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29 - Daughter of the Sky- The Story of Amelia Earhart by Paul L. Briand, Jr. · Daughter of the Sky- The Story of Amelia Earhart

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Speaker 1: Section twenty nine of Daughter of the Sky, The Story
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Speaker 1: of Amelia Earhart by Paulbrion Junior. The Sleeprivox recording is
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Speaker 1: in the public domain. Part three, the Last Flight one
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Speaker 1: crack up in Hawaii. Ironically, Amelia Earhart's flight around the
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Speaker 1: world was her last long flight. I have a feeling,
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Speaker 1: she had said to Carl Allen of the New York
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Speaker 1: Herald Tribune, that there is just one more good flight
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Speaker 1: left in my system, and I hope this is it. Anyway,
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Speaker 1: when I have finished this job, I mean to give
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Speaker 1: up major long distance flights. Her plan was to girdle
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Speaker 1: the Earth at the equator on an east to west flight.
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Speaker 1: The time of departure was set for March nineteen thirty seven.
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Speaker 1: For Amelia, the flight was the greatest challenge of her life.
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Speaker 1: No one had done what she planned to do. There
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Speaker 1: had been other flights around the world, but none had
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Speaker 1: been attempted at the equator. Wiley Post, a e good friend,
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Speaker 1: had flown around the world twice in his vega the
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Speaker 1: Winnie May, once in nineteen thirty one with Harold Gaddy,
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Speaker 1: then again by himself in nineteen thirty three. In nineteen
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Speaker 1: thirty five, Wiley Posts tried again, this time with Will
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Speaker 1: Rogers as his passenger. The plane, a half breed of
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Speaker 1: Lockheed Orion and Sirius, with floats attached, was dangerously nose heavy.
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Speaker 1: You'll be in trouble, the engineers told him at Lockheed,
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Speaker 1: where they refuse to put on the floats if there's
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Speaker 1: just a slight power loss on takeoff. Post was stubborn
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Speaker 1: and insistent. He found another company to attach the pontoons
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Speaker 1: at Point Barrow, Alaska, in August. The engines stuttered on
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Speaker 1: take off, the plane nosed in and crashed, and two
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Speaker 1: of the most famous men of their time were killed.
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Speaker 1: Wiley Post's flights had been made well north of the Equator,
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Speaker 1: at a distance only two thirds the length of the Equator.
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Speaker 1: There had also been some remarkable distance flights by others.
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Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty three, the Lindberghs made a twenty nine
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Speaker 1: thousand mile air route survey of Europe, Africa, and South America.
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Speaker 1: Laura Ingalls in nineteen thirty four had flown solo from
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Speaker 1: New York to South America and return a distance of
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Speaker 1: sixteen thousand, eight hundred ninety seven miles. Also in nineteen
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Speaker 1: thirty four, the Pacific was flown in a first east
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Speaker 1: west flight from Australia to California by Sir Charles Kingford
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Speaker 1: Smith and Captain P. G. Taylor. By girdling the globe,
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Speaker 1: Amelia could achieve not only the record for distance, but
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Speaker 1: also fly around the world. She would like to do
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Speaker 1: it alone. It would be fun to be the first
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Speaker 1: to fly the equator. Ae made her plans the most
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Speaker 1: elaborate and time consuming of her career. The details that
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Speaker 1: had to be worked out, she found, were formidable, but
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Speaker 1: she began simply, almost casually, to map out the twenty
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Speaker 1: seven thousand miles of the flight. One day, early in
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Speaker 1: the winter of nineteen thirty six, she walked across the
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Speaker 1: living room in her home at Rye. She picked up
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Speaker 1: the globe from the long table behind the sofa. She
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Speaker 1: turned the globe to the Pacific, placed her thumb on Oakland,
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Speaker 1: and spanned her hand to Honolulu. Then from Honolulu, her strong,
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Speaker 1: slender fingers reached easily to two little islands just above
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Speaker 1: the equator. In another stretch of the hand, she reached
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Speaker 1: New Guinea. Seven thousand miles across the Pacific Ocean were
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Speaker 1: easy to cross by a span of the hand, but
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Speaker 1: those two little islands, Howland and Baker, were mere specks
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Speaker 1: on the globe. She looked closely at Howland and wondered
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Speaker 1: if she could find it flying alone after nearly two
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Speaker 1: thousand miles out from Hawaii. She swept her hand quickly
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Speaker 1: over her hair and grinned. This was the most exact
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Speaker 1: kind of flying. She would need the best of now
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Speaker 1: navigation equipment. She would need a navigator to make it.
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Speaker 1: When GP came home, she told him of her need
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Speaker 1: for a navigator, not for the whole flight, but just
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Speaker 1: for the long over water legs across the Pacific. George
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Speaker 1: picked up the phone. He always knew whom to call.
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Speaker 1: GP first telephoned Bradford Washburn, a young Harvard professor who
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Speaker 1: had done some distinguished ground navigation and exploration. Washburn agreed
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Speaker 1: to come to New York for an interview. AE was
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Speaker 1: sprawled on the living room floor with her maps when
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Speaker 1: the young professor came into the house. She liked his cut.
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Speaker 1: He was slim, wiry, handsome. She liked the set of
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Speaker 1: his jaw and the look of his clear eyes. She
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Speaker 1: got up from the floor, smiled, and reached out her
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Speaker 1: hand in welcome pilot and prospective navigator sat on the
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Speaker 1: floor and discussed the problems involved. Amelia traced the itinerary
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Speaker 1: she had marked on the map, mentioning as she he
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Speaker 1: moved her finger the distances between points. Bradford Washburn examined
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Speaker 1: the first two proposed legs of the flight. He was
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Speaker 1: familiar with the Electra and felt it could easily make
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Speaker 1: the distance from California to Hawaii. The long stretch over
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Speaker 1: the vast Pacific to the tiny dot that was Howland Island,
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Speaker 1: that was an immediate difficulty to overcome. How far did
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Speaker 1: you say it was to Howland, he asked, roughly about
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Speaker 1: two thousand miles. Amelia said, your fifty watt radio isn't
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Speaker 1: strong enough for that kind of flying. On such a
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Speaker 1: long leg as that one, you'll be out of range
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Speaker 1: of any ground stations. Washburn looked intently at Amelia. If
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Speaker 1: you're off just one degree on your heading, you'll miss
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Speaker 1: that little island completely. Amelia had no intention of being
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Speaker 1: one degree off course. The best navigator available could hit
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Speaker 1: the island right on the nose. What kind of radio
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Speaker 1: signals will there be at Howland to home in on?
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Speaker 1: The professor pursued the point. None Amelia answered for Bradford Washburn,
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Speaker 1: the interview was over. The project was out of the question.
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Speaker 1: He did not want to look for a needle in
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Speaker 1: a haystack, especially if the haystack were the Pacific Ocean,
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Speaker 1: and certainly not without a strong magnet to find the needle.
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Speaker 1: Bradford Washburn was convinced that Amelia had rather not have
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Speaker 1: a navigator, that she had decided on one only as
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Speaker 1: an irritable necessity. Her self confidence, her belief in her
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Speaker 1: own flying abilities was for him towering and magnificent to behold.
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Speaker 1: But he wanted no part of it. One must take chances.
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Speaker 1: Ae had often said before, and she repeated the same
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Speaker 1: words in the hope of hitting Howland Island. That she
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Speaker 1: was devil may care was perhaps attributable to what seemed
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Speaker 1: to have been premonitions, foreshadowings, which she blatantly ignored. A. E.
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Speaker 1: And G. P. Had spent an afternoon examining gyroscopes at
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Speaker 1: the Sperry Plant in Brooklyn. On the way home, Amelia
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Speaker 1: had stopped the car at a red light on Flatbush
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Speaker 1: Avenue in the blue dusk of that winter's day. She
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Speaker 1: noticed off to the side an old man step off
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Speaker 1: the curb and start to shuffle across the street. It's
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Speaker 1: hard to get old, the old man muttered as he crossed,
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Speaker 1: so hard Amelia heard every word. The light changed. Amelia
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Speaker 1: slammed the clutch to the floor and shifted the car
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Speaker 1: into gear. Her lips were closed tight, her eyes intent
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Speaker 1: on the moving traffic. At the next corner, she turned
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Speaker 1: into a side street, drove herround the block, and swung
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Speaker 1: back up the street to where the old man had
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Speaker 1: stepped off the curb. She looked up and down the
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Speaker 1: opposite sidewalk. The old man had disappeared in the crowd.
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Speaker 1: That night, before going to bed, Amelia turned to George.
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Speaker 1: Her eyes were level and serious. It is hard to
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Speaker 1: be old, she said, so hard. She walked to the
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Speaker 1: mirror and sat at her dressing table. She looked hard
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Speaker 1: at her own reflection. I'm afraid I'll hate it, hate
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Speaker 1: to grow old. GP said nothing. He waited for his
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Speaker 1: wife to finish. Amelia turned and faced her husband again.
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Speaker 1: I think probably, GP, She spoke, slowly and deliberately, that
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Speaker 1: I'll not live to be old. On the twenty second
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Speaker 1: of July nineteen thirty six, Amelia went out to Burbank
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Speaker 1: California to inspect the new Lockheed for the first time.
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Speaker 1: The all metal plane glistened as it was rolled out
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Speaker 1: of the hangar into the sun. Ae examined the plane closely.
8:51
Speaker 1: She walked the fifty five foot span of the wings,
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Speaker 1: climbed into the cockpit, worked the controls, and started the engines. Keyed,
9:00
Speaker 1: in keeping with its previous Stellar designations for its aircraft,
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Speaker 1: had christened the low winged, twin engined monoplane the Electra,
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Speaker 1: after the lost Star of the Pleiades. Amelia, dressed in
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Speaker 1: a mechanic's white coveralls and inspecting her new plane, paid
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Speaker 1: no attention to any designations stellar, mythological or psychological. She
9:23
Speaker 1: promptly dubbed the plane the flying laboratory. That was practical
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Speaker 1: and to the point, for that was what the plane
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Speaker 1: in fact was. She loved the navigation equipment which had
9:35
Speaker 1: been installed in the passenger compartment. She climbed in to
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Speaker 1: look it over. The fuselage had been cleared of passenger seats.
9:43
Speaker 1: Directly behind the cockpit, two large tanks had been bolted
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Speaker 1: in place. They could hold one thousand gallons of fuel
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Speaker 1: that would give the plane an added range up to
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Speaker 1: four thousand miles Behind the tanks was a complete navigation room.
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Speaker 1: Walked to the wide chart table set up against the
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Speaker 1: bulkhead and under the far window. Through the round glass
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Speaker 1: in the table, she read the master a periodic compass
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Speaker 1: placed directly below. Mounted in each window was a pelorus
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Speaker 1: for taking bearings from any land mass. She set her
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Speaker 1: eye to the tube of the one at the window
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Speaker 1: over the table. The special flat plane of the window
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Speaker 1: allowed for notice doortions, especially for the readings from the
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Speaker 1: bubble sextant. She noted next to the table a temperature gage,
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Speaker 1: an air speed indicator, and three chronometers, and above the
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Speaker 1: table and to the left side of the window an altimeter.
10:40
Speaker 1: The arrangement for the use of the drift indicator was
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Speaker 1: brilliantly simple. On the cabin door, a special latch had
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Speaker 1: been installed to keep the door open about four inches down.
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Speaker 1: Through the opening in the door, she swung the drift indicator.
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Speaker 1: By looking through the instrument at smoke bombs during the
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Speaker 1: day or flares at night, a navigator could determine the
11:02
Speaker 1: direction and velocity of the wind. Amelia was satisfied her
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Speaker 1: laboratory was adequate to the task from the navigation point
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Speaker 1: of view. The communications equipment, however, was at once delightfully
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Speaker 1: modern and frustratingly primitive. Pilot and navigator had voice radio,
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Speaker 1: but only the navigator had telegraphic key. Both could transmit
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Speaker 1: and receive with ground stations, but not with each other.
11:31
Speaker 1: For intercommunications, the navigator would have to use a cut
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Speaker 1: down bamboo fishing pole with an office clip nailed to
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Speaker 1: the end of it to send messages written on cards
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Speaker 1: up to the pilot. If he wanted to talk to
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Speaker 1: the pilot, or if he wanted to dial the radio
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Speaker 1: behind the pilot to a new frequency, he would have
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Speaker 1: to crawl along the catwalk over the two big tanks
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Speaker 1: between the cockpit and the passenger compartment. The radio had
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Speaker 1: a power of only fifty watts. Amelia was not satisfied,
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Speaker 1: and she tried to borrow a better, more powerful system.
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Speaker 1: The radio was the weakest link in the laboratory chain.
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Speaker 1: For weeks, she flew the Electra up and down the
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Speaker 1: California coast, working out the bugs. In August, she went
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Speaker 1: to New York to enter the Bendick's Trophy Race, the
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Speaker 1: coast to coast speed flight she felt would be an
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Speaker 1: excellent shakedown for the plane. Other women joined in for
12:28
Speaker 1: the race and gathered at Floyd Bennett Field, Louise Thadden,
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Speaker 1: Blanche Noise, Jacqueline Cochrane, Laura Ingalls, Marty Bowman, Missus Benny Howard.
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Speaker 1: All were stiff competitors. Helen Rickey had agreed to be
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Speaker 1: a e's co pilot. During the race, trouble developed in
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Speaker 1: the elector's fuel lines and Amelia had to drop out,
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Speaker 1: much against her will, but two women did win the race,
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Speaker 1: Louise Thatden with Blanche Noise as her co pilot. Preparations
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Speaker 1: moved along for the world flight. Clarence S. Williams of
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Speaker 1: Los Angeles was engaged to get ready maps and charts.
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Speaker 1: He laid out compass courses, the distances between points, the
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Speaker 1: exact times at which to change headings. He prepared sectional
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Speaker 1: after sectional for the many legs of the flight. His
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Speaker 1: work was invaluable. Paul Mance was technical adviser, as he
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Speaker 1: had been for the Hawaii California flight. He supervised the
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Speaker 1: mechanical readiness of the plane and took it up on
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Speaker 1: many test flights. G P managed the far flung problems
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Speaker 1: and they were many of stopping places and alternates for
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Speaker 1: the caching of fuel, oil, spare parts. Red tape of
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Speaker 1: international length had to be cut and unsnarled. Innumerable credentials
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Speaker 1: were needed, permissions to land from foreign governments, passports, visas,
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Speaker 1: certificates of health and character, negative police records, medical papers.
14:03
Speaker 1: George made all the official advance arrangements. Before he was finished,
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Speaker 1: he had spotted fuel and oil at thirty different locations
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Speaker 1: along the route and had collected several thick folders of
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Speaker 1: papers for his wife. Amelia made more and more notes
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Speaker 1: on her charts as new information poured in. Airports, alternates,
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Speaker 1: emergency landing fields, winds, aloft weather, terrain, altitudes. Each had
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Speaker 1: to be entered at the proper place. She took the
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Speaker 1: maps and carefully marked the stop off points, then drew
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Speaker 1: lines to a double row for entering the exact amount
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Speaker 1: of gas and oil that would be available along the way.
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Speaker 1: In preparing for previous flights, she had revealed her plans
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Speaker 1: only to closest friends, but this time Amelia did not
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Speaker 1: shroud her activities in secrecy. The press received broad clues
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Speaker 1: and then were blamed half jokingly as the cause of
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Speaker 1: it all. Late in nineteen thirty six, a e said
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Speaker 1: to reporters in Los Angeles. I'm nearly sold on the
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Speaker 1: idea of flying around the world, because I'd like to
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Speaker 1: do it, but I'm a busy person this year. I
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Speaker 1: have a lot of other things to do. Next year, well,
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Speaker 1: one never knows. On February eleventh, nineteen thirty seven, Amelia
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Speaker 1: had flown to New York from California. Newsmen had surrounded
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Speaker 1: her at the Hotel Berkley. They wanted a confirmation or
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Speaker 1: denial of all the rumors they had heard about her
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Speaker 1: plans for a world flight with a E was the
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Speaker 1: man who had agreed to be her navigator. He was
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Speaker 1: Captain Harry Manning, her old friend from the Friendship Days
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Speaker 1: on whose ship, the President Roosevelt. She had returned home.
15:48
Speaker 1: Amelia smoothed at the hips the dark blue wool dress
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Speaker 1: she had changed into. The press rarely saw her in
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Speaker 1: feminine clothes. Well, she said, I am going to try
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Speaker 1: to fly around the globe. She toyed, with the bright
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Speaker 1: scarf about her neck. The flight will be as near
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Speaker 1: to the equator as I can make it east to west,
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Speaker 1: about twenty seven thousand miles. The press moved in. Reporters
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Speaker 1: fired questions at her, Photographers shot pictures at close range
16:19
Speaker 1: newsreel men turned on their bright lights and rolled their cameras.
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Speaker 1: Somewhat flustered by the sudden excitement she had caused, Amelia laughed.
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Speaker 1: You know, she said to them, I feel you men
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Speaker 1: have pushed me into this. You are the ones who
16:33
Speaker 1: have kept saying that I was going to fly around
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Speaker 1: the world until finally you've compelled me to think seriously
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Speaker 1: about doing it. Carl alland her friend from the New
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Speaker 1: York Herald Tribune would have none of it. Oh, come now,
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Speaker 1: he protested, nobody has pushed you into it. You know
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Speaker 1: you've been wanting to do it all the time. Captain Manning,
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Speaker 1: stolid and silent beside a e, smiled uneasily. Amelia quickly
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Speaker 1: relinquished her ground. Yes, I suppose you're right. I guess
17:05
Speaker 1: I didn't get away with that, did I. What are
17:08
Speaker 1: you going for, one reporter abruptly asked. Amelia thought for
17:12
Speaker 1: a moment the question was one she had heard many
17:15
Speaker 1: times before. Well, she answered, I've seen the North Atlantic
17:20
Speaker 1: and I've seen the Pacific too, of course, at least
17:23
Speaker 1: a part of it. But she hesitated, Well, just say
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Speaker 1: I want to fly around the globe, and I think
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Speaker 1: around the world flight just now should be at the equator.
17:35
Speaker 1: She turned to the quiet man beside her. She looked
17:38
Speaker 1: at his thick, curly black locks. Captain Manning is going
17:42
Speaker 1: with me part way, she explained, because I don't believe
17:46
Speaker 1: the pilot on such a flight can navigate too. Interview
17:50
Speaker 1: over reporters broke for the nearest telephone. The world heard
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Speaker 1: and waited. Amelia dived again into the myriad detas tales
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Speaker 1: of preparation. She was still dissatisfied with the radio equipment.
18:05
Speaker 1: She realized that a fifty watt transmitter and receiver could
18:09
Speaker 1: only reach about five hundred miles under normal conditions. On
18:13
Speaker 1: the Hawaii California flight, the Vega radio had reached up
18:17
Speaker 1: to two thousand miles, but only because of skipping, a
18:21
Speaker 1: radio phenomenon in which radio waves bounce up and down
18:24
Speaker 1: from the ionosphere and move forward for incredibly long distances.
18:29
Speaker 1: But skipping was something that could not be depended upon.
18:33
Speaker 1: Some of the ground stations would be much farther than
18:36
Speaker 1: five hundred miles apart. The distance between Hawaii and Howland
18:40
Speaker 1: was nineteen hundred forty miles. Between Howland and New Guinea
18:45
Speaker 1: twenty five hundred fifty six miles. The other navigation equipment
18:50
Speaker 1: was good and worked well in test after test how
18:54
Speaker 1: to strengthen the weakest link. The problem continued to plague
18:58
Speaker 1: her while she gained more more experience flying the Electra.
19:02
Speaker 1: During most of the year nineteen thirty six, often she
19:06
Speaker 1: flew cross country until she attained that assured feeling of
19:10
Speaker 1: confidence that came when the plane became an extension of
19:13
Speaker 1: her own body and limbs. It was during the late
19:17
Speaker 1: morning of one of these flights, with Jacqueline Cochrane acting
19:21
Speaker 1: as co pilot, that Amelia landed at Wright Field in Ohio.
19:25
Speaker 1: The women pilots were met by Manila Tally, a E's
19:29
Speaker 1: friend from Denison House Days whose husband was stationed at
19:33
Speaker 1: the field. The three of them climbed into Manila's car
19:36
Speaker 1: and drove to the Officers Club and adjoining Patterson Field
19:40
Speaker 1: for lunch. Missus Tally noticed that Ae seemed somewhat distraught.
19:45
Speaker 1: When they sat down to lunch, Amelia told her companions
19:49
Speaker 1: how she had hoped to borrow desperately needed radio equipment.
19:53
Speaker 1: She had been unable to get better radios from the manufacturers.
19:58
Speaker 1: They told her they had lost all they could afford
20:01
Speaker 1: on flights that didn't make it, and she was reminded
20:04
Speaker 1: flatly by them. Regulations absolutely forbade lending government equipment. Missus
20:11
Speaker 1: Tally and Miss Cochrane tried to dissuade Amelia from making
20:15
Speaker 1: the flight with inferior equipment. AE was adamant. I have
20:20
Speaker 1: to meet my obligations, she said. We've sold letter covers
20:24
Speaker 1: to pay for the flight. I have to carry them.
20:27
Speaker 1: She had earned ten thousand dollars by selling and carrying
20:31
Speaker 1: letter covers for the Pacific flight and for the World flight.
20:34
Speaker 1: Gimbals in New York had sold to collectors ten thousand covers,
20:39
Speaker 1: which had realized some twenty five thousand dollars to meet expenses.
20:44
Speaker 1: Amelia straightened her back against the chair and popped her
20:47
Speaker 1: crumpled napkin onto the table. I will simply have to
20:51
Speaker 1: make do, she said, with a stamp of finality, with
20:54
Speaker 1: what equipment I have. Other equally important matters occupied her
21:00
Speaker 1: days and nights one at a time. Problems had to
21:03
Speaker 1: be faced, Solutions had to be worked out. The preparations
21:08
Speaker 1: were the part of the iceberg that didn't show. Paul
21:12
Speaker 1: Manz wrung out the Electra in shakedown flights and final tests.
21:17
Speaker 1: GP surveyed the extra long runway at Oakland, waited for
21:21
Speaker 1: the final word about the emergency field being completed at
21:24
Speaker 1: Howland Island, and coordinated final arrangements with the Department of Commerce,
21:29
Speaker 1: Pan American Airways and the Coast Guard. For two weeks.
21:34
Speaker 1: Amelia poured over weather maps, waiting for one which would
21:37
Speaker 1: let her go. It didn't have to be completely satisfactory,
21:41
Speaker 1: only acceptable. There was plenty of help for the flight
21:45
Speaker 1: to Honolulu. Paul Manz would be her co pilot, and
21:49
Speaker 1: helping Captain Manning in the navigation room would be Fred Noonan.
21:53
Speaker 1: They were a right good crew. Captain Harry Manning, a
21:57
Speaker 1: Congressional Medal of Honor winner for heroic daring and having
22:01
Speaker 1: rescued thirty two men from the sinking steamship Florida, had
22:05
Speaker 1: taken leave of absence from his ship to be the navigator.
22:09
Speaker 1: Paul Mance, expert pilot, movie stunt flyer, aviation instructor, owner
22:15
Speaker 1: of a flying service, dependable technical adviser, was as familiar
22:19
Speaker 1: with the Lockheed as AE herself. Fred J. Noonan, a
22:24
Speaker 1: veteran of twenty two years of ocean travel before he
22:27
Speaker 1: joined Pan American Airways, transport pilot instructor in aerial navigation
22:33
Speaker 1: had pioneered routes for PAA flights across the Pacific. The
22:38
Speaker 1: plan was to drop Mance off in Honolulu, where he
22:41
Speaker 1: could join his fiancee, to leave Noonan at Howland, where
22:45
Speaker 1: he could take the Coastguard cutter back to Hawaii, and
22:48
Speaker 1: finally to drop Manning at Brisbane, Australia. From that point on,
22:53
Speaker 1: Amelia hoped to continue solo for the rest of the
22:56
Speaker 1: way around the world. On March seventeenth nighteth teen thirty seven,
23:01
Speaker 1: Amelia and her plane were ready. The elector waited in
23:04
Speaker 1: the Navy hangar at Oakland. There was gallic festivity in
23:08
Speaker 1: the air. It was Saint Patrick's Day. In deference to
23:11
Speaker 1: Fred Noonan a e pinned shamrocks on the men and herself.
23:16
Speaker 1: But the weather was not favorable. It drizzled on and
23:19
Speaker 1: off all day. Amelia went to the window of the
23:22
Speaker 1: Navy office and looked out time and again. She had
23:26
Speaker 1: waited at windows before, watching and waiting for the weather
23:30
Speaker 1: to clear. She drove her hands into her brown slacks,
23:34
Speaker 1: then adjusted the collar of her plaid wool shirt, then
23:37
Speaker 1: twisted the brown linen scarf about her neck. She turned
23:41
Speaker 1: up the collar of her brown leather flying jacket. Crow's
23:45
Speaker 1: feet gathered at the corners of her eyes as she
23:47
Speaker 1: squinted at the wet grayness outside. Several showers passed over
23:52
Speaker 1: the field. Shortly after three o'clock p m. She watched
23:56
Speaker 1: the low scud beginning to clear, and heartened as the
23:59
Speaker 1: thin one strip of blue appeared in the higher overcast.
24:03
Speaker 1: The crew was alerted it was time to go. Paul
24:07
Speaker 1: Manz started the engines, taxied the plane out of the
24:10
Speaker 1: Navy hangar and stopped on the apron. Manning and Noonan
24:14
Speaker 1: ran out and climbed into the passenger compartment to avoid
24:18
Speaker 1: reporters and well wishers. Emilia sneaked into a Navy automobile
24:23
Speaker 1: and was driven out to the plane. GP drove out
24:26
Speaker 1: with her quickly. She was hustled up onto the wing
24:29
Speaker 1: and into the cockpit. GP bent in and wished his
24:33
Speaker 1: wife a final farewell. For five minutes, a E and
24:37
Speaker 1: Mance revved up the engines, checking the RPMs and magnetoes
24:41
Speaker 1: of first one and then the other, then both of
24:44
Speaker 1: the powerful wasps. The Electra taxied to the east end
24:48
Speaker 1: of the field to the seven thousand foot runway on
24:51
Speaker 1: alternate sides of the take off strip. Cardboard placards had
24:55
Speaker 1: been staked out every one hundred fifty feet. Small puddles
24:59
Speaker 1: of water splot the runway. Throttles were advanced and the
25:03
Speaker 1: props blasted back. The take off roll was short. The
25:07
Speaker 1: five ton lockeed eased into the air after two thousand feet.
25:11
Speaker 1: It was four thirty seven p m. The flight to
25:15
Speaker 1: Honolulu proceeded without incident. At five forty a m. The
25:19
Speaker 1: next morning, two thousand, four hundred ten miles, fifteen hours
25:23
Speaker 1: and forty seven minutes after Oakland, the Electra touched down
25:27
Speaker 1: at Wheeler Field. Despite the long flight just completed. Amelia,
25:32
Speaker 1: teeming with energy and anxious to be on her way,
25:35
Speaker 1: wanted to take off for Howland without delay, but the
25:38
Speaker 1: weather man dampened her zest bad storms she discovered were
25:43
Speaker 1: starting to move in from the southwest. Resigned, Amelia went
25:47
Speaker 1: to the home of a friend and slept. There was
25:50
Speaker 1: no point in worrying about the weather. Weather permitting had
25:54
Speaker 1: always qualified her every flight plan. Paul Mance meanwhile moved
25:59
Speaker 1: the plane to Luke Field for the use of the
26:01
Speaker 1: longer runway there. Although the elector would not use the
26:05
Speaker 1: full fuel capacity of one thousand, one hundred fifty one
26:08
Speaker 1: gallons to get to Howland. The weight of nine hundred
26:11
Speaker 1: gallons was still considerable. At Luke, a Pratt and Whitney
26:16
Speaker 1: mechanic made a thorough final inspection of the two Wasp engines.
26:20
Speaker 1: There was no time to spare. Ae had set word
26:23
Speaker 1: that she wanted to take off at dawn on the
26:25
Speaker 1: following day. Amelia rose early that morning of March nineteenth.
26:31
Speaker 1: Light began to break over the hills of Pearl Harbor
26:34
Speaker 1: as she drove out to the field expecting her. Paul
26:37
Speaker 1: Mance had warmed up the engines, and Captain Manning and
26:41
Speaker 1: Fred Noonan had taken their places in the navigation room.
26:45
Speaker 1: Amelia climbed into the cockpit. Before her lay the three
26:49
Speaker 1: thousand feet of runway. The concrete shone in the morning light,
26:53
Speaker 1: and here and there gleamed patches of water. Ae signaled
26:58
Speaker 1: the mechanics pulled the chalks away from the wheels. She
27:02
Speaker 1: lowered the flaps, held the wheel firmly, then slowly inched
27:06
Speaker 1: the throttle forward. The one thousand, one hundred Wasp stung
27:10
Speaker 1: horses fought to go the Electra started to roll half
27:15
Speaker 1: way down the runway. One wing dipped. Amelia applied opposite
27:20
Speaker 1: aileron the plane pulled to the right. Amelia yanked the
27:24
Speaker 1: left throttle all the way back. The nose swung from
27:27
Speaker 1: right to left, but the wing would not lift. She
27:31
Speaker 1: watched helplessly as the wingtip hit the runway and scraped
27:34
Speaker 1: the concrete in a shower of sparks. Then the right
27:38
Speaker 1: landing gear collapsed. The plane careened, then swung around uncontrollably
27:44
Speaker 1: in a swift ground loop. Amelia chopped the other throttle,
27:48
Speaker 1: cut the switches, and climbed out of the cockpit. On
27:51
Speaker 1: the ground, she met Manning and Noonan jumping out from
27:54
Speaker 1: the passenger compartment door. They had not been scratched. The
27:59
Speaker 1: eighty thousand dollar Electra lay like a broken bird upon
28:02
Speaker 1: the pavement. The right wheel had been sheared off, the
28:06
Speaker 1: right wing was battered and crumpled. Amelia was sick at
28:10
Speaker 1: heart as she looked at her damaged plane. Something must
28:13
Speaker 1: have gone wrong, she said, in an attempt to say something.
28:17
Speaker 1: Of course, now you will give up the trip, someone asked.
28:21
Speaker 1: Amelia shook her head. I think not, she said. If
28:25
Speaker 1: it's possible, I'll try again. Her voice trailed off repairs costs,
28:33
Speaker 1: grave and silent. She left the runway. Later, she regained
28:37
Speaker 1: her composure and called g P in Oakland. He was
28:40
Speaker 1: relieved to hear that she was safe. They crashed the
28:44
Speaker 1: ships in flames. A reporter had told him the sparks
28:47
Speaker 1: had been mistaken for fire. A few hours later, a
28:51
Speaker 1: newsman came up to Amelia. He tried to be understanding
28:55
Speaker 1: tough luck, he said, anyway, you're fortunate to be alive.
29:00
Speaker 1: By the way, I understand your husband will be greatly
29:03
Speaker 1: relieved because now you can't go on with the flight.
29:07
Speaker 1: A e showed him the telegram she had just received
29:10
Speaker 1: from g P. So long as you and the boys
29:13
Speaker 1: are okay, it said, the rest doesn't matter. After all.
29:17
Speaker 1: It's just one of those things. Whether you want to
29:20
Speaker 1: call it a day or keep going later is equally
29:23
Speaker 1: jake with me. The reporters now pressed her for a statement.
29:27
Speaker 1: Nothing has happened, she announced, to change my attitude toward
29:31
Speaker 1: the original project. I feel better than ever about the ship,
29:35
Speaker 1: and I am more eager than ever to fly again.
29:39
Speaker 1: Amelia turned and walked to the window of the operations building.
29:43
Speaker 1: She looked up high above the center of the field,
29:47
Speaker 1: a black bird swung through the air in lazy, widening circles.
29:53
Speaker 1: End of Section twenty nine