95 years ago today, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to cross the Atlantic. She captured the hearts and imaginations of people around the world with her daring exploit, shattering the glass ceiling by crossing the Atlantic alone and unafraid …
… Well, that’s the popular conception. In fact, during this trans-Atlantic flight, the one that caused her to be dubbed “Lady Lindy” and “Queen of the Air”, thrown a ticker-tape parade, and be invited to the White House, Earhart was a passenger. It was 100% image, 0% skill and accomplishment, and it was masterminded by wealthy socialites. Earhart was the creation of powerful media forces.
On 20-21 May 1927, Charles Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, flying alone. The 5800-km trip took 33.5 hours. It was a harrowing trip – the stuff of legend – and one that I don’t have the time or space to do justice here.
John Alcock and Arthur Brown, two British aviators in a modified WWI-era Vickers Vimy bomber, had made the first transatlantic flight in June, 1919. However, Lindbergh’s flight was the first solo crossing, and the longest such crossing at the time by 3200 km.
Enter Amelia Earhart. After Lindbergh’s historic flight, Amy Phipps Guest, a wealthy socialite who was the daughter of Henry Phipps, Jr, a partner of steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, expressed interest in being the first woman to fly (or be flown) across the Atlantic. After deciding the trip was too dangerous for her personally, she offered to sponser the project, suggesting someone find “another girl with the right image.”
While at work one afternoon in April 1928, Earhart got a phone call from Capt Hilton H. Railey, who asked her, “Would you like to fly the Atlantic?”
Wilmer Stulz and Louis Gordon were selected to fly a Fokker F.VIIb/3m (a modified airliner) across the Atlantic with Earhart as a passenger. Since Earhart was not instrument-rated, she could not take part, but instead kept the flight log in order to have something useful to do.
Stultz did all the flying – had to. I was just baggage, like a sack of potatoes. Maybe someday I’ll try it alone."
Even back then, the American public never let the truth get in the way of a good story. Upon her return, Earhart’s celebrity status exploded overnight. For her trip across the Atlantic as a passenger on an airliner, Earhart was immediately given the monikers “Lady Lindy,” (after Lindbergh), “Queen of the Air,” and so on. She was greeted with a ticker-tape parade down Manhattan’s Canyon of Heroes, and was even invited to a reception with President Coolidge at the White House. The effects of this forced promotional campaign (masterminded, you may recall, by a wealthy Carnegie-adjacent socialite) has trickled down to the present day: most people, when asked, would probably tell you that Earhart earned this welcome by actually flying across the Atlantic solo!
In 1932, Earhart actually did cross the Atlantic solo, becoming the first woman to do so. Fortunately for her, aircraft technology had advanced greatly during the five years between Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight and her attempt. While Lindbergh accomplished his 1927 solo feat in a single-seat aircraft custom-built to his specifications, Earhart made her 1932 trip in a Lockheed Vega, a 6-passenger airliner.
This was a far cry from the rugged machines that the actual pioneers used for their crossings. While men such as Distinguished Flying Cross recipient Bernt Balchen were by this time making flights over the poles, Earhart added to her own fame and noteriety by retracing a route that had already been conquered 15 years previously. She gave herself a further advantage by shaving off 30% of the distance, starting her flight to Paris from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland instead of from New York City. Even with both these huge advantages, Earhart didn’t even make it to Paris, landing in a field in Northern Ireland. The farmer asked “Have you flown far?” to which Earhart famously replied “From America.”