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INCOMPLETE
Amelia Earhart, Date & Location Unknown
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For a pilot who was reputed to have marginal piloting skills, Amelia Earhart enjoys to this day legendary, near mythical status in the pantheon of early aviators. Date and location of the image at left are unknown, but it probably dates from the late 1930s during her planning for her disastrous around-the-world flight.
She is one of forty-two female Davis-Monthan Register pilots. She, along with fifteen of her sister signers, were charter members of The Ninety-Nines. She served as the first president of the organization from 1931-1933. Her birthplace at Atchison, KS is a museum. A timeline of her aviation accomplishments is here.
Most people who have been alive and warm in the 20th century know a lot about Amelia Earhart. It is difficult to find items that have not already been seen or told about Earhart's personal and flying exploits. I leave it to site visitors to explore the Web (left sidebar) for background information about her. This page is devoted more or less to Tucson specifics.
Earhart landed at Tucson and signed the Register three times flying aircraft made famous by her. Her first two landings were with Lockheed Vega NC7952. She set two records with this airplane.
On May 21, 1932 she became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean using NC7952. A few months later, on August 25, 1932 she flew from Los Angeles, CA to Newark, NJ in 19 hours and 5 minutes.
Her visits to Tucson in NC7952 occurred a couple of years earlier. The first was on Saturday, November 30, 1929 at 1:30 PM, shortly before she purchased the aircraft. She was solo eastbound from Los Angeles, CA to Omaha, NB.
Her second landing was shortly after she bought the airplane, on Friday, July 25, 1930 at 6:20 PM (please direct your browser to the link for the airplane to learn about these details). She carried a single passenger identified as Lt. Harper. They were eastbound from San Diego, CA to El Paso, TX. No purpose was given in the Register for these flights, and I have no information regarding passenger Harper.
Her third landing was in the Pitcairn PCA-2 autogiro NC10780. She landed with one unidentified passenger on Wednesday, June 10, 1931 at 10:00 AM. They were eastbound from Phoenix, AZ to "Points east...." Follow the link to the autogiro for more information on this interesting aircraft, and to discover the reason for her flights with it that brought her to Tucson. Follow the links on that page to discover the competition that developed between her and fellow Register autogiro pilot John Miller.
Below, an image of Earhart in NC10780, the Beech-Nut autogiro, taken June 3, 1931. Credit for this image is here.
Amelia Earhart in the Beech-Nut Autogiro, NC10780, Denver, CO, June 3, 1931
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Given the proximity of this date to her landing in Tucson, she was probably westbound in this photo, making it to the west coast only to discover that her transcontinental record attempt had been eclipsed on May 28th by John Miller. Note the front cockpit covered over. Can anyone RECOGNIZE what looks to be an airport tower structure behind her?
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Site visitor Alan Thomas (see the MOTION PICTURES tab for other contributions by Lt. Col. Thomas) contributes the following anecdote about Earhart's visit to Tucson:
"You have noted that Amelia Earhart landed here on June 10, 1931 via the Beechnut Autogiro. I saw that aircraft on the ground at the old municipal airfield that later became the current rodeo grounds. I know it was a refueling stop and that she stayed here long enough to give an hour or so lecture one evening in the auditorium of the Tucson Senior High School ( the only high school that time). I was a nine year old kid already fascinated with anything that flew, so I managed to get a ticket to the lecture. The place was packed (500 or so) and I got a middle seat about six rows from the front. She talked about her vision of the future of air travel and how Tucson should be ready for it. At the end, she asked for questions from the audience. The only question I remember being asked was a woman asking if Amelia had done 'any looping and was it very dangerous?' The answer was that she had only done 'some acrobatics', and there was really 'very little danger if done correctly.' This nine year old kid then asked her how I should plan for a career in aviation. I was told to get into building model airplanes and to read everything I could about aviation. So that is what I did -- and you know the rest of the story! [Lt. Col. Thomas joined the Air Corps during WWII and flew the B-25 and B-24. After the war he flew the B-29, B-50 and B-47. His pilot license number is 64906]
" I should also add that after the lecture I got up on the stage to ask for her autograph. She very obligingly did so in my little address book. Over my school years I had later collected all my friends addresses in the book (mostly girls of course!). Then when I came home from WWII and collected all my things to take to my own new home, I found that my dear Mother had cleaned out much of my stuff, including my address book with that autograph. Well I had a new bride then, so she thought I would no longer need it! What would that autograph be worth now? "
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Earhart held pilot certificate number 5716.
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UPLOADED: 07/31/08 REVISED:
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