian continents, which was not strictly a round-the-world trip. Earhart assembled a flight team consisting of two pilots—herself and Paul Mantz—and two navigators: Fred Noonan, Pan Am’s chief navigator, and Harry Manning, a highly regarded maritime navigator. She also arranged with the Lockheed Company that she be lent an Electra for the flight.

On March 17, 1937, Earhart and crew took off from Oakland, intending to head westward and cross the Pacific for the first leg of the flight. It is not known exactly what had happened, but the plane tilted and a wing scraped the ground. By the time the plane was repaired, only Noonan remained of the original crew. Since he was very familiar with the Caribbean from his work for Pan Am, the flight would now originate from Miami and head eastward. The plane took off on June 2 and headed out across the Atlantic, staying just a few miles from the equator.

The flight across the South Atlantic, Africa, and the Asian subcontinent went smoothly. The plane took off from Lae, New Guinea, on July 2, heading for a stop on Howland Island, about a third of the way to Hawaii. What happened next has been the subject of investigation and for more than fifty speculation years. The plane certainly went down at a location other than Howland Island. It does not seem reasonable to assume that the plane put down at sea since no floating wreckage was ever found. If the plane landed on an island in the vicinity, because it was lost or experienced some mechanical failure, then the most likely landing place would have been Gilbert Island, then under Japanese control.

Relations between the United States and Japan were already strained during this period, and if, as some Lockheed employees said, spy cameras were mounted on the Electra for photographing the Japanese, then Earhart and Noonan might have been thought to he spies and eliminated. The search lasted two weeks and involved hundreds of naval vessels and aircraft, as well as hundreds of personnel, hut nothing was found (though search parties could not land on Gilbert Island). In the years since, many theories have been propounded about the fate of Amelia Earhart. Many natives of the South Pacific have testified that they saw Earhart a prisoner of the Japanese or that they saw a photograph of her amid Japanese boats or soldiers.

Whatever the truth, her disappearance marked the untimely end of a career that promised to inspire many women to take active roles in many facets of American society, not just in aviation. It is probably true to say that her career was somewhat a triumph of spin over actual aviation skill. There were many women aviators who were every bit as equal to the best men of the day but they lacked the newspaper backing that George Putnam was able to provide. She had an unshakable belief that 'good luck' would take her through. The choice of a well known alcoholic as navigator on her last flight challenged this belief one step too far.