9 Chapter 8 The Final Flight

Chapter 8 The Final Flight Amelia Earhart wanted to fly around the world. Although other pilots had circled the globe, she would fly close to the equator. This would make a longer and harder trip—29,000 miles. A special plane was needed—a new Lockheed model called the Electra. The plane was large enough to carry ten passengers. But Amelia had the seats removed. Extra fuel tanks were put in. This allowed the plane to fly up to three thousand miles before stopping to refuel.

The Electra had new radio equipment. Amelia would be able to communicate by voice and code. It also had two engines that made it more complicated to fly. Amelia had to train with different pilots to learn how to fly it. It would take months to prepare for the trip. Amelia and George hired two navigators to fly with Amelia. They would help Amelia stay on course.

The flight path would go from east to west. Amelia would take off from California and head toward Hawaii. On March 17, 1937, the Electra left Oakland, California. Amelia and her two navigators arrived in Honolulu about 16 hours later. The first leg of the trip was a success. Then Amelia had an accident. As Amelia was taking off from Honolulu, the plane lurched out of control. The landing gear collapsed. A wing was torn open. Luckily, no one was hurt. But the $100,000 plane was badly damaged. It had to be shipped back to Lockheed on the mainland. Almost two months went by before the plane was ready to fly again.

Because of the delay, one of the navigators could not continue the flight. That left only the other man—Fred Noonan. There was also another change. Due to weather patterns, the flight path had to be reversed. Amelia would now fly from west to east. On May 21, Amelia left Oakland, California, and headed east to Miami, Florida. The whole world was watching. The trip started off well. From Miami, Amelia flew to Puerto Rico. Then she flew along the east coast of South America to Venezuela, then on to Surinam and Brazil. The Electra was holding up well. But there was not much room to move around. Amelia communicated with Fred Noonan by passing notes on a fishing pole. It was better than climbing over the extra fuel tanks.

Amelia flew over forty hours and four thousand miles in the first week. And that was just the beginning. She flew over the Atlantic and crossed to Africa. Within three weeks she had flown twenty thousand miles in 135 hours. Amelia was getting tired. She would be glad when the long hours of flying were over.

By July 1, Amelia had reached New Guinea. From New Guinea she'd go to Howland Island and then to Honolulu, Hawaii. The next—and last—stop would be Oakland, California. There were only 7,000 miles left on the 29,000 mile trip. Most of these last miles were over the Pacific Ocean.