FLIGHT BY MRS. PUTNAM

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 24 May 1932, Page 5

FLIGHT BY MRS. PUTNAM

ANOTHER RECORD CREDITED. WOMEN’S STRAIGHT-LINE TRIP. i'n» *d Press Association —By Electric Telegraph CopyrigHt.*) PARIS, May 23. The International Aeronautical Federation announces that Mrs Putnam s 2206 miles trans-Atlantic flight breaks the women’s record for a straight line flight. PREVIOUS FEATS RECALLED. Mrs Putnam (wife of the president of the Knickerbocker Press, a publisher and author), formerly was Miss Amelia Earhart. She was bom at Boston m 1899. As an occupation she took up social work, and was eventually appointed head of Denison House, a Boston social settlement. As a recreation she adopted aviation, qualifying as a pilot. In 1920 she established an altitude record for women by attaining a height of 14,000 feet. In June, 1928, there wore two women on the Atlantic coast of the American continent who were ambitious to be the first to fly across the ocean, and each had an aeroplane ready for the attempt. One was Miss Mabel 8011, the "Queen of Diamonds,” and the other Miss Earhart. On June 16 Miss Earhart started from Trepassey, Newfoundland, and gained the honour. Her aeroplane, the Friendship, was a Fokkcr tri-motored seaplane. The pilot was .Mr Wilmer .Stultz, an airman of much experience, and he had Mr Lou j Gordon as mechanic.

The Friendship was the first seaplane to accomplish the Atlantic flight, and it was fortunate that it was of that type. By the time the machine was close to the British coast the petrol supply was nearly exhausted, and in spite of the throwing overboard of much of the equipment, the aviators found it necessary to descend in an estuary of the Welsh coast instead of at -Southampton. The flight was accomplished in a few minutes less than 22 hours. When in London Miss Earhart received many offers of cinema and stage engagements,' but she refused them all, preferring to return to her social work in America. She married Mr Putnam on February 7, 1931.