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The
Last 90 Days
Amelia Earhart's World Flight
Seventy-one years ago, Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred
Noonan, departed from Oakland California on her second attempt at a
round-the-world flight. The previous day, Earhart's rebuilt Lockheed
Electra was released from the factory in Burbank after repairs.
Start, Oakland 20-May 1937 The next day, May 20, 1937, Earhart flew from Burbank to Oakland to officially begin her flight.
At that airport today is the Oakland Aviation Museum, a repository for many artifacts and aircraft -- one of which is a Lockheed 10 Electra -- very similar to Earhart's airplane.
This day, May 20th, Amelia leaves Oakland in secret to test-run the Electra on the way to Miami.
1st stop, Burbank 20-May Her first stop is back in Burbank California, from where she left this morning. Amelia lands there at 6:00 pm in the evening and goes home.
Today, there is a bronze statue of Amelia at the corner of Magnolia Boulevard and Tujunga Avenue, not far from her home.
She and George Putnam live on Valley Spring Lane in Toluca Lake, a borough of Los Angeles, just up the road from the home of Bob Hope. They will depart from Burbank tomorrow to continue the world flight.
2nd stop, Tucson 21-May On May 21st, Amelia Earhart takes off from Burbank at 2:25pm with navigator Fred Noonan. Her husband George Putnam, and mechanic Bo McKneely, ride along with them as far as Miami.
Originally, the flight was to be from Burbank to El Paso, but the late departure made her change to Tucson for the next stop. They arrived before 6:00pm that evening.
Today, the Pima Air & Space
Museum in Tucson has a Lockheed 10 Electra -- one of five in museum
displays within the US, and the second now along the route of her
world flight.
After landing Earhart restarts the engines to move the plane and the left engine backfires, catching on fire -- Amelia pulls the engine fire extinguisher and it immediately goes out. There was little damage to the Wasp radial engine.
3rd stop, New Orleans 22-May The morning of May 21st offered a sandstorm over El Paso, so Earhart flew all the way to New Orleans. Arriving after 4:00pm, the four all stay in the hotel at the Shushan Airport.
The airport was opened in
1934 on a man-made peninsula in Lake Pontchartrain. The opening
ceremonies hosted the Pan-American Air Races -- banning women from
participating.
Amelia sends a telegram to Fred Noonan's new wife Bee at the Hollywood Hotel, saying he is drinking his milk.
4th stop, Miami 23-May Earhart briefly landed at the Eastern Air Lines 36th Street Airport – which was closed with no one in the control tower. She taxied up, then took off and six minutes later to land at Miami municipal airport.
This photo taken upon her
arrival in Miami, shows the direction finding loop installed
and the short factory version of the fixed antenna in place.
The 36th Street Airport is now Miami International Airport. In Florida, another Lockheed 10 Electra is in a museum -- but not in Miami. That museum is in Pensacola, yet that makes three Electras along Earhart's world flight route.
Both Eastern Air Lines and Pan American Airways headquartered at Miami International Airport until their respective bankruptcies too place. Bo McKneely stayed with the Electra in a hangar, while Earhart, Noonan, and Putnam went a hotel.
This portion of the story is detailed in: Amelia Earhart's Radio
That's All Until Tomorrow on: The Last 60 Days
For other books on Amelia Earhart
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