WOMAN FLIES THE ATLANTIC

Evening Star, Issue 19942, 11 August 1928, Page 14

WOMAN FLIES THE ATLANTIC

AMELIA EARHART'S FEAT A STRIKING CAREER - Succeeding where three other women in the past year have paid for failure with their lives, Miss Amelia Earhart, American social service worker and amateur flyer, takes her place in 'the history of aviation as the first woman to fly the Atlantic. With Wilmer Stultz as pilot, and Louis Gordon as mechanic, Miss Earhart took off from Trepassey Bay, Newfoundland, on June 17, in the three-motored Fokker monoplane Friendship, and landed at Burry Port, Wales, next day, having covered the distance of more than 2,000 miles in a little less than twenty-two hours. In addition to the dramatic interest that attaches to the achievement and personality of the first of her sex to cross the ocean in an airplane, the flight of the seaplane Friendship was notable because it was the first time that a 'plane equipped with pontoons had made the attempt from the American side. It also emphasised the greater safety of the tri-motored 'plane for long-distance flights where an emergency landing is not feasible. As Miss Earnart herself states in the New York ‘Times,’ “the flight of the Friendship is intended to point the road toward the seaplane instead _of the land 'plane as a means of flying across oceans, and multiple-engined 'planes instead of single-engined.” She also predicts that, if her flight helps to quicken the interest of women in flying, “ it will help forward the time when flying will be more comforti.n/.nrce —'>nieTi will fleninnd ’planes not only comfortable, but luxurious, and when women demand them men probably will buildHliem.” Although Miss Enrlmrf had intended to pilot the Friendship part of the time herself, she did not do so, because, as she explains, almost the entire journey was made under conditions of fog. clouds, and rain that made it “ necessary for a pilot to be at the controls who could fly by the instruments alone, which 1 could not.” Rut so little did these conditions of poor visibility trouble Wilmer Stultz that ,he struck Britain not more than a mile off his estimated course. The interest of the welcoming crowds in Burry Port, in Southampton, and in London focused chiefly on Miss Earhart, and her two fellow-flyers seemed quite content to remain in the background. Commenting on this fact, Miss Earhart says in a despatch to the New York * Times ’: “ It really makes me a little resentful that the mere fact that I am a woman apparently overshadows the tremendous feat of flying Bill Stultz has accomplished.” Mr Stultz, however, is quoted in a despatch to the New York ‘ World ’ as saying; “You expect men to stand these things, but Miss Earhart has good the test as well as any of us. She was wonderful. She was on the alert the whole time. I don’t think she missed a single incident on the whole journey. She was all eyes and ears, oven when we wore flying in a blanket of fog, a very nerve-wracking, eerie experience. “ She did not show the slightest concern. Her faith in the machine and in ourselves was marvellous, and when at last we sighted the Welsh coast, and we knew wo were safe, she was just as happy and as joyous as a child.” “ I always felt sure that the Friendship could do it, and I was right,” said Miss Earhart, and she added; “ The conditions were not very favourable, but I can honestly say I never felt the slightest anxiety.” A VARIED CAREER. Aviatrix, settlement worker, business woman, poet, student of literature, and possessed of enough wealth to make her independent of outside offers—such is one picture drawn of Miss Earhart by her friends and relatives. ’ ; 1

The other side, her femininity, her charming perfect poise, her naturally wavy hair, quiet eyes, and her sense of humour, presents, _it is said, a no less delightful personality. Her whole life story is one ■of absorbing interest. Born in Atchison, Kansas, she was roared in California, Her early schooling was in Los Angeles, Then she attended the Ogontz School at Philadelphia, returning to the University of Southern California for sociological study, completing this course later at Harvard and at Columbia, She was one of the earliest women flyers. p\ining her training in Los Angeles and San Diego. It was there in 1918 she made her first solo flight after but ten hours of instruction and won her pilot’s license in an old Kinner ’plane with a three-cylinder motor. Within two years she had attained such proficiency that she held the altitude record for women flyers with a mark of 14,000 ft. Another year and we find her the first woman to receive a Federation _ Aeronatique International pilot’s license from the National Aeronautic Association—this after a series of test flights at Loa Angeles on December 15, 1921, the seventeenth international license ever issued.

Two years ago she wont to Boston, Miss Marion Perkins, director of Denison House, tells the story in the ‘Survey Graphic,’ New York:—-

“ A tail, slender, boyish-looking woman walked into my office in the early fall of 1926. She wanted a job, and a part-time one would do, for she was giving courses in English under the university extension. Most of her classes were in factories in Lynn and other industrial towns near Boston. She had had no real experience in social work, but she wanted to try it, and before I knew it I had engaged her for half-time work at Denison House. She had poise and charm. I liked her quiet sense of humour, the frank, direct look in her gray eyes. “It was some time before any of us at Denison House knew that Amelia had flown. After driving with her in the Yellow Peril, her own Kissel roadster, I knew that she was an expert driver, handling her car with ease, with an artist's touch. She has always seemed to be an unusual mixture of the artist and the practical person. “Her first year at Denison House she had general direction of the evening school for foreign-born men and women. She did little teaching herself, but did follow-up work in the homes, so necessary to the success of such an undertaking. i “ Last fall she came to Denison House as a resident and as a full-time *Staff worker. She is secretary of the staffs of the Board of Directors and of the House Committee. She had an unusual flair in a meeting for the gist of the thought, and expresses herself in writing with accuracy and originality. “The day she told me of her transatlantic flight, and swore me to secrecy, she said: ‘ And I’ll be back for summer school. I have weighed the values, and I want to stay in social work.’ Her simplicity, her honesty, her complete lack of any quality that makes for sensationalism—that is Amelia Earhart.” AMERICA AT ITS BEST.

Miss Earhart is a director and stockholder of the Denison Airport at Quincey, Massachusetts, an instructor, pilot, and mechanic of the Denison Airport Corporation, and vice-president of the Boston chapter of the National Aeronautic Association. In the Baltimore ‘Sun’ we read;---"Sho seems to represent American women at their host—quiet, capable, intense in purpose, versatile, and self-reliant. She is womanly, she is intelligent. More, her motive was a broader and less selfish ono than those of her best-known competitors. And her determination in the face of early failures to take-off also made her ultimate achievement more welcome. As when she started, America wishes her well, feeling as-

sured those wishes are entrusted to one who is above betraying them.” The value of pontoons < was demonstrated twice in the flight of the Friendship. On the first leg of the voyage fog barred the way off Halifax. The ’plane was brought easily and safely to the water.; where-a land’plane would have been forced to retrace its path or to risk a crash upon an unsuitable emergency, field. Again, at the conclusion of the voyage, with fuel almost exhausted, the Friendship was brought down in Burry Port e'stuary. Had it been a land ’plane the fuel might have been entirely exhausted before a suitable ’ landing field could be found. Commander Byrd stated that the flight of the Friendship constituted further proof of the suitability of multimotoredj radio-equipped ’planes for ocean flying. There have been four ocean flights in multimotored ’planes, lie pointed out, every one of which got across. Only 7 per cent, of the singlemotored ’planes got across.