American pilot Amelia Earhart. Amelia Earhart's Plane Crash Mystery

I have been studying the history and biography of the American pilot Amelia Earhart for about 30 years.
It so happened that I was lucky to be in Earhart's homeland - in Atchison (Kansas), to meet and communicate with living members of her family, historians and biographers, and to collect quite a lot of rare and exclusive materials about her life and flying biography.
While sorting through my archives recently, I came across a number of texts that I wrote at different times for different media (some were published, some did not get into print due to the reduction in volume during publication and all sorts of other reasons), and decided to "stitch" them and post them here , naturally with photographic illustrations. Maybe someone will be interested ... because it was really an extraordinary person and an extraordinary life.
There is a lot of material, so due to the Community rule "1 person - 1 day - 1 post", the publication will stretch for several days. So, the first part. Photos are clickable.

... In the 30s she was the most famous female pilot in the world; the first woman to cross the Atlantic alone, the first person to cross the ocean twice by air, and the holder of many other aviation records. Reputable magazines such as "Time" from year to year declared her "the most photographed woman in the world", far ahead of Hollywood movie stars in this indicator.
Nevertheless, it so happened that we know almost nothing about her. Not a single biography of her was published in translation, and accessible feature films sin with such inaccuracies and frank fantasies of screenwriters that they can hardly rightly be considered "biographical".
Meanwhile, only on the Internet you can find about 400 (!) titles of books dedicated to Amelia Mary Earhart - the “first lady of the Atlantic”, the “queen of the air” and the national heroine and favorite of millions of Americans. The name Earhart is carried by many streets, schools and other organizations in different cities of America and a US Navy ship. Colonel Eileen Collins, one of the American women astronauts, who once belonged to her from the museum, took with her on board the Shuttle (at the same time, the launch of the ship was timed to coincide with Earhart's birthday), and monuments to her can be found in different states of America.
How did Amelia Earhart deserve such respect and admiration of her compatriots? However, first things first...

Kansas girl

... Amelia was born on July 24, 1897 in the small town of Atchison, Kansas, in the family of lawyer Edwin Earhart. Edwin's wife, Amy, was the daughter of a local judge; in her youth, she became the first woman to climb Pikes Peak in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Amelia was the eldest child in the family; a second daughter, Muriel, was born two and a half years later.

Amelia and Muriel's parents - Samuel "Edwin" Stanton Earhart (1867-1930) and Amelia "Amy" Otis Earhart (1869-1962)
House in Atchison, Kansas, where Amelia Earhart was born. Now it is her House-Museum.

From a very early age, the Earhart sisters enjoyed an unusual freedom for their time in choosing interests, friends, and entertainment. And therefore, in addition to traditional girlish games and activities, Amelia exhausted a bunch of cartridges, accurately shooting from a 22-caliber rifle donated by her father, was an excellent rider, swam well and played tennis.
Amelia learned to read at the age of four and from an early age absorbed a huge amount of the most diverse literature. Especially attracted her books, telling about great discoveries and adventures. Her grades in school were almost always excellent - especially in science, history and geography. If this turned out not to be the case, the reason, as a rule, was some adventure started by Amelia, followed by “ disciplinary action". Amelia's childhood and the atmosphere that surrounded her in the quiet patriarchal Atchison is perhaps the easiest to imagine when rereading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Neighbors considered the judge’s granddaughter developed beyond her years and certainly well-educated, but at the same time an inventor and daredevil, capable of the most incredible undertakings - like an expedition to caves on the banks of the Missouri to search for pirate treasures, or unauthorized construction of home-made roller coasters from boards prepared for sheathing barn...

Amelia and her younger sister Muriel, 1904
Amelia Earhart at age 7

Amelia's father, a prosperous and successful lawyer, successfully handled cases in the interests of the railway company. His services were valued so highly that the company provided him with his own railway car for business trips. Due to the nature of his work, the family had to travel frequently. Over time, however, financial position The family worsened: Edwin Earhart began to drink heavily, and eventually lost his job. Now I had to move in the hope of finding her, and in each next place life was harder than in the previous one. Cities, houses, schools changed ... Soon the family had to experience real poverty, when dresses for their growing daughters were sewn from old window curtains. As a result, in 1914, Amy, taking her daughters, moved to friends in Chicago.
Here at school, Amelia also quickly "promoted" among her peers - like teachers, they drew attention to the unusual erudition of the newcomer and her active interest in the most different problems- including war in Europe, government social policy and women's rights.
After graduating from Chicago's Hyde Park High School in 1916, Amelia was able to attend the women's college at Ogontz School in Rydal, Pennsylvania, thanks to some funds received by her family in her will. This educational institution was a kind of Institute of Noble Maidens, in which, in addition to teaching the sciences themselves, much attention was paid to the study of secular etiquette and the development of aristocratic habits and manners. Amelia's letters to her mother have been preserved, in which she humorously described repeated exercises - how correctly, elegantly and gracefully a true lady should approach the table and sit down on a chair, and other similar secular wisdom. At that time, of course, she could not even imagine how these sciences would be useful to her in the future, when she would have to rotate among presidents, kings and queens and others. the mighty of the world this...
A new turn in the fate of Amelia Earhart took place on Christmas Day 1917. Arriving on vacation in Toronto to visit her younger sister who studied there, she saw seriously wounded soldiers arriving from the fronts of the World War on the street. The impression was so strong that instead of returning to school, Amelia signed up for accelerated medical courses and went to work as a nurse's assistant in a military hospital ...

Amelia Earhart at 17. Minnesota, 1914
Amelia Earhart in college in 1917.
Amelia Earhart (second photo with a friend) while working at Spadina Military Hospital, Toronto, 1918

By the end of the war, the accumulated experience seemed to incline her to the idea of ​​devoting her life to medicine. However, there was a military airfield not far from the hospital, and after visiting several air shows, Amelia doubted her medical vocation: here she first felt the attraction of the sky.
During a visit to one of the air shows, Amelia and her friend, standing in the middle of the field, watched with interest the cascade of figures aerobatics, which were written out in the sky at low altitude by a small red biplane. The pilot also noticed the girls, and decided to scare them - starting a gentle dive right on them. Unable to withstand the "psychic attack", the friend rushed to run. Amelia stayed where she was, and the plane roared right over her head, so low that she could feel the wave of air and the swirl of air behind it. She was completely fascinated. "I think this little red plane said something to me!" she joked later...

War is over. Amelia, having been ill with severe pneumonia (caught in the hospital), returned home to the States. She briefly studied biology, physics, chemistry and medicine at Columbia University, as well as - "just for fun" (her favorite expression) - French classical literature (by that time Amelia knew four foreign languages). In Columbia, too, there were adventures: "just out of curiosity" she illegally examined the complex system of underground communications and tunnels laid under the university complex, and another time "in full dress" - in long dress, button-down shoes and a straw hat - climbed onto the dome of the building of the university library that dominated the landscape.

In 1920 the reunited family moved to Los Angeles, and in January 1921 Amelia, still fascinated by aviation, began taking flying lessons.

Her first instructor was Anita (Neta) Snook, one of the few female pilots in those years who bought a used Curtis-Buzzard training aircraft and made a living with it, teaching everyone the basics of flying. Neta immediately noted the naturalness of the new student, who felt calm and confident in the cockpit. However, she also noted some of her penchant for adventurism: several times she had to intervene in control, preventing Amelia from trying to fly under the wires of a power line near the airfield when landing.

The lessons were not cheap, and in order to pay for the education, Amelia sought to get at least some kind of job: a difficult task for a girl in the post-war crisis, when hundreds of thousands of young men were demobilized from the army, and naturally they had an advantage in getting a job. She played the banjo and piano in the music hall, worked as a photographer, cameraman, teacher, secretary, telephone operator, auto mechanic and even a truck driver - and at the same time tried to learn everything she could about aviation - from the theory of flight to the design of an aircraft engine.

Women were then a rare curiosity in the aviation environment, and naturally Amelia and Neta had no shortage of admirers - young pilots and mechanics who vied with each other inviting them to restaurants, dances, theaters and cinemas. Neta gladly accepted these attentions, but Amelia, to her chagrin, rarely kept her company. Communicating with pleasure during the day with the motley brethren of the airfield, she was not against sometimes getting out into the countryside outside the city, for a picnic in the company of friends. But she usually preferred to spend her evenings in the city library, studying Spanish and California history. Needing company, Neta tried to "re-educate" a too serious student, but heard in response: "You know, Snooki - I think you should not let a man spend his time and money on you if you yourself do not have serious feelings for him. I think it's just some kind of theft." Neta just waved her hand; that is how the matter ended.

Amelia Earhart: picnic in nature, 1920

A.E near the plane, 1922

Around this time, Amelia was engaged to Sam Chapman, a young chemical engineer from Massachusetts. Sam wanted to develop a relationship in order to eventually see Amelia as his wife, but then "found a scythe on a stone." The negative experience of her parents' unsuccessful marriage frightened her, besides, their views on family life turned out to be directly opposite: she first of all wanted to "live her own life" and make a career as a business woman in some technical profession, while Sam was a supporter of a traditional marriage in which the wife stays at home and takes care of the household. These differences turned out to be insurmountable, and in 1928, by mutual agreement, the engagement was terminated. Nevertheless, they remained friends, and until the death of Amelia periodically exchanged letters and books.

In the summer of 1921, Amelia became the proud owner of a small, bright yellow biplane, the Kinnear Airster, her first own aircraft, purchased from financial assistance parents. Neta Snook did not approve the acquisitions. The Airster was a one-of-a-kind prototype aircraft powered by a 3-cylinder air-cooled engine, one of the first of its kind in the United States. One of the cylinders of this engine had a tendency to jam at the most unpredictable moment; in general, many believed that this was a dangerous aircraft, too strict and unforgiving of piloting mistakes.
Nevertheless, Amelia had already made up her mind, and now she spent all her free time in the air, mastering the art of aerial acrobatics - under the guidance of one of the experienced retired army pilots.

The results followed quickly. In 1922, Amelia Earhart set her first world record by climbing 14,000 feet, higher than any female pilot has hitherto achieved.
New achievements soon followed. The interest of the public in aviation in those years was enormous, and air shows were often held at California airfields with imitation of dogfights, various risky stunts and competitions in the art of aerobatics. By the end of the year, Amelia became a recognized star of such aerial rodeos, her name began to appear more and more often in the aviation press. And soon, on May 16, 1923, she received a license from the US National Aeronautics Association.

Amelia Earhart: flight license photo

However, the collapse of the business in which the family had invested, and the final divorce of her parents in 1924, forced Amelia to sell the plane in order to buy a car for a trip with her mother across the country to Boston. For some time, Amelia returned to New York - to Columbia University, then planned to move to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but alas, there were not enough funds for this. She ended up getting a job as a teacher. of English language for immigrant children at Dennison House Orphanage in Boston. She used all her free time and money for flying practice.

Amelia Earhart with children from Dennison House Orphanage

Very quickly, she gained fame and genuine respect in local aviation circles - because she not only flew well, but also did not disdain to smear her hands with oil, digging with pleasure for hours in engines and helping mechanics service aircraft at the airfield.

However, a fateful step towards world fame was taken by her only on June 17, 1928. On this day, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to cross the Atlantic aboard a Fokker F-7 “Friendship” aircraft - “Friendship” - in the company of pilot Wilmer Stulz and flight mechanic Lou Gordon.

The flight was organized by renowned New York publisher George Palmer Putnam.
Amelia as a candidate was recommended to him by Admiral R. Belknap. One of the early visionaries of the future meaning of aviation and air power, he was actively interested in aviation life in Boston and the surrounding area and managed to notice and distinguish a thin blonde woman who flew better than many guys and had already managed to create a corresponding reputation for this.
As Putnam later recalled, as soon as he saw Amelia, he immediately “felt” in her the future world celebrity. The foreboding did not deceive the experienced publisher and press agent, and subsequently their fates turned out to be much more closely connected than they could have imagined at the first, almost accidental meeting on a purely business occasion.
In the meantime, in deep secrecy, so as not to attract the attention of competitors, the three-engine Fokker was converted in workshops on the outskirts of Boston, equipped with everything necessary for a transoceanic flight and - just in case - re-equipped from wheels to floats.

Taking off from Newfoundland, the plane crossed the ocean in 20 hours and 40 minutes and splashed down off the coast of England. Due to a combination of extremely bad weather and lack of experience in flying heavy multi-engine aircraft, Amelia, to her deep regret, actually made this journey as a passenger. After boarding, she angrily told reporters, “I was just being carried around like a sack of potatoes.” She constantly sought to switch the obsessive attention of the press to the true pilots of the Fokker, but the public was only interested in "the first woman in a transatlantic flight." However, this proved to be the real start of Earhart's brilliant aviation career.

She soon learned to take advantage of the fame that comes with it. She used it as a springboard for the active promotion of her views and ideas, in particular, the struggle for equal rights for women and their active involvement in "traditionally male" professions, especially in aviation. Per a short time Amelia has published many articles in the press on the development of aviation, she has given public lectures on the same topic in many cities of the country.
For some time, Amelia was very popular as an "aviation columnist" for Cosmopolitan magazine. She herself created an original collection of dresses and suits, specially oriented to business women; her models were very successful and were sold in a special department of the largest Macy's department store in New York.

Amelia Earhart launches her own fashion line

The organizer of her flight, George Putnam, suggested that Amelia write a book about the flight, which she called "20 hours, 40 minutes" - in accordance with the time spent in flight.
Soon, however, Putnam discovered that his interest in Amelia went beyond a business relationship. This hastened the disintegration of his first marriage, which had already been cracking at the seams for a long time. Soon George Putnam divorced his wife and began a proper siege, persistently attacking Amelia with proposals to marry him.

Hereditary newspaperman George Putnam was quite a bright and extraordinary personality. Born into a wealthy family, he received an excellent education and upbringing in the traditions of the aristocratic salons of the East Coast, but in his youth he ended up as a reporter in the Far West, where he learned the manners vividly described by Mark Twain in the famous story "Journalism in Tennessee."
Putnam could be very different: an aristocratically refined, suave intellectual with friends and those who liked him, he easily switched to a cowboy vocabulary if something irritated him. At the same time, he had an unmistakable reporter's instinct for a future sensation (which his competitors called the "killer instinct"), as well as a broad outlook and encyclopedic knowledge in various fields.

Amelia liked Putnam, but she still rejected the idea of ​​becoming a traditional housewife, and therefore stubbornly resisted his proposals. Amelia believed that traditional patriarchal marriage was “a grave where dreams die” and did not want to sacrifice her own dreams and aspirations in order to, like most women of that time, simply run the household and become, as she said, “home robot”. But only time could prove Putnam's willingness to marry in the style of an equal partnership. However, George Putnam was ready to wait and did not lose hope.

Earhart was absolutely convinced of the great future of commercial air travel - she stood at the origins of the organization of several of the largest scheduled airlines in the United States. She liked to end her public speeches with a phrase addressed to the audience: “See you soon on the transatlantic airline!”

In 1929 Earhart helped form international organization of women pilots, named "Ninety-nine" after the number of its first members, and in 1930 she was elected the first president of the new association (today its members are thousands of women pilots from many countries of the world). However, all this turbulent social activity did not distract Amelia Earhart from what she considered the most important for herself - flying.

To be continued [

A rifle instead of a doll

She was born in Kansas. Father is a lawyer, maternal grandfather is a judge and one of the richest people state, everyone is just obsessed with appearances. In a word, the girl, it would seem, shone a very respectable, secure and boring life. True, Amelia quickly began to show features that were not at all characteristic of a young lady. She was an excellent horseback rider, read adventure novels avidly, and preferred the rifle given by her father to dolls.

At the university, Amelia was engaged in natural sciences for some time, but in 1920 an event occurred that turned her life upside down: she got to an airplane exhibition in California. The planes delighted her, even the laughter of the pilots over her, a girl who, out of an excess of folly, decided to devote herself to aviation, did not dampen her enthusiasm.

Sold the airplane

Meanwhile, flight schools for women in the United States already existed and Earhart quickly found herself in one of them. The instructor later spoke about her enthusiasm, and about her talents for aerobatics, and about recklessness: in one of the first training flights, Amelia almost hit exactly the wires of the power line, under which she decided to fly.

The flight between Newfoundland and Wales lasted almost 21 hours. Earhart did not fly alone, there were two men in the crew, she was annoyed that she did not do all the work herself. But it was behind her that the glory of the first woman who flew across the ocean was entrenched.

After this flight, the young enthusiast became a real icon. But now only new records were expected from her.

Another time, she crashed into a eucalyptus, and as soon as she got out from under the rubble, she began to prepare for an interview: journalists fled to the plane crash. However, enthusiasm and skill redeemed everything: Earhart did not miss a single minute for training. When she received her inheritance, she was able not only to pay for flight school, but even to buy her own small airplane.

She began by performing in front of the public at an air show. In those days it was extremely risky business. The "shelves" constantly fought even with the unmistakable actions of the pilot. Amelia was quickly to be convinced of this. Due to family troubles and lack of money, she had to sell her airplane. The pilot, to whom she lost it, took off before her eyes ... and collapsed like a stone from a thirty-meter height. And her own flights became more and more risky. She squeezed everything possible out of the "whatnots" and set speed and height records one after another. Soon they noticed her. Elderly pilot Amy Guest was going to organize the first flight of a woman across the Atlantic Ocean. Earhart was an excellent pilot, and besides, she was young and charming, so things quickly worked out.

Got married

In 1931, Amelia Earhart nevertheless changed her youthful vow not to marry and went down the aisle with the publisher George Putnam. He was subdued by a fickle and energetic pilot, but she immediately set many conditions for him, in particular, in no case try to interfere with her flights. Earhart even forced her husband to sign the contract accordingly! And literally from under the crown, she rushed to conquer the Atlantic already solo.

She was going to make the flight of the century on a lightweight Lockheed Vega. This car had many advantages and one huge drawback: very high requirements for the pilot - and yet Earhart had to spend many hours in the air without the possibility of losing control of the car even for a second. She took a lot of extra fuel, but there was no radio on the plane - in which case there was nowhere to wait for rescue.

Record

On May 20, 1932, the plane took off from Grace Harbor in Newfoundland. Amelia acted like she was going on a picnic: jokes and no excitement.

The landing gear lifted off the ground, and Amelia Earhart on her "Vega" was left alone with the elements. She immediately showed character. Soon the plane flew into a thunderstorm. "Vega" was thrown from side to side, the wind tore the skin, a little more - and the wings of the plane would begin to break. The altimeter is broken. Then the fuel lines cracked. The storm passed, but the plane went into a tailspin. Earhart stabilized her "whatnot" almost at the water's edge and was able to find the optimal height - just on a whim, the devices did not work. But now a new problem arose: fuel was slowly leaking from the fuel line. Dawn was coming, the pilot was exhausted to the limit.

Initially, Earhart was going to fly to France, but this was now ruled out and she decided to land on any land that was in the ocean. The plane was flying between two layers of clouds. When they slightly parted, a strip of earth suddenly appeared below. Finding the coveted land, Earhart immediately went to her. Where exactly she flew, Amelia had no idea. In any case, it was the ground and it appeared just in time: the Vega had already burned out the exhaust manifold, the continuation of the flight could lead to disaster at any moment.

A man approached the stopped plane, and Earhart was able to at least find out where he was. She was extremely lucky: the land that emerged from the fog on the horizon a few minutes ago was Northern Ireland. What the Vega held out was a phenomenal combination of skill and luck: it was hard to find a functioning instrument on board, the wings and engine were ready to fall apart at any moment.

But now Amelia Earhart was the first woman to cross the ocean by air, and the only person in the world who managed to accomplish such a feat twice. So in the coming months, Amelia just enjoyed the glory. In London, she was received by the Prince of Wales, in Paris - by the Senate in full force, in Brussels - by the royal family of Belgium ... At home, the enthusiasm of the public also exceeded all expectations. Amelia's triumph made her a model and role model. Crowds roamed the streets in awe. All skeptics were put to shame at once, and the pilot traveled and flew around the cities, speaking to fans with constant success. But now Earhart was also a hostage to her own fame.

Amelia was expected to continuously update records. Yes, she herself was striving for new achievements. In the coming years, Earhart did not miss a single new aircraft model, tested parachutes and even diving suits. However, this was not quite what was needed. Earhart could surpass herself only in one way - to make a round-the-world flight.

On May 20, 1937, Amelia Earhart, along with navigator Fred Noonan, took off from an airfield in Florida. Putnam, anticipating something bad, tried to dissuade his wife before the flight, but it was too late to stop her.

Overpower without landings trip around the world it was unrealistic, but even individual flights became the hardest test. Earhart and Noonan were heading east. They covered most of the route by July. The Atlantic and Eurasia remained behind. Ahead lay the most difficult stage - the Pacific Ocean.

Missing

Amelia stands next to a Lockheed Electra 10E before her last flight in 1937.

On July 2 in New Guinea, Earhart and Noonan received a weather forecast: storm. The wind was getting stronger, and it would have been wise to suspend the flight, but the pilots decided not to wait. Why - there is no one to ask. However, everyone noted that last days Earhart and Noonan looked haggard. In her last letter home, Amelia stated that she was not going to set any more records.

On the morning of July 2, Elektra launched from the Lae airfield. Just in case, a boat with a radio station was waiting ahead of her. But the radio was silent for a long time, and almost a day after the start, at dawn, it signaled to the boat: "We are somewhere nearby, but we do not see you." And then - "We are demolished!" Earhart never contacted again.

On July 2, 1937, the Lockheed Electra monoplane, piloted by Amelia Earhart, mysteriously disappeared over the Pacific Ocean. The legendary pilot was only thirty nine years old. US President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the largest exploratory rescue operation in US history, but the wreckage was never found. However, eighty years later, new details about the last flight of Amelia Earhart became known. What actually happened?

Childhood and youth

The first flight

Aviation records

last flight

In total, there are two versions of the death of Amelia Earhart.

According to the first, a skeleton was found on the uninhabited island of Nikumaroro in 1940. For a long time it was believed that this was the skeleton of a man, however, a new examination conducted in 2016 proved that the remains were actually female. Moreover, the growth of the skeleton and the approximate age correspond to the date of a possible catastrophe. A flight jacket and freckle cream were also found on the island.

In 2017, the American documentary about Amelia Earhart, which mentioned, among other things, a photograph found in the Museum of the United States Congress. It supposedly depicts Amelia and Noonan with a group of Japanese on Jaulith Island, Marshall Islands. This gives reason to believe that Earhart was taken prisoner by Japanese soldiers.

The human mind has always been disturbed by stories with a mysterious end, leaving room for the imagination to draw a possible ending. The story of a brave pilot, Amelia Earhart, is no exception. She set a goal to be the first female pilot to fly around the world.

Amelia's childhood

Amelia was born on July 24, 1897 in a poor family of a lawyer who worked in a railway company. In those days, the earnings of a lawyer were very different from the current ones. Seeing that the father could not provide the family with a decent existence, the grandfather of the family took the girl to him, where she lived for the first 11 years of her life.

Only in 1908, Amelia began to live in her parents' house.

Her father often took her to the Sunday fair, where one of the entertainment shows was demonstration flights of the first aircraft. However, they did not make any impression on the 11-year-old child.

Young Amelia Earhart was more concerned with her parents' relationship, which became cooler over the years. Father, against the backdrop of the economic crisis, began to apply more and more to the bottle. The mother, unable to bear life with an alcoholic, took the children and moved to Chicago.

Acquaintance with the sky

After leaving school, the girl entered medical University. Parents, despite the discord, began to live together again, and in 1920 Amelia returned to her native Kansas. The father began to spend a lot of time with his daughter and, as before, take her to the air show.

One day during a trip to California, Amelia Earhart made her first flight in an open plane, which in those days was called "whatnots". Of course, she was only a passenger, but the impressions were so etched into her mind that they forever changed her future.

Having collected her savings, the girl bought a small biplane, calling it Canary.

Her instructor was one of the first female pilots, Anita Snook. She noted the courage and composure of Amelia, but at the same time the recklessness that led her to several accidents. She recalled how her student, unable to calculate the length of the runway, lifted the nose of the plane too low during its takeoff from the ground and crashed into the trees growing along the perimeter of the takeoff.

But the talent nevertheless revealed itself, and in 1922 the pilot Amelia Earhart set her first record, having risen into the sky at 4.267 km.

In the footsteps of men

Until a certain time, flying for Amelia was just a hobby that she did in her spare time from studying at the university. Even then, she contributed to the spread of the popularity of aviation among women. In this regard, the name Earhart often appeared in the pages of newspapers. It was this that played a key role in her becoming the first female pilot to cross the Atlantic.

Among men, this record was set back in 1919 by pilots John Alcock and Arthur Witten Brown, but among women there was a struggle for superiority.

Attempts were made repeatedly. For the first time, Anna Savel, who became famous for solo flights across the Mediterranean, tried to reach the shores of the New World. The attempt was unsuccessful. Her plane never made it to the mainland.

Francis Grayson then decides to take the flight in his blue seaplane, but also fails.

Then there were several more attempts, but the women were not lucky.

Perhaps it was because they chose the wrong time of the year, when the prevailing winds were blowing in the opposite direction of the plane, and heavy fogs made it impossible to determine the right path.

How the record was broken

It happened in 1928. It all happened thanks to the eccentric desires of the wife of the representative of the British House of Lords, Mr. Gets. She told her husband that she was going to cross the Atlantic Ocean by air, and on this occasion she acquired a 3-engine Fokker A VII-3m.

The husband objected, but Lady Gets insisted. Seeing that conflict was inevitable, he agreed on the condition that the young American pilot, Amelia Earhart, be the pilot.

Having phoned, they explained the essence of their proposal, which the young ambitious woman accepted without hesitation. This event became a key event in the biography of Amelia Earhart.

The mediator between them was the then-famous publisher George Putman, who drew up the contract.

He had his own interests in dealing with Amelia. The fact is that George had long watched her flying career and rightly believed that articles about her flight across the Atlantic would spur interest in his newspaper. In addition, he planned to publish on behalf of Amelia Earhart a book describing this event.

Delighted by the opportunity, Amelia, but still not experienced in doing business, gladly signed the contract.

Deception of flight organizers

Only during the flight did Amelia realize that she was just a signboard with which a cunning publisher drew attention to this event.

Despite the fact that under the contract she was the crew commander, she was removed from control of the aircraft. Putman turned out to be a reinsurer and invited Mr. Schultz as an acting pilot.

The plane took off on June 18 from Newfoundland and, after flying across the Atlantic, landed in Wales. A magnificent meeting awaited the American crew. Despite the pilot's complaints that she did not take part in flying the aircraft, Amelia Earhart is recognized as the first female pilot to cross the Atlantic.

Amelia's fake marriage

Shortly after returning to America, changes took place in Amelia's life. She constantly received invitations to give lectures. Parties were organized in her honor, at which Mr. Putman successfully advertised her book with the title “20 hours 40 minutes”. Moreover, the publisher settled her in his house.

Attention to the young famous woman could not but affect the relationship between Putman and his wife, and they soon divorced.

Life after the flight began to disappoint Amelia. She saw that the fame she enjoyed was earned by other people. She was invited and congratulated everywhere. Photo of Amelia Earhart did not leave the pages of newspapers. She even received a congratulatory card from the President of the United States. However, this made her more sad than happy.

After the divorce, George Putman invited Amelia to become his wife. She felt that there was a certain self-interest in this proposal on his part, but, surrounded by luxury and care, she accepted it.

In the end, in such unions, love is not the main thing. They both pursued their goals, and each could realize them at the expense of the other.

“This is not what I wanted”

Three years of secular life have passed. Constant advertising tours, shooting in magazines were not to the taste of Amelia Earhart. Yet she considered herself more of a pilot than a socialite, and in 1932 she insisted on crossing the Atlantic again. This time alone.

The flight took place. She took off from the island of Newfoundland and, after spending 37 hours in the air, landed in Ireland. And the banquets and presentations began again.

That year, the National Geographic Society recognized her accomplishments by awarding her a gold medal.

More and more, Amelia missed flying, but her husband's promotions left no room for them. Finally, she managed to turn the tide and began to fly more, setting new records. From that time on, her husband stopped interfering with her flights, seeing that they were of great benefit to his business. Moreover, he began to encourage her in every possible way.

The show starts

Seeing how his wife copes with the role of a pilot, Putman conceived a grand show, which, in his opinion, could greatly advance his publishing business - a round-the-world flight.

Having told about his plans to his wife, he unexpectedly stumbled upon her refusal. In the soul of the pilot there were many doubts about the successful outcome of such an enterprise. Knowing what physical and mental stress the pilot experiences even during short flights, she doubted that she would survive. In addition, the navigation instruments of that time did not provide information about the exact position of the aircraft. Therefore, the pilot had to deal with the calculation of the course, in addition to controlling the aircraft. Another reason was insufficient information about the meteorological conditions of the proposed route.

George, who sensed superprofits, no longer wanted to miss the booty. He began by persuading his wife, arguing that the equipment of the 30s was much more reliable than the one on which she learned to fly, that with fees you can buy a new aircraft for this enterprise.

Amelia, who felt the fatal outcome, was adamant.

Negotiation tactics have changed

For a while, Putman left his wife alone. She even relaxed and began to live her former life. But it was only a lull before the decisive battle. Realizing that the easy money associated with Amelia's fame would soon run out, George changed his tactics of persuasion to veiled blackmail.

Once he suggested that she, as an experienced pilot, draw up a route for a round-the-world flight, to which she replied that there was nothing to draw up, since she was not going to fly anywhere. However, Putman told her that it was not she who would fly, but another younger and more resilient pilot, whom he had recently met. From Amelia, you only need to make a route.

It was a subtle manipulation that Earhart didn't bother to check was true.

“I fly, but on my own terms”

After some time, George began to notice that his wife was looking at the atlas for a long time. As an experienced strategist, he understood that the fish had taken the bait. However, it was too early to cut. Therefore, he continued to say that he would not let his wife go anywhere, and the young pilot wanted to fly alone. Talk like this ignited ambition in Amelia Earhart's pilot, and she was already fully hooked.

Having told her husband that the issue of flying around the world had been resolved, she began to draw up a detailed route. For a woman, such an adventure was unfeasible. Therefore, she wanted to have a co-pilot - a man.

Route development

Before announcing the unprecedented event to the newspapers, it was necessary to work out the route in detail. In general, he did not present any difficulties. It was planned to take off in an easterly direction, then cross Africa with Asia. After that came the most difficult stage. The fact is that no one crossed the Pacific Ocean without refueling, and this could only be done in one place - on Howland Island. Having a small geographical size, it was difficult in terms of navigation. It is enough to make a mistake of half a degree, and the deviation will be several hundred kilometers. Without fuel, it will be impossible not only to continue the flight, but also to return back to the mainland.

The stakes were high. Life was at stake. Perhaps if the newspapers of the time had not expressed doubts, saying that Amelia Earhart's flight was impossible, the outcome would have been different.

Start of flight

Several times the start of the flight was postponed. Mainly according to technical reasons. A young pilot, Fred Noonan, was chosen as co-pilot.

The flight went smoothly. Making numerous landings in Puerto Rico, Calcutta, Bangkok, Amelia Earhart's plane gradually moved along the intended route.

The flight lasted a whole month with short stops for refueling and rest. Amelia was exhausted to the limit, and often noticed that her focus on navigation devices was weakening.

When they landed, the only thing she asked was to take her to the hotel, after which she immediately fell asleep. And on June 27 they reached the end point, which is somehow connected with the mainland. It was New Guinea.

The last letter, in which notes of inevitability and hopelessness slipped through, was sent from here. She wrote: "The whole world is left behind, except for this last frontier...".

The Last Frontier

According to the plan, the end of the flight was to take place on the Independence Day of the United States - July 4th. Therefore, it was necessary to head for Howland, the distance to which was 4730 km, 2 days before the holiday.

The size of the island is 800 meters wide and 2.5 km long. Even in perfect weather conditions, it is very difficult to get on it.

After 4 hours 45 minutes, a radiogram was transmitted from Amelia's plane that weather conditions were deteriorating. A squally wind began. The problem was that in such weather, the nose of the aircraft constantly deviated from the set course. Even a slight shift to the side threatened that the plane would pass away from the tiny island. Apparently, that's what happened. An hour later, fragmentary call signs were noticed on the radio: “I'm calling Itasca”. We do not see you, the fuel is at zero, we are blown to the side, we cannot determine the coordinates.

This was the last message received from the plane.

Rescue operation

The boat, which received radio messages, immediately went to the site of the alleged crash. The captain hoped that the positive buoyancy of the aircraft would allow him to hold out for several hours. A search hydroplane was sent from the shore. However, the rescue operation was not successful.

Despite this, American President Theodore Roosevelt sent several more ships and planes. The search for the missing continued for two weeks. They spent 4 million dollars. It was not until July 18 that the order to stop the rescue operation was received.

Tragedy that shook the Western world

The disappearance of Amelia Earhart was seen as a national tragedy. The pilot was too popular and loved by the people for her brave character. Many magazines and newspapers of that time followed the progress of the flight. And so, when there were 2 days left before the completion of the circumnavigation, the heroes went missing.

This story never came to an end. Years later, she was remembered again. In press different people various versions of the disappearance of Amelia Earhart began to be put forward.

For example, according to one assumption, the pilots were on a military mission for the US government and, having crashed, fell into the hands of the Japanese. In favor of this version, eyewitness accounts were cited, who found corpses in flight suits during the exhumation of the graves of prisoners of war.

Supporters of other theories said that Amelia and Fred escaped and now live under assumed names. And the rescue operation was conceived so that the US Navy could conduct reconnaissance of enemy territorial waters.

Be that as it may, riddles will always attract people. One thing is for sure: Amelia Mary Earhart has forever entered the history of aeronautics as the first female pilot to fly across the Atlantic.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Amelia Earhart: celebrities in life and a legend after the disappearance

The disappearance of Amelia Earhart and all sorts of theories around it have been haunting minds for more than a decade.

In 1937, this famous American pilot disappeared without a trace while trying to circle the globe.

Now another expedition is being organized to the uninhabited atoll in the Pacific Ocean Nikumaroro, where, perhaps, her remains and the wreckage of the aircraft will be found.

Another legend is leading this expedition: the man who found the wreckage of the Titanic is Robert Ballard.

Can he succeed where many have failed? And although Ballard is full of optimism, many historians doubt that he will be able to solve the mystery of Earhart's death.

Mystery covered by the ocean depths

Amelia Earhart was not just an aviation star, she was a celebrity. In 1932, she became the first woman to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic. Five years later, she embarked on what was to be her biggest achievement, a circumnavigation of the globe.

Her flight became a sensation. He was followed by the press in every country she flew over.

"During the 1930s, Earhart was the most popular woman in the world," says Dorothy Cochrane, Curator of Aeronautics at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in the United States.

"She was a record-breaking pilot, a woman who forged her own path in aviation - in an all-male world," explains Cochrane.

During her round-the-world flight, Earhart flew from the West Coast of the United States, waved through Brazil, crossed the Atlantic, flew over Africa, the Middle East, India, Indonesia, Australia, and finally papua new guinea th. From here she had only to cross the Pacific Ocean.

One more refueling - and now she is already in Hawaii, and from there it is not far and actually to the United States. However, having taken off from the city of Lae in Papua New Guinea, she never landed at her next stop - on the tiny island of Howland in the central Pacific Ocean.

What happened to her, for all these years, has not been established.

"Her disappearance without a trace is one of the biggest mysteries of our time," says the curator of the Smithsonian Museum.

The Man Who Found the Titanic

When it comes to oceanography, then 77-year-old Robert Ballard has few equals, and the discovery of the wreckage of the Titanic is not his only achievement. It was he who once found the legendary Nazi battleship Bismarck in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, as well as many other deep-sea wrecks in different parts of the world.

"I've always been interested in the story of Amelia Earhart, because she amazed the whole world by doing what many thought was impossible, almost like I'm trying to do, only as an explorer of the ocean depths," Ballard states on a website dedicated to his expedition ship Nautilus. .

The expedition, which started on August 7, is sponsored by the National Geographic TV channel, which is filming a documentary about this in the hope that the long-awaited find will still be made.

"I am a hunter - and you have to turn into the prey that you hunt. I put myself in the cockpit of the pilot and I began to turn into Amelia," Ballard described his approach in an interview with the TV channel.

quiet islands

So where to look for Earhart and her plane? The expedition is moving towards the small atoll of Nikumaroro, located in the very center of the Pacific Ocean.

When Earhart was due to land on Howland Island for refueling on July 2, 1937, an American border patrol ship was already waiting for her Lockheed Electra aircraft to appear on the horizon.

Earhart was accompanied by an experienced navigator, Fred Noonan, and they sent a message that they were close to the island, but they were running out of fuel. Their last radio message was that they were following the navigational coordinates of Howland Island. Silence followed.

However, on the same navigation line, a little to the southwest, lies the island of Nikumaroro, located 648 km from Howland. And it was this fact that gave reason to assume that the pilots could have missed Howland and landed at low tide on Nikumaroro Atoll.

If this is what happened, then it only extended their lives by a few days, since there are no fresh water supplies on the atoll.

Theories and speculation

Earhart's disappearance prompted a search operation involving the US Navy and Coast Guard. No traces were found and according to the official version - which was followed by most experts - Earhart's plane crashed into the ocean somewhere near Howland Island.

What if not?

There are many other theories about Earhart, some of them simply absurd, and all of them are invariably rejected by experts on the Earhart case.

One of these theories, for example, says that Earhart turned the plane north towards the Marshall Islands, where she was captured by the Japanese and forced to work for the benefit of anti-American propaganda during the Second World War.

In support of this theory, in 2017 a photograph appeared in the news that allegedly depicted Earhart and Noonan on a pier in the Marshall Islands, but the photo itself is so fuzzy that it cannot serve as any kind of evidence. In addition, there are no historical records in Japan that could confirm this version.

According to another version, Earhart returned to the United States, possibly after her imprisonment in Japan, and began to live a quiet life under a false name somewhere in New Jersey. Again, there is no clear evidence for this.

At the same time, the version with a landing on Nikumaroro has serious supporters.

Back in 1940, a British expedition had spruce bones, a woman's boot and a tool used by navigator Fred Noonan, as well as a bottle of Benedictine herbal liqueur - Earhart often took it with her on flights. There were also found traces of a fire.

As scientists initially determined, the bones found belonged to a man. The remains were then lost, and later forensic experts, based only on the remaining photos, considered that they could belong to a tall woman of European descent. Amelia Earhart fit that description.

The Nikumaroro landing theory is supported by Rick Gillespie, head of the International Missing Aircraft Retrieval Team (TIGHAR).

He himself has been to this atoll more than once and in an interview with the BBC said that his expedition found artifacts that indicate the presence of an American woman of the 1930s era.

He also points to the fact that several distress signals were received from this very place after the disappearance of the pilot, and they were sent six evenings in a row, which suggests that the plane landed on dry land, and not on water. Otherwise, a radio submerged in water would not be able to work.

“After six in the evening, the radio signals stopped,” Gillespie said in one of his previous interviews with the BBC. “As we now think, due to the fact that the plane landed on the coral reef that surrounds the island; it is flat, smooth and exposed in low tide... However, the tide comes and goes, and... by the evening of the sixth day, the plane was washed into the ocean. So when [search] planes from the battleship flew over the atoll a week later, they did not see any airplane. "

Gillespie also believes that each new attempt to solve the disappearance of Amelia Earhart attracts media attention, and each time it ends in nothing, this only spurs new interest in this case.

"It's an interesting self-renewing phenomenon," says Gillespie.

On a large scale, but small chances?

Robert Ballard's current expedition is a large-scale undertaking.

One group will comb the island looking for any signs, such as a place to sleep, bones, or other items.

Another team, led by the famed oceanographer himself, will search the water for the wreckage of the Earhart plane, using the latest equipment capable of mapping the ocean floor and an unmanned deep-sea station that can descend to a depth of 3,962 meters.

However, many well-known researchers of the fate of the American pilot believe that Ballard's mission is doomed.

"I don't think her plane is anywhere near Nikumaroro," says Susan Butler, author of the biography of Amelia Earhart. I didn't see any life there.

She also dismisses Gillespie's theory outright: "He's an expert when it comes to hype, and National Geographic picks it up every time. So do the newspapers."

Other experts also express strong doubts that Earhart could have landed on this tiny atoll.

"As Earhart got closer to Howland Island, her radio signal became stronger. She was most likely 50 miles away. She and Noonan thought they had almost reached the US Coast Guard ship. They just ran out of fuel near Howland Island," he said. Curator of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Dorothy Cochrane.

She explains the findings made earlier by Gillespie by the fact that people still ended up on Nikumaroro at different times, since the ships crashed nearby more than once.

"They did not find any clear evidence that it was Earhart, Noonan, or their plane. I see no reason why their "finds" or photographs should level the official version," says the curator.