The First Lady of the Air (I)

16 The First Lady of the Air (I) Amelia Earhart is one of the world's most celebrated aviators. She is remembered today as a pioneer of airplane travel and the greatest female pilot of her day. Her accomplishments in the field of aviation inspired others and helped pave the way for those that followed. Amelia was born in Kansas, on July 24, 1897. When she graduated from high school in 1916, she travelled to Canada and worked as a nurse and an English teacher. Upon returning to her home in the U. S. , she entered college. But her stay there was short. Amelia Earhart was about to enter the pages of history. One day, her father took her to an air show where she watched pilots showing off their flying skills. She immediately fell in love with airplanes. The next day, at only 24 years of age, she made her first flight. A year later, against the wishes of her family, she made her first solo flight.

She soon purchased her own airplane. For the rest of her adventurous life, she was a woman in a man's world. People in those days believed that only men should be piloting these new “ flying machines" . Of course, Amelia did not agree with this idea. Amelia Earhart set many “ firsts" in the early days of airplane travel-and not just as a female pilot. She earned the record as the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. She also held the record for altitude, reaching a height of 14, 000 feet in 1922. And she was the first woman to fly solo non-stop across the U. S. She went on to become the first person-man or woman-to fly solo across the Pacific between Honolulu and California. But Amelia Earhart wanted to make a truly amazing world record. She wanted to be the first person of either gender to fly all the way around the world. She planned to retire after accomplishing this goal. She wanted to return home and spend the rest of her life with her husband and children. But, fate has a way of changing things in ways that we can never understand.