To be the first woman to make the solo trip. Smithsonian national air and Space Museum Curator Dorothy Cochrane discusses some of the theories around her disappearance. Good evening. Im lauren with Smithsonian Associates and im so glad youve joined us for tonights program. To members im glad youre here. Its your ongoing support that make events like this possible. Any of you joining us for the first time a warm welcome and the opportunity to explore the wide range of programs we offer. Now is a perfect time to turn off your cell phones. Thank you for doing that. 85 years ago this month Amelia Earhart became the first aviator to fly solo from honolulu, hawaii to oakland, california. On may 21st, 1932, exactly five years after american aviator Charles Lindbergh floyd solo across the atlantic ocean, earhart became the first woman to repeat that feat. We are thrilled to welcome Dorothy Cochrane. She curates the collections of general aviation aircraft, flight material, aerial cameras and history of general aviation and women invasion. Shes the coauthor of the aviation careers of igor sokorsky as well as an essay on Amelia Earhart. She earned her private pilot license in 1994 and is a member of the aircraft owners and Pilots Association and experimental aircraft association. So now please join me in welcoming Dorothy Cochrane. [ applause ] well good evening, everyone. Thank you so much use the mic. I am. Its supposed to be on, right . Can you hear me now, as they say. Ate pleasure to be here. I thank the Smithsonian Associates for inviting me. As i walked in tonight i realized that i remembered being here with some of the people im going to talk about later in the evening for a symposium about, i dont know, 25 years ago. Was anybody else here then . Okay. Just checking. I dont want you to get a repeat, you know. So, yeah, i did want to point out book here that just came, smithsonian medicine american women. Par for the course about amelia, she gates four page spread in there. Still obviously very popular and everybody wants to know about her but there are a lot of other exciting women in this book and i just want to encourage you to go online and check it out and see who else. We got several other female aviators in there and a whole breadth of women who have done all kind of things in all kind of splints. It was a cool book and happy to be a part of it. So, let me see here. Thats all it has to do with the american womens Historical Initiative that the smithsonian is running all this year, which is, of course, the anniversary testify 19th amendment women getting the right to vote because of her story and its an Ongoing Program youll be seeing all year long. So, well go on without further ado. When a media starvidis appears off the faye of the earth public speculation will run wild. January 11th as she mentioned was the 85th anniversary of her first solo flight from hawaii to the u. S. Mainland and Amelia Earhart was the pioneering pilot. Few people know of this milestone but mentioned earharts 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 mysteries of the 20th century. Earhart was a decorated pilot and a major celebrity during the 1930s, second only to charles lynnberg in terms of notoriety but even after the largest maritime search of the yeara came up empty and amelia was declared legally dead and even after nearly 83 years people continue to think of her and wonder what really happened her. Which each new theory or book or expedition her name remain 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 earhart is the most famous american female pilot and arguably the most famous one in world history. And accolade due got her aviation career and her mysterious disappearance. On may 21st, 1932 she became the first woman and second person after charles lynnberg to file nonstop across the atlantic. I have to put an asterisk its the north atlantic. I found out a few years ago or a year ago there was a gentleman that through the south atlantic. Sometimes i have to mention that. Flying a red lockheed vega 5b she leveled newfoundland, canada and landed in londonderry, ireland. On august 24th and 25th of that year she made first solo nonstop flight by a woman across the United States from los angeles to newark. Establishing a womans record of 19 hours and five 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 thats so different from the norm, but earhart felt that tug all her life. She was born on july 24th, 1897 in kansas, the daughter of edwin and amy otis earhart. Her sister muriel was born two years later. She was a tomboy. The neighborhood leader. She could hand all gun and sew her own clothes. The family made moves due to her fath fathers spotty diplomat record. They lived in minnesota and chicago and visited him when he was working in iowa where she saw her first airplane. Her parents separated on and off so she learned to depend on herself. She and muriel often spent happiest times with their grandparents where grandmother immersed them in typical midwest society. Sheproprietiys of the yeara. She was smart but head strong and not afraid to speak up for herself, her friend or fellow students. An avid reader she scoured the newspapers and magazines for articles on accomplished women, cut them out and paefted them into a scrapbook. One entry was about a female doctor by the name of dr. Raiche. However, i dont know if that article also mentioned she was a pilot and had built her own airplane with her husband. Well never know. When her mother received a modest inheritance she enrolled the girls in private boarding schools. We went to school in suburban philadelphia and muriel went to school in toronto. But when she went to visit muriel at cool in toronto at christmas, this is christmas of 1916, 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 school just before her graduation and become and work as a nurse and a nurses aide in the Military Hospital tending to those who actually suffered from shell shock, or ptsd as we know it today. An she also took a visit to a flying club there and that kind of ignite ad spark in her. She thought about that. But following her medical thread she entered Columbia University Extension Program and took 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 started to learn more about aviation and on Christmas Day 1920 she and her father attended an opening for a nurpt at rogers field which featured many expedition acts. Her first and then she took a flight with veteran flyer frank hawks and declared as soon as i left the ground i knew i myself had to fly. Her first instructor was anita snook who is shown here, a barn stormer herself from iowa who gave lessons in a curttis jenning. It didnt last too long. Amelia took instruction from monty a barn stormer and movie stunt man and did very well with him as well. Teen pay for her flight lessons she worked as a telephone clerk, photographer and even a truck driver. And she soloed in 1921 and took her trials for the national egt license in that time. In 1922 she bought a kenner air steer from a local designer flying shows and then wasting no time in setting a womans altitude record. Get this of 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 her flight test and became the 16th woman to receive an official Federation Internationale pilot license. But when her parents parted for the final time she sold the airplane and left with her mother moving the east be near her sister muriel. She was driftinor the next few years. She wasnt interested in marriage or motherhood but hadnt figured out what she wanted to do. She took some time to go back to columbia, took some course at harvard, did some short jobs here and there. But eventually took some course work that led them to a job at the denison settlement house in boston where he is began work with immigrant families. And at that time when she was settled in that job and making some money she was able thoen locate the local flying school and the flying clubs at denison airport and got herself back into flying joining the national ear astronautic association. Now she was starting to find herself again. Had she had a job an avocation, she had friend and having a good time. However, opportunity came knocking when she offered 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. And she passed it and was sworn to silence then until the group prepared for a flight. 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 stand in. New york socialite amy phillips who owned an f7 friendship and wanted to make flight herself as a passenger. She was a socialite from new york. 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 she fit the requirements just fine. Before leaving for newfoundland with pilots wilmer and lou, she wrote a philosophical note to her family just in case she didnt 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 race. Another woman named mabel ball determined to make the flight in a columbia. The race was on. The lindbergh era was there. Lindbergh flown atlantic. Just air mindedness and everyone was interested invasion. All kind of records and flights being and the. So everyone was involved in the game and the public just loved it, they ate it up. Just a very exciting time. It brought about investment and interest and regulation, all the things that aviation needed to actually become a form of transportation and grow into, of course, military Flight Airlines and more of what we know today. So, on june 17th, 1928, earhart departed newfoundland in a c plane. She had been promised time at the wheel, at the controls, but it was not to be. During the 20 hour 40minute flight to breakpoint, wales she got zero flight time. However she was able to fly the plane from wales to england. She said i happened to be a woman and the first to make a transatlantic corrosion by air and the press and public seemed to be more interested in that fact than anything else. It was a the tumultuous reception in wales, england, new york, chicago, pittsburgh. She hid her disappointment except for one reference for just being baggage. Stunned by the crowds she managed to find a buy an aircraft from lady mary heath. Before she could fly it she was obligated to George Putnam who was running the publicity to write a book and within two months she wrote her book, her first book entitled 20 hours and 40 minutes which talked mostly about aviation and women and people wanting to fly and a bit about the flight itself. So then she came and flew, came back to fly from the east coast to california and back. A trip that had a few crackups and break downs but everyone who flew then had those. It gave her an opportunity to speak with people and learn to interact with them and the media and most importantly it brought theory 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. 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 to join the Editorial Staff of cosmopolitan magazine. So now she was determined to succeed. So she acquired her transport license. She maded sure she did more flying, got better at it, took trials that were necessary to dedicate her so she would be taken as a serious pilot. In august of 1929, flying very speedy lockheed vega similar to the one we have in the collection she placed third in the all womens air derby behind two other women. This was the first transcontinental fright for women and it was important from santa monica to cleveland, ohio where the Cleveland Air races were and it was a race that she helped organize, but more importantly it was a race that was closely followed by the press and public and proved 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 kind 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 could. Will rogers dubbed the flight the powder puff derby, but louise said we rather just be called pilots, thank you. I forgot to mention, then there was the beechnut auto gyro. She flew that around as well. That was a new plane that was a short takeoff and landing plane with the rotor on the top. That was a whole different design. That took some time to learn how to fly that. And she flew that across country and back. And the second day that she flew it she went up dean an altitude record in that. She wasnt afraid of technology, she wasnt afraid of trying something new. She did have her crackups but so did other people. Everyone is testing out all these new designs. Shes not afraid of technology or a challenge. In fact shes eager for it thats 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 do talk about opportunities and jobs and airplanes and decided that they needed to have their own group and so they created a group that would be for social and networking purpose, 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, couldnt get jobs. Most of the jobs they had were very, very small and didnt pay well. So they sent out a group of women organized, sent out letters to the 285 licensed female pilots. 99 responded and 26 actually showed up at valley stream, new york to organize the club and thats the image of them here. Amelia is in the back there on the left, about three or four in. And in the front, on the front right is faye wells. When i came into this theater i was saying i know i think we spoke here a few years ago. I think faye wells was speak about amelia because she knew amelia so well and a longtime friend of the smithsonian and just a marvelous pilot herself. Shes the one in the flight suit. So, yes. 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 motherinlaw risk from a stream of marriage proposals from her manager George Putnam. He was married when she first met him but he and his wife dorothy divorced and amelia really had nothing to do with that. It was dorothys idea, she had other plans, she had other interests 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, 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 wanted to do and he was good at it. So she finally married him on her own terms in february of 1931, after delivering a letter of mixed emotions. She dismissed the quote medieval quote of faithfulness and also requested a cruel promise that you will let me go in one year if we find no happiness together. Some called it a marriage of convenience. They remained together and while other husbands of women pilots often objected to their wives flying george kept amelia on a treadmill. She chose the flights, he booked the alexandr the lectures. Putnam was demanding and not wellliked by any of her friend. But bobby had to admit, she said i might have been famous if i had a promoter like george. So, she was still flying with friends, louise, Eleanor Smith and ruth nichols. Ruth nichols was quite the competitor. All of them, faye won the womens air derby. Nichols was trying to flierks had an idea to fly the trick. Amelia was getting the idea to fly atlantic. She had done it as a passenger but she felt she hadnt done enough flying yet. She was doing a variety of race, doing a variety of shows, but she felt she really needed to show the discipline and show that she could actually accomplish a flight like this. So she bought a differentin lockheed vega than the one she used in the derby, the red one that we have in the collection of the national air and space museum and determined to prove herself she decided to slow the atlantic. She thought a transatlantic flight would bring her respect, something that other women sought too. Ruth nichols already had 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 harvard grace, newfoundland to londonderry, Northern Ireland. This is what she said when she got there. She noticed she obviously realized when she was flying that the landscape, when she reached land it didnt look like france. She had been thinking she wanted to go france. She knew she drifted off to the north and realized she was in Northern Ireland and she needed to land but he had still wasnt sure exactly where she was and she asked and they said well youre in derry. Good thing she landed where she did, that was Northern Ireland. If she kept going north it could be a problem. This was exactly five wears to the date after lindberghs flight and that was no accident because George Putnam was her promoter. So she managed to do that well for him too. Mf on flight she fought fatigue, nausea from a leaky fuel tank and a cranked manifold. Ice formed on the wings. And she caused an unstoppable 3,000foot descent until she got down low enough where the ice melted and able to recover. [,dbe acclaimed in london, paris and rome she returned home to a ticker tape parade in new york, honors in washington, d. C. Then by july and august she was back in the vega for the transcontinental flight where she set her female record flying across the United States nonstop. Through all of these accolades and flights she received the distinguished flying cross from the president , the National Geographic medal and the harman trophy for women. She said of her flight it was a measure it was in a measure a selfjustification, proving to me and to anyone who was interested that a woman with an adequate experience could do it. So, here is the lockheed 5b. You see what a gorgeous plane it is. It is just a very beautiful plane. Very speedy, fast. Part of a stream line design of the yeara. There are no drag. Theres cowling around tarp. Got wheel pants. One piece wing. Got whats called a fuselage which is stressed, its layers of wood pressed together and glued together into a very hard shell. And that then takes the stress of the aircraft and removes all of the inner bracing and wires that were on previous aircraft and, of course, its a hard shell so much stronger than fabric and its just a terrific airplane of ththe era. Other museum is undergoing restoration and this gallery is no longer there and the vega is in storage. But we will reopen hopefully in three years. This gallery. Going to be a while. A lot of restoration. Anyway, this they are plane, surrounded by her objects. We have a flight suit and other things ill mention here. Theres a chest, her trophy chest was on the other side of this. Theres some of her coins and medals that she acquired, things like that. And just stories about her life and were now in the process 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. Its important to understand the era. Most women at this time were tied to their families with little or no selfdetermination. They did marry money and had no economic or personal independence. 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. There 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 for her money. Louise did too. Louise was able to work with hi÷ travelair and then beech aircraft. She ended up marrying the boss so that helped. Im sorry. Louise married another gentleman who was designing aircraft. So a lot of them ended up marrying 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 every where. Civic and womens groups, schools and clubs, colleges, openings. She promoted new airlines by taking inaugural flights like transcontinental air transport line 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 flu back. Doing that sort of thing, promoting the airlines. There she lobbied for more contests for women so they could gain experience ballparks obviously, they really couldnt compete against the men. The men had bigger airplanes, they had more money, they had been flying more. So she lobbied for more contests for women so they could get the experience. 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 much else she knew, she was very concerned about them. Helen richie was given the chance to be a commercial Airline Pilot in the mid1930s but it turned out zwrufto be a promotional thing. The pilots union wouldnt let her join. Amelia, knew jean who was the head of the bureau of air commerce and she asked him if he couldnt find some ways to employ some of these women pilots. They came up with something called the air Marker Program. Navigation was tough then. No instruments per se. And when youre flying across country youre flying mostly along railroads or ridges or, you know, geographic locations. So this air Marker Program was developed to actually paint the names of towns and cities across the country as airways until, while they were developing then, 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 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 then in 1935 is a picture of her after shes come back from the, from hawaii, she became the first person to fly solo from honolulu, hawaii to california mainland. Other people had flown but either in pairs or more people in the plane. She was the first one to do it solo. So, then after this, she was criticized because some people just thought shes just out there trying to get publicity. Well its true. Shes also trying to earn a living. They also said, this was free the advertising for the sugar plantation people and whats the point of her flying an airplane like this and 7f its just too dangerous and, in fact, many people, of course, had died trying to do this as well. She said i just wanted the flight just to contribute. I could only hope one more passage across that part of the pacific would mark 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 record flights from los angeles to mexico city and then from mexico city to newark, new jersey in may. She won second harman trophy. That last flight was 3,100 miles and first woman to do this. But she sold a lot of stamps along the way, first date cover with stamps and autographs on them and again criticized for this even though a lot of other people did the same thing. So its just kind of sour grapes. You wonder, you know, 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 iahp hc equal rights amendment that the National Womens party was promoting. She was a strong supporter of birth control. She was a passivist but declared if there was going to be a draft that women should be drafted too. She wanted true equality. After an evening up there we see a picture there the second from her left of her and eleanor roast. George putnam was known as gp. They got to know the roosevelts very well from all of her different flights ana8hn then t started to there were Different Things that they were interested in together. They got involved somewhat in promoting the politics. They went to her for information or for things that they wanted to impart to the public. It was a mutual friendship, a mutual admiration relationship. But in this particular case they had been to dinner at the white house and then george had arranged that amelia and eleanor could go flying in a curtis condoor out of the hoover airfield and so earhart flew for a brief moment, for a brief time and then went back and talked to eleanor about it. He lenore actually really thought about getting her student pilots license but her husband wasnt too excited about that. So that didnt happen. She also seeking to expand their horizon, amelia and george created an early version of celebrityan branding. And after designing a flight suit of jackets for the 99s and we did have a jacket on display and will again, earhart design a line of functional of womens clothing. Including jackets and pants in straight sizes. Sports wear, blouses, dresses and suits and hats. She was comfortable in pants and leather jackets and she project an image in company with sports stars and actresses like Catherine Hepburn but she always wore dresses for public event. She photographed well as you can see here, models one of her own designs for promotional spreads. That picture was taken by a famous photographer. Her clothes sold in macys in new york and exclusive shops including gellis. 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 plywood luggage that was sold by arnstein trunks. Everybody have earhart luggage here . Okay. My understanding is it was sold into the 1990s. So she traveled on intelligents of hollywood. You see a picture of her there with harpo marx. She was every where in print, radio and news reels but even though shes doing all of this she did not embrace the high life and didnt succumb to the false illusion she was anybody special. She was just trying to earn living and fly. In the top right that is a streamlined glass etch of her tra transatlantic vega flight that was created for one of the buildings at the new Rockefeller Center in 1935. And of all the buildings at the Rockefeller Center, that particular building is the only one thats not Still Standing and no one knows, not even the rockefeller historians what happened to it. Its so gorgeous. Its a shame it isnt there. Lets see what wells we have. She obviously spoke at schools. You can see her with students there. Up in the second from the top, the first one, those are some of her friends invasion, blanche, herself, ruth and faye some of her closest friends. She was very good grends with Jackie Cochran who was a bit younger but an upandcoming racing pilot and they were very good 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. That was a tall order. It was something that 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 which you see here another which yo calledre another the flying laboratory because purdue helped pay for it quite a bit and equipped with a variety of new types of radios and transmitters and things like that, directional finders that she was going to quote test out as shes making her flight. Thats what all these pilots did a lot of the women and men tested out new equipment all the time. This would be powered by two 550 horsepower engines. She and george asked the Roosevelt Administration for help with permits and weather reports and potential landing sites and he directed, the president directed everyone to help her. Flying west then from california to hawaii, george decided that she could next land 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 any one of the 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, take possession of them. So she decided to land on tiny island where a runway was already planned. So she flew the new electra in the 1936 transcontinental race and placed fifth. Thats a picture of her there in front of it with her cord feed. And then on march 17th, 1937, she and her crew flew from oakland, california to honolulu, hawaii. She had with sue herera flight manager, a wellknown air racing personality pilot. Radio operator Harry Manning and former pan american navigate engineer fred newman. Manning and newman would accompany her on the flightm fnm hawaii on. Three days later earhart crashed on takeoff at luke field, honolulu, hawaii ending her westbound world flight. The electra was heavily damaged and returned to lockheed Aircraft Corporation in burbank for extensive repairs. Did she ground loop it, lose control, mishandle the aircraft . Paul thinks she was jockeying 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 need the money but she did think maybe this would be one much these last big flights that you didnt need be doing this any more because she was near 40 years old. Friend and purdue helped to pay for some of these repairs. As she prepared for her second attempt, personnel changes and crucial decision arose. Her intended radio operate orman hydrogen to go back to his regular job. Some couldnt go. So faced with Hand Technology radios herself and a new receiver she received training but really not enough. She was always so busy that she never really took enough of the training. She was still making appearances, and attending to all the things that you have to do to start a flight like. Her flight manager departed as well. He had his own business as well and didnt get along with gp as well. Gp tried to step in as the manager. Now the promoter, manager and not the a flight manager. Then most importantly her Communications Plan got terribly flawed. And compromised. And 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 at this time then she decided actually to go the other direction. It had to do with the timing, it had to do with the weather, so now she will 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 now this tiny Little Island out in the middle of nowhere in the pacific. Radio communication provided critical time checks that aided navigation and her radios really, she didnt understand them as perfectly well as she should and there was trouble receiving and transmitting. She was constantly getting that looked at as she started her way through the flights and either she or noonan could use morse code. Thats what Pan American Airways and other commercial and military aircraft used and 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 your messages and also for your signal to be picked up and homing devices then 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 he she didnt that. She dropped a 25foot trailing wire that would be required, that would have helped on this morse code and when she dropped that and didnt have all of the information audiotape and all the training she need she lost a lot of her ability to use her 500 kilo cycle communication emergency and homing device and that made it very tough for the people who were waiting for her on the island to help bring her in into this tiny Little Island in the middle of nowhere. Theres more details on some of this issue, but basically the coast guard ship was waiting for her off the island, Holland Island. Fuel had been stored there for her. She was going stay there overnight, a day or two, refuel. She would be coming from guinea, to Holland Island, refuel, then head home to oakland. So at this point in time she had already flown 22,000 miles, and she only had 7,000 miles to go. Because they departed oakland on may 21st then left miami on june 1st, reached guinea on june 29th and then on july 2nd they departed new begin gu guinea fl. 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 hit squalls, she hit headwinds, the folks heard her call out her radio calls for the first seven hours as she went further east, but then they couldnt hear her any more, and this is kind of a map here of where shes flying. And then no one heard her. There were a couple of other ships out there that were stationed that were hoping to hear her, her transmissions but most of them didnt quite hear her. And then she was finally heard on the morning of july 2nd. Now shes crossed the international dateline. Now still july 2nd where Holland Island is. They started hearing her at 2 45 a. M. And estimated time of arrival about 6 30 a. M. So, the facts of her flight put her within a 50 to 100 miles of Holland Island when the time came, when they decided they really were not hearing from her and didnt know where she was. But as she got closer and closer her radio signals got stronger. The u. S. Coast guard records of her approach including Radio Communications loti s logs and reports are available in the national after divers and available to researchers. She was heard at a strength of five meaning she was most likely within 50 miles of Holland Island. She and noonan felt they were nearly there. At 7 42 she said she must be on you but cannot see you and the ships crew were actually out on deck starting to look for her. She already said that the fuel was running low. And we can only surmise they could not locate this tiny island, it was a mile and a half long and half mile wide. Its crazy to find this plane in the middle of the ocean like that. But the plane was blowing smoke. Smoke was going along the water there. Unfortunately, most it stayed on the water. Supposed to rise up it didnt. They had 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 were clouds. Some of these some weather that they just had been through and then theres some other dont ball clouds out there and casting shadows and flying into the sun and trying to find this tiny Little Island. To show you how tiny it is, these are her last calls. You can see this is all recorded. You know, well get into some of the theories but this is all fact. This was taken and recorded by the radio men on the uss taska. These are her calls and they clearly feel they are nearby and they are trying to find by the end its more of a desperation that we must be on you but cant see you and rear running this line of position. This is a little hard to read, but this is the coast guards captains analysis of how long, how they were hearing the radio calls and then how they stopped and then what he estimates happened and how he felt that she must have come down somewhere just north or west of Holland Island. Lets see. Did state of ohio the picture . Theres the pick the youre the of Holland Island too. So you can see that this is a picture that was taken by a woman who flew, linda finch who did a flight in 1996, commemorative flight, and so you can see ate great picture because it shows the electra, she in an electra aide and how big it is in relation to this island. So it was a tiny small island and just it was unfortunate that they chose this island as a refueling stop. So, in the taska report was the flight too much. An old friend said she was cut up in a hero stream of flyers feats as the foremost woman pilot of the world. She had worked hard to get there but maybe now weary of the mantle and gp planning the flight it just didnt work out. Both she and he were relentless about her doing it. Aircraft accidents like many others are often a series of small or accumulating problems, remarks technical issues and some of those. Then in the end sometimes it just comes down to luck and home run luck didnt hold. Fast preparation, advisability of a quick turn around to find a different direction, putnam, the promoter, financial. Situation, the 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 or pilot skills, fred was an excellent navigator. Did he have a drinking problem but he was a former pan american navigator, very well regarded. He didnt drink the nightv2b ofe drank the night before they took the flight. So, you know, its just then all the other ideas of. Did she go to other landing sites. Was she on a spy mission. Was she in prison . Was she killed by the japanese . Then more bizarre ones that she actually survived the war and lived on a rubber plantation in the philippines and even worse was living quietly new jersey under the name of irene bottom. More irene you see up there was hounded by this one gentleman who just he saw her at a Cocktail Party and said thats amelia. She said im 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, you know what happens when the most famous woman in the world simply disappears, a female pilot. The movie there, flight to freedom featuring Rosalind Russell was a thin lei veiled story of amelia as a spy and sparked a rash of sightings during the war and though that died down, the 1960s brought it all creeping back with a variety of people writing books. Based on sightings of some of the people in saipan and the marshal islands. Some people said she had a tendency when she went off course maybe she did go the marshal islands. So they are basing that. Captured and died in prison or executed. World war ii vets said i saw a twin engine plane and i saw a blonde woman. You know could have been anybody. You know, have been japanese plants. American planes. But it wasnt earharts as far as im concerned. Some of these firsthand accounts that some people gave, they were kind of more second hand accounts. Well it was actually my father or soandso. Some people swore they saw her pap few who said they saw her executed. We dont know who they saw. No public records held in the national after divers. U. S. Navy records or coast guard archives point to any kind of spy mission for her. None of her friends thought she was on a mission. I listened to many recordings, interviews by a man named elgin long who was in that program i paid in 25 years ago who has done the research, using the facts, believing that she knew what she was doing, that fred noonan knew what she was doing. He flewoj around the world himself. Hes now 92 and firmly believes she did come down somewhere near Holland Island and he spent the better part of after he topped flying basically, hes been searching the last 50 years he has been doing on earhart and he has a book out mystery solved. So he spent a longtime looking at the facts and then hes given some of this information to a group of oceanographers and engineers who specialized finding wrecks for the u. S. Military and for other countries and they found submarines under water, they found aircraft under water and a whole rash of thing that they cant tell me about that they found under water. So really smart, theyre using the facts. Theyre feeding them into computers using something called renavigation. And they are still at it. But theyve made three trips themselves to an area that they felt was elgins area of uncertainty and the most probable areas where she could come down based on they have people talk about drift and fuel consumption and communications, all of the Different Things that feed in basically to this computer and then they spout out and they decide which are the most favorable areas. The first three they chosen have not worked out. Much to their dismay. And everyones dismay. They hope to go again. Just dont know if theyll be able to do it or not. So its a cottage industry. Its still out there. The lower right here is basically what i think, she crash lands due to lack of proper radio equipment, not having the morse code and a Proper Communications package. They had what the coast guard, they were frequency misunderstanding and timing misunderstandings. They couldnt hear they are all of the time and she couldnt hear and they never had twoway communication from helen island and to her plane and black. That is just huge. So we can talk about some of these if you want. Some more about these different theories. I firmly believe that she will be found some day, somewhere north and west of the electra. She probably wont be found but the electra will be. Some people say leave it where it is. I get tired of all of these speculation and i really want to focus more on her legacy. Now this is one of my favorite pictures. How many people how many theories do you see here, folks . This is i dont even know. Someone just brought this to me. There was two or three years ago there was amelia has been found on a picture on the dock at si pan. If you get rid of the other cluttered thing like Lee Harvey Oswald and necessariy over the end, if you move those out the way straight in the middle there is a picture back there with a white shirt. And that is supposed to be amelia sitting on the dock at si pan. And over by the light it is kind of obscured but there is a gentleman there who is supposed to be noonan. The History Channel brought this out with great fanfare. And as a matter of fact they came to myself and tom crouch, the senior curator and now retired who also worked long sand hard on the earhart story and they came and showed us this picture and everything about it and they were going to run it and some of you may remember this from about two or three years ago. And they showed it to us and we said, good luck with that. And three days after it ran on television, a gentleman in japan found the picture and found that it had beenb5 taken in 1935. She flew her round trip in 1937. So they didnt quite do their homework. But that is the kind of thing that happens with this. So someone gave this to me because they knew how much i would enjoy it so but to be a little bit more serious about all of this, amelia, she resonated far beyond just being a pilot. Her legacy is clear as her vega resides in our museum. Many of the women who later flew domestically for the Women Air Force Service Pilots in world war ii, they flew domestically ferrying aircraft and they remember when amelia came to their schools and to their Civil Centers and they she was certainly an idol and role model for the women that ended up flying. And this is a thousand women who ended up doing these flights and they flew over i cant remember now, 20 million miles or something ferrying aircraft around the United States. So she was a role model. She was also a role model for women who had no intention of engineers still only 9 of the population. And i might add that it is a great time to be a woman and getting into these fields. The doors are finally wide open. But no astronaut or woman pilot past or present commands the attention like amelia. The public is still fascinated with her. And shes also a cultural icon as you could see here. Ill say she was artist judy chicago who has a show in town i think over at the womens museum, she included her, earhart, in her painting celebrating women seating at the table. Women now have a seat at the table and shes one of the women who is in the periphery of the table. Then in 1997 the gap Clothing Store anointed her one of 13 legendary writers, actors, adventurers with style along with earnest hemingway and ava gardner. And then here steve jobs included in her his very successful apple campaign, think different with some of the other great iconic thinkers and independentminded people of the 20th century. There is a bevy of books out there. There is everything from doris rich her book a biography of earhart. Several others. There are books about her feminist attitudes and what she and the other women pilots did for feminism. There are many just nice straight biographies and then there are some that a little crazier. There was one book i remember called i was Amelia Earhart and written by a woman who ended up on the island where rick gillesby thinks shes at. So this is a whole thing. I didnt talk about rick gillesby and the group for the history aircraft recovery. His group has been searching for Amelia Earhart for 20 or 30 years. He first started looking for a pair of pilots gusser and coley who had flown the ta flu the lakes and started thinking about earhart and mentioning earhart, things started to perk up and more interest and more money flowed in for his International Recovery effort so he pretty much switched to looking for earhart and 25 years ago tom crouch and i stood at the National Press club when rick stood up and announced that he had found everything for amelia and he had it all laid out there including a shoe that was three sizes too big. And a bunch of aluminum, that could be any kind of aluminum and then later he found freckle cream that had to be hers because she had freckle cream and he continues to believe she is on an island further south than the island but beyond the last radio call. So his has got the most probably okay if shes on that line of position, maybe she could have flown down there. But the problem was she was already out of fuel near howland and this mild is 150 miles further south so i dont think she had the fuel to get there. So any way, back to her legacy. I realized i forgot to mention him. She is just a renounced women for her courage, for her commitment to aviation, to women, to peace. All of these Different Things that were important in her life. Here shes wearing some wings presented in 1928 as an honor major honorary major in the 381 air squadron and her death often hoefr shadowed her true legacy as a dedicated aviator as an enduring demonstration to women. In the male dominated world of early aviation, earhart built a legendary flight career earning the 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. All tolled, her flying career, feminism, life and death continue to inspire. Thank you. [ applause ] so i think we have time for some questions. Does anyone have any questions . Yes. Did she ever acknowledge or pay much attention to bessy coleman and colemans feats in aviation . That is a really good question. Because i myself and another fellow at the museum are researching some of that now. There is a woman at the museum who only recently found out that she has a black aviator in her family history. And like a lot of people are discovering what is in their family history, and so she has helped me look into black aviation more for the same pioneers of flight gallery that earharts plane is in and bessy coleman is in that gallery. So we are trying to learn more about bessy. And i actually gave another talk on a kind of separate angle the other day and i said, bessy and amelia both started flying in 1920 and 1921. And i dont know that i dont know if either of them knew of each other. I doubt it. They were both well bessy was from texas and then went to chicago. Amelia was in chicago but when she was younger. So i dont know that amelia knew about bessy. I dont know how much bessys accomplishment she had to go to france to get her license. She couldnt get a license in the United States because she was africanamerican and a woman. She couldnt find anyone to train her. So she went to france where she knew female pilots had been trained and there were black american pilots who had flown in the war there. So i dont know if they knew each other or not. I doubt it. Any other questions . Yes. Do you know on the decision on choosing the and on the kind of poor radio decisions, were those decisions kind of mutual between her and gp, her manager and to not have a Radio Operator on the plane. It sounds like, is there any accurate detail about whose decisionmaking decisionmaking to pick the island and chose not to go with a Radio Operator or a proper radio. That is a couple of questions. They had a Radio Operator after she crashed, as i mentioned. He to go back to work. They could have waited, they could have said were going to get this plane fixed, were going to find another Radio Operator and well do this right. But being gp and being ae, they wanted to get it done. They had a lot of money invested in this flight. Now she just cracked up the airplane. They had ask for more money and they needed to repay debts and debt this done so she could go back on the lecture circuit. So they decided to go without the Radio Operator. The two of them. I dont think it was one or the other, they just both said were going to go ahead and do this flight. So it probably wasnt the best decision. But i think it was both of them. They pretty much worked pretty well as a Team Together like that. And i know that when they were first picking going west on the islands, gp had identified he first identified three islands, howland and two others, that would be within the range of flying from hawaii. And she talked with gene bridal of the bureau of commerce and others in the government managing those islands now. But i think it was, in this case, i think he gave her the option of the three as the best options and she chose howland. And that is part of what i was saying earlier, it was a mismanaged flight and unfortunate they did decide to do a fast turnaround and not really sit back and plan it out properly. Get her up to speed on radios and still try to find another Radio Operator and manage it all better. Any other questions . Yes. Could you tell us anything about putnam post flight . Yeah, he obviously was they were living in california at that time. He was obviously very upset, devastated. He completely accepted that she had been lost at sea. He didnt buy into any other ideas. There were some radio calls that people thought they heard for a while. And if they came down in the water, they may have made a radio call. But nothing sustained, nothing that anyone could ever officially say this was amelia. And so they had this huge search, the coast guard and the navy scoured, it was the largest search ever at the time. And then after that search was over and it became apparent that no one had seen any bit of airplane or had any idea where she came down, she was legally declared dead within just a few months. And he accepted that. So he went on with his life. He ended up getting married two or three more times. And promoting other endeavors and first thing he did, though, was he took the notes. She was always sending back letters and notes how she was going on her flight because she would be writing another book. I forgot to mention, when she flew the atlantic, then she came back like after the first 28 flight as a passenger, she flew and came back and wrote a book the fun of it, which gp put out the door and they made a lot of money on. And and and she was going to do that and he finished the book for her calling it last flight and he did that right away. He went on with his life. But its ive heard interview from his son who got along he had two sons with his first wife and amelia got along great with both of them. And that son said that gp really did love her and cared about her and did not buy off on any idea that she had done anything but try to fly around the world. Any other questions . Okay. Thank you all. [ applause ] television has changed since cspan began 41 years ago but our Mission Continues to provide an if infultered view of government. Already this year we brought you primary election coverage, the president ial impeachment process and the federal response to coronavirus. Watch all programming on television, online, or listen on our free radio app and be part of the National Conversation through cspan daily Washington Journal Program or through our social media feeds. Cspan, created by private industry. Americas Cable Television companies as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. Coming up here on cspan, a 1974 film on the impact of women in the navy. And then African American women in the sports world through the generations. That is followed by a look at women voters and their impact from getting the vote in 1920 through the 2016 election. Were featuring American History tv programs in prime time this week. As a preview of what is available every weekend on cspan 3. Tonight with many colleges and universities closing campuses, were giving you the opportunity for your own Distance Learning with ah tv lecture in history series. Well feature American History classes from universities in the Atlantic Coast conference including clemson, university of North Carolina chapel hill, wake forest and duke. Seth jacobs from Boston College tips off the night with a class on president Lyndon Johnson and the escalation of the vietnam war. American history tv, tonight at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan 3. Ladies wear the blue is a u. S. Navy documentary and recruitment film tracing the history of women in the navy from 1917 to 1974. It features contributions by navy women in the mid 1960s as restrictions were removed. We are ships upon the ocean feel the birds above far and wide upon the
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