6 Chapter 5 Amelia Becomes a Hero

Chapter 5 Amelia Becomes a Hero Amelia met with both George Putnam and Amy Guest in New York. They both thought she was perfect. Attractive. Polite. Well-educated. She got the job. The job was actually not nearly as good as it sounded. Amelia wouldn't get paid. A man named Wilmer Stultz would fly the plane. He'd get twenty thousand dollars. And although Amelia was called "the captain," she was really just a passenger.

Why did Amelia agree? First, no woman had ever crossed the Atlantic by plane. The experience alone was enough to make Amelia go. Amelia summed up her feelings in a letter to a friend. "When a great adventure's offered you—you don't refuse it, that's all." Amelia also hoped that, if the trip were successful, all the attention could bring her other flying jobs. The flight was very dangerous. Charles Lindbergh had made the trip safely. But fourteen other people had died trying to cross the ocean. Three had been women. Still, two other women pilots were already planning to try it. Amelia had to move quickly if she wanted to be the first.

The plane, called the Friendship, took off from Boston on June 3, 1928. However, the crew had to land in Canada because of bad weather. Many days went by. The Friendship was still not able to take off. Amelia discovered another problem. Her pilot, Wilmer Stultz, drank too much. If Wilmer got drunk, she knew he couldn't fly the plane. But if they did not take off soon, Amelia would lose the record. It was now or never. On June 16, Amelia made a decision. She told Wilmer to get ready to fly—they were leaving the next day no matter what. On the morning of June 17 Amelia sent a cable to George Putnam back in Boston. The cable read "Violet. Cheerio! A.E." Violet was a code word. It meant that the Friendship was taking off.

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Through the long flight Wilmer Stultz and his co-pilot "Slim" Gordon took turns flying the plane. Amelia wrote notes in her journal. After twenty hours of flying, they knew they were low on fuel. Could they find land in time? The answer was yes. The Friendship touched down in Burry Port, South Wales, twenty hours and forty minutes after taking off from the Canadian coast. They had done it. On June 18, 1928, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.

What came next was a surprise for Amelia. The trip made her an instant hero. Amelia hadn't flown the plane. But people still thought she was very brave. In London, Amelia was entertained by the rich and famous. She had tea with royalty. On her return to America, Amelia was met with even greater excitement. There were parades and speeches. Crowds of people wanted to see and hear the brave female. Many people compared Amelia Earhart to the famous pilot, Charles Lindbergh. They thought that Amelia, who was tall and slim, even looked like Lindbergh. Amelia's nickname became "Lady Lindy." George