Amelia Earhart was one of the first American female heroes, a woman appreciated for her courage and her successes in a field dominated by men.
Amelia Earhart was the first woman to ever fly a plane over the Atlantic Ocean and the first woman to fly across the United States of America without stopping.
Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897 in Atchinson, Kansas. She became famous world wide at the beginning of the 1930’s when she set multiple aviation records flying a red Lockheed Vega plane, which she called her “little red bus”.
After graduating from high school, Amelia Earhart worked a few years as a medical nurse in the army. In 1919 she went to medical school at the Columbia University in New York but she dropped out after one year and came home to live with her parents. In 1920 she flew an airplane for the first time. This experienced marked her so much that she instantly decided she wanted to become a pilot.
The costs of an hour in the sky was about $1000 at that time so her parents refused to finance for school. But Amelia saved the money on her own and in 1921 she took her first flying lessons. After just six months she bought a Kinner Airster airplane, which she paid for herself. With this plane she set a record for women, flying it at an altitude of 4300 meters.
After her parents got divorced, Amelia worked as a school teacher and social worker, to please her mother. She had to sell the plane in order to buy a car. In 1928 Amelia got media attention as being the first woman flying over the Atlantic.
In 1932 Amelia was the first woman to fly solo over the Atlantic Ocean and the first woman to cross the United States of America during a non stop fly.
Amelia Earhart was reported missing in 1937 while flying over the Pacific Ocean as she attempted to set a new world record.
Her body was never recovered. The plane she was flying was also never found