Amelia Earhart: The Mystery SolvedWhen Amelia Earhart disappeared on July 2, 1937, she was flying the longest leg of her around-the-world flight and was only days away from completing her journey. Her plane was never found, and for more than sixty years rumors have persisted about what happened to her. Now, with the recent discovery of long-lost radio messages from Earhart's final flight, we can say with confidence that she ran out of gas just short of her destination of Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean. From the beginning of her flight, a series of tragic circumstances all but doomed her and her navigator, Fred Noonan. Authors Elgen M. and Marie K. Long spent more than twenty-five years researching the mystery surrounding Earhart's final flight before finally determining what happened. They traveled over one hundred thousand miles to interview more than one hundred people who knew some part of the Earhart story. They draw on authoritative sources to take us inside the cockpit of the Electra plane that Earhart flew and recreate the final flight itself. Because Elgen Long began his own flying career not long after Earhart's disappearance, he can describe the equipment and conditions of the time with a vivid first-hand accuracy. As a result, this book brings to life the primitive conditions under which Earhart flew, in an era before radar, with unreliable communications, grass landing strips, and poorly mapped islands. Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved does more than just answer the question, What happened to Amelia Earhart? It reminds us how daring early aviators such as Earhart were as they risked their lives to push the technology of the day to its limits -- and beyond. |
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Common terms and phrases
3105 kilocycles 500 kilocycles 6210 kilocycles AE’s aircraft airfield airplane airport airspeed Amelia and Fred Amelia Earhart antenna area of uncertainty arrived asked Balfour Bandoeng Bellarts Bendix receiver Burbank Captain Thompson chart Coast Guard cockpit Commander Dakar Darwin dead reckoning EHCR Electra engines feet flew flying Fred Noonan frequency fuel gallons Guinea Gurr half hour hangar headwind Honolulu Howland Island IRTEF Itasca July June June 16 landing Last Flight Letter line of position Lockheed loop Luke Field Mantz March Miami miles minutes Miss Earhart morning Morse code NADC navigation Navy o’clock Oakland Pan American Airways Paul Mantz pilot plane propeller Putnam radio bearings radio direction-finder radio station radioman reported runway Salamaua schedule ship signal sun line takeoff tanks told transmit true airspeed turned Tutuila USACR weather Wheeler Field wind wing world flight
Popular passages
Page 27 - We must be on you but cannot see you but gas is running low...
Page 34 - ... frequent in those days. The boys smeared their faces with grease, to prevent freezing, and that seemed funny, too. The training planes were often under-powered, but no matter how well that was understood, the pilots joked about possible unpleasantness. I have even forgotten the names of the men I 38 knew then. But the memory of the planes remains clearly, and the sense of the inevitability of flying. It always seemed to me one of the few worth-while things that emerged from the misery of war.
Page 28 - We are circling but cannot hear you. Go ahead on 7500 either now or on schedule time on half hour.
Page 155 - How do you feel? Swell! Never better. How's the ship? Everything seems OK There's been a little trouble with the fuel flowmeter and analyzer but I think they'll cure that here. How long will you stay in Karachi? Probably two days. I want everything checked thoroughly. Wednesday, with luck, we'll shove off. Where to? Probably Calcutta.
Page 51 - AE, the noise of your motor interferes with your broadcast. Will you please try to speak a little louder so we can hear you.
Page 29 - KHAQQ calling Itasca we received your signals but unable to get a minimum. Please take bearing on us and answer 3105 with voice.
Page 36 - ... would jump out of its frame. There wasn't anything to do but come down, although I was still climbing fifty feet a minute. As soon as the official read my barograph there was great rejoicing, for apparently I had established a woman's altitude record. The news got in the papers. One clipping read: Miss Amelia Earhart, local aviatrix, established a new altitude record for women yesterday under the auspices of the Aero Club of Southern California. Flying her own Kinner Airster, containing a 60...
Page 222 - QUOTE 281 NORTH ROWLAND CALL KHAQQ BEYOND NORTH DONT HOLD WITH US MUCH LONGER ABOVE WATER SHUT OFF UNQUOTE KEYED TRANSMISSION EXTREMELY POOR KEYING BEHIND CARRIER FRAGMENTARY PHRASES BUT COPIED BY THREE OPERATORS 0242.
Page 33 - Amelia's mind is brilliant, but she refuses to do the plodding necessary to win honor prizes. She deduces the correct answers to complex arithmetic problems, but hates to put down the steps by which she arrived at the results.