59 Fun Facts About Amelia Earhart

In which US state was Amelia Earhart born in 1897?

She was born in her grandfather's house in Atchison, which is now the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum.

Over which ocean did Earhart disappear on 2 July 1937?

She was trying to become the first woman to fly around the world.

During the First World War, Earhart worked as a nurse's aide in a military hospital in which city?

She had gone there to visit her sister at Christmas 1917 and saw wounded soldiers returning from the front.

Who gave Earhart her first flying lesson in January 1921?

Earhart had saved $1,000 for lessons working as a photographer, truck driver and stenographer.

What nickname did Earhart give her first aeroplane, a yellow Kinner Airster biplane?

Yellow Peril was her car, a Kissel Speedster, and Old Bessie was a later Lockheed Vega.

In October 1922 Earhart set a women's world record by flying to what altitude?

The following May she became the 16th woman in the United States to receive an FAI pilot's licence.

Earhart worked in 1925 as a social worker at Denison House, a settlement house in which city?

She also sold Kinner aircraft locally and became vice president of the American Aeronautical Society's Boston chapter.

On the 1928 flight that made her the first woman to cross the Atlantic by air, what was Earhart's role?

Wilmer Stultz flew the plane; Earhart said afterwards, "I was just baggage, like a sack of potatoes."

What was the name of the Fokker seaplane that carried Earhart across the Atlantic in 1928?

Sponsor Amy Phipps Guest chose the name to honour the relationship between the United States and her adopted Britain.

The 1928 transatlantic flight ended with a landing in an estuary in which country?

The crew came down at Burry Port in Carmarthenshire, then flew on to Southampton.

What nickname did the press give Earhart because of her resemblance to Charles Lindbergh?

They also called her "Queen of the Air".

Earhart's first book, about the 1928 crossing, was titled with the flight's duration. What was it called?

Her own log said the flight really took 20 hours and 49 minutes.

Which magazine hired Earhart as an associate editor, a platform she used to promote flying?

She focused especially on encouraging women to enter aviation.

In April 1931 Earhart set an altitude record of 18,415 feet in an autogyro borrowed from which company?

She was the first woman to fly an autogyro and the first to cross the United States in one.

Earhart helped found and was the first elected president of which organisation for women pilots?

The group still maintains her birthplace museum in Atchison.

Whom did Earhart marry in February 1931?

The publisher and publicist had promoted her since 1928; the wedding was at his mother's house in Noank, Connecticut.

In a wedding-day letter, Earhart said she would not hold her husband to any 'midaevil code' of what?

She called the marriage a partnership with "dual control" and kept her own name.

Earhart's 1932 solo Atlantic flight took off from Harbour Grace in which territory?

She carried a copy of the Telegraph-Journal to prove the date of departure.

Which aircraft did Earhart fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932?

She had hoped to reach Paris like Lindbergh five years earlier.

Earhart's 1932 solo flight ended in a pasture near Culmore, in which part of the world?

When a farm hand asked, "Have you flown far?" she replied, "From America."

Which US military decoration did Congress award Earhart for the 1932 solo crossing?

France made her a Knight of the Legion of Honour and President Hoover gave her the National Geographic Society's Gold Medal.

In January 1935 Earhart became the first person to fly solo from Honolulu to which mainland city?

Later that year she also flew solo from Los Angeles to Mexico City and from Mexico City to Newark.

In 1935 Amelia Earhart joined which university as a visiting faculty member and aeronautics adviser?

The university funded her Lockheed Electra with $50,000 and later named a residence hall and airport terminal after her.

What did Earhart call the twin-engine Lockheed Electra 10E she flew on her final journey?

It was bought with $50,000 from the Amelia Earhart Fund for Aeronautical Research at Purdue.

Who was Earhart's navigator on the final leg of the 1937 round-the-world attempt?

A licensed ship's captain, he had set up most of Pan Am's China Clipper routes across the Pacific.

From which airfield did Earhart and Noonan take off on 2 July 1937, never to be seen again?

They had arrived there on 29 June after stops across South America, Africa and Asia.

What was the intended destination of Earhart's final flight?

The island is a flat sliver about 6,500 feet long and 10 feet high, more than 2,500 miles from Lae.

Which US Coast Guard cutter was stationed at the destination island to guide Earhart in by radio?

It received her voice loud and clear but she could never hear it, and its direction-finder could not tune to her frequency.

What was the radio call sign of Earhart's Electra?

Her last transmission gave a line of position of 157-337 degrees that should have passed through the island.

In which year was Earhart declared legally dead?

The declaration came on 5 January, eighteen months after she vanished.

The Gardner Island hypothesis suggests Earhart crash-landed on which atoll, now called Nikumaroro?

Despite many expeditions, including Robert Ballard's in 2019, nothing definitively linking her to the island has been found.

Which idea holds that Earhart and Noonan were seized after straying into Japan's South Seas Mandate?

Most historians believe the plane simply ran out of fuel and sank near Howland.

A 2006 National Geographic Channel programme floated the claim that Earhart survived under what name?

The idea that she remarried and lived quietly in New Jersey has been thoroughly debunked.

Which actress played Earhart in the 2009 biopic Amelia?

Amy Adams played her the same year in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.

In August 1928 Earhart became the first woman to do what?

General Leigh Wade, who flew with her in 1929, praised her as a born flier.

When the 1934 Bendix Trophy banned women from competing, how did Earhart protest?

She placed fifth in the 1935 Bendix in her stock Vega, outpaced by purpose-built racers.

Earhart's Ludington Airline was the first regional shuttle between New York and which city?

She was also vice president of National Airways, forerunner of Northeast Airlines.

Earhart took a cigarette endorsement deal and gave the money to whose polar venture?

The Lucky Strike ads cost her a job offer from McCall's magazine.

In 1919 Earhart enrolled in medical studies at which university before quitting to rejoin her parents?

She had planned to follow her sister to Smith College but changed her mind.

In 1923 Earhart became the how-manyeth American woman to be issued a pilot's licence by the FAI?

Her licence was number 6017.

On which 1935 solo flight did Earhart use the Lockheed Vega she called "old Bessie, the fire horse"?

She then flew nonstop from Mexico City to Newark, where the welcoming crowds nearly got in the way of her taxiing plane.

How many women's speed and distance records did Earhart set between 1930 and 1935?

She set them in the Kinner Airster, the Lockheed Vega and the Pitcairn Autogiro.

Which navigator and radio expert left Earhart's round-the-world crew after the first attempt?

He had captained the ship that brought her home from Europe in 1928 and knew Morse code.

Retracing Earhart's route in 1967, Ann Pellegreno dropped what over the destination island?

Linda Finch flew a restored Electra 10 along the same path for the 60th anniversary in 1997.

Which Star Trek series featured an episode, "The 37's", in which Earhart turns up alive?

Sharon Lawrence played her in the 1995 episode.

What was the childhood nickname of Amelia's younger sister Grace Muriel Earhart?

Amelia herself answered to 'Meeley' or 'Millie'; both sisters kept the nicknames into adulthood.

What did the seven-year-old Amelia build on the family tool shed in 1904 after a trip to St. Louis?

She emerged from the crashed sled with a bruised lip and a torn dress, exclaiming 'Oh, Pidge, it's just like flying!'

How did the ten-year-old Amelia react to seeing her first aeroplane at the 1908 Iowa State Fair?

She later called the biplane 'a thing of rusty wire and wood and not at all interesting'.

Which magazine withdrew its offer to make Earhart aviation editor after her Lucky Strike cigarette ads?

She had taken the deal to redirect the money to Richard Byrd's South Pole expedition.

Which department store chain sold Earhart's 'active living' clothing lines?

Her concept of simple, wrinkle-proof, washable garments embodied the sleek 'A.E.' image and helped fund her flying.

George Putnam moved the couple to California in 1935 to head the editorial board of which film studio?

A fire at their Rye, New York home had destroyed many of Earhart's mementos in late 1934.

With which stunt pilot did Earhart set up a short-lived flying school in Burbank in 1935?

The Earhart-Mantz Flying School mainly taught instrument flying on Link Trainers; Mantz was later her technical adviser.

At which Pearl Harbor airfield did Earhart's Electra crash on takeoff in March 1937, ending her first attempt?

The plane ground-looped, its landing gear collapsed and both propellers hit the ground; it was shipped to Lockheed in Burbank for repair.

How much did the 1937 US Navy and Coast Guard search for Earhart cost, then the most in US history?

Official efforts ended on July 19, 1937, and Putnam then financed a private search of nearby islands.

Which famed ocean explorer led a 2019 expedition around Nikumaroro that found no trace of Earhart's plane?

David Jourdan's $4.5 million sonar searches in 2003 and 2006 near Howland also came up empty, as did Tony Romeo's in 2024.

Which businesswoman retraced Earhart's final route in a restored Electra 10 on the 60th anniversary in 1997?

Mendieta later flew an original Avro Avian in 2001 to recreate Earhart's 1928 transcontinental flight.

Which organisation established the Amelia Earhart Fellowship in 1938 for women in aerospace PhDs?

It has awarded 1,764 fellowships worth more than $11.9 million to women from 79 countries.

Which Joni Mitchell album features the song 'Amelia', written 'from one solo pilot to another'?

Laurie Anderson's 2024 album Amelia and Public Service Broadcasting's The Last Flight also tell Earhart's story.

For which year did Time magazine choose Earhart when it created 89 retrospective 'women of the year' covers in 2019?

She was also inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1992 and has a lunar crater named after her.