It’s going to be a big year for the Amelia Earhart’s of the world.
Everyone’s favorite daring female aviator, known fondly as “Lady Lindy,” was the 16th woman to be issued a pilot’s license, the first woman to fly the Atlantic Ocean solo in 1928, and the first person to fly over both the Atlantic and the Pacific.
As the story goes Earhart mysteriously disappeared during a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937. The search for the Lady Lindy was never completed, and no pieces of the plane were ever recovered. Initially it was assumed that her missing plane had crashed into the Pacific where she would have died instantly. Evidence however, started to emerge, revealing a more cinematic but no less tragic demise, where she and her navigator buddy, Fred Noonan, made a crash landing on a reef where they actually survived for a while until the end of their life as castaways on Nikumaroro island.
The original search efforts lasted from July 2-19th, cost the Navy and Coast Guard a cool $4 million, and ultimately turned up little, but in 2014 further efforts to find the remains of Earhart’s plane wreckage will be reinstated with the help of submarines, in hopes of finding a more complete and accurate story of her journey.
To think, Earhart’s legacy could be properly documented once and for all.
Meanwhile back in Denver there is another very much alive aviator by the name of Amelia Earhart, who has summer plans to take an identical flight path as her namesake’s last.
Growing up, the 30-year-old Amelia Earhart she was under the impression that she was a distant relative of the former Earhart, which might have elevated her interest in flying. She began training as a pilot when she graduated high school, and currently spends most of her mornings in helicopter, as a morning traffic reporter.
Now with enough experience under her belt, she’s ready in the wings to put an different end on the fated journey. New Earhart plans to recreate Earhart’s flight around the world as closely as possible. Only one other woman has successfully completed this journey. In 1967 Ann Pellegreno took to the air to commemorate the 30 year anniversary of Earhart’s disappearance.
New Earhart is set to take flight in the summer of 2014 with extra fuel tanks, a co-pilot, and intentions of being the first Amelia Earhart to make it all the way.
