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27 - 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 seven of Daughter of the Sky The Story
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  Speaker 1: of Amelia Earhart by Paulbreon Junior. The LibriVox recording is
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  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Part two the World of Flight
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  Speaker 1: eighteen solo from Mexico to New Jersey. Mexico City was
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  Speaker 1: eight thousand feet above sea level. To fly non stop
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  Speaker 1: to Newark, New Jersey, Amelia would need a full load
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  Speaker 1: of gasoline. With a full load, she would not be
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  Speaker 1: able to take off from the short runway of the
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  Speaker 1: military field. George Putnam resolved the dilemma. Near By there
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  Speaker 1: was the dry bed of Lake Texcoco. If the obstructions
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  Speaker 1: were cleared, there would be plenty of room to get
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  Speaker 1: three tons of aircraft and fuel into the air. She
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  Speaker 1: had landed and taken off under similar conditions at Nepolla
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  Speaker 1: when she had lost her way. Why not now. Amelia
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  Speaker 1: looked over the mud caked flats and agreed it could
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  Speaker 1: be done. G p took over. He organized and supervised
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  Speaker 1: the work of mecha soldiers in getting the dry bed
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  Speaker 1: ready for the vegas landing and take off. He pitched
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  Speaker 1: in with the men as they leveled hillocks and filled
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  Speaker 1: ditches until they had prepared three miles of makeshift runway.
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  Speaker 1: The job done, George then flew to New York to
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  Speaker 1: gather weather data from Doc Kimball in order to advise
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  Speaker 1: his wife as to the exact weather conditions she would
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  Speaker 1: encounter in her record hop. The vega had been flown
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  Speaker 1: into the dry bed while a E waited for her
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  Speaker 1: husband for the signal to go. Weather permitting was always
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  Speaker 1: a condition imposed on EDNY flight. For eight days, she
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  Speaker 1: waited in Mexico City for the weather to become favorable.
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  Speaker 1: It was not until after midnight on May eighth that
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  Speaker 1: g P phoned from New York. Good visibility, he said,
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  Speaker 1: summarizing Doc Kimball's analysis, but the winds are not very favorable.
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  Speaker 1: At one o'clock that same morning, Amelia decided to go.
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  Speaker 1: She sent word to the men one at Texcoco to
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  Speaker 1: fill the vegas tanks with four hundred seventy gallons of gasoline.
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  Speaker 1: That she went back to bed for a few hours sleep.
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  Speaker 1: At four o'clock, she awoke, had breakfast, and drove out
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  Speaker 1: to the lake bed. As at Wheeler Field in Honolulu,
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  Speaker 1: the pathway for the takeoff runt had been staked out
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  Speaker 1: with flags. Amelia walked to her lockheed. By the light
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  Speaker 1: of automobiles which had been parked with head lights on,
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  Speaker 1: she could see empty gasoline drums that had been rolled
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  Speaker 1: off to the side and perched on a ladder. A
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  Speaker 1: mechanic who was giving the wasp motor a final check
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  Speaker 1: a e climbed into the cockpit. She was handed some
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  Speaker 1: provisions through the hatch. Earlier, she had ordered one hard
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  Speaker 1: boiled egg and one sandwich, but into the cupboard in
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  Speaker 1: the right wing she now placed much more. There was
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  Speaker 1: enough food for many days of sustained flying. Six hard
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  Speaker 1: boiled eggs, three of them already, shelled, four sandws, witches
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  Speaker 1: with thick slices of meat, three cans of tomato juice,
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  Speaker 1: one thermos bottle of hot cocoa, and another of water.
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  Speaker 1: The way she was cared for the accident of sex
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  Speaker 1: was sometimes a happy one. She started the engine and
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  Speaker 1: led it idle for a few moments. Then she opened
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  Speaker 1: the throttle wide and checked the RPMs and magnetoes. She
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  Speaker 1: watched the fuel and oil pressure, the fuel and oil temperature.
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  Speaker 1: She brought the throttle back. Everything set at six o
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  Speaker 1: six a m. The Vega roared down the runway and
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  Speaker 1: blasted into the air Ae had used only one mile
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  Speaker 1: of the three she thought she would need for the
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  Speaker 1: takeoff from the dry lake bed. She smiled as she
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  Speaker 1: climbed to eight thousand feet again. The plane had behaved beautifully.
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  Speaker 1: If there was one name she truly loved besides Earhart
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  Speaker 1: and Putnam, it was Lockheed. During the takeoff run, she
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  Speaker 1: had forced the Vega to stay on the mud flats
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  Speaker 1: until it developed a speed well over one hundred miles
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  Speaker 1: an hour. Then it flew into the air by itself.
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  Speaker 1: Amelia watched the altimeter until it indicated ten on the dial.
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  Speaker 1: Then she leveled off. She skimmed over the mountains surrounding
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  Speaker 1: the valley in which Mexico City lay together. Valley and
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  Speaker 1: mountains formed a large saucer and rim behind her, Popo
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  Speaker 1: Catapetl and iks Rock sea wattle mountains loomed. They seemed mighty, proud,
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  Speaker 1: majestic with their white peaked crowns of snow. The rising
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  Speaker 1: sun flung its warmth over the dappled earth to Amelia,
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  Speaker 1: the tomboy of Kansas, whom the magic of flight had
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  Speaker 1: transformed into an air adventurer astride Pegasus. The land below
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  Speaker 1: was a veritable fairyland of beauty. Like Alice through the
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  Speaker 1: looking glass, she thrilled to each new site Like a
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  Speaker 1: taller gulliver. She looked down from ten thousand feet and
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  Speaker 1: strode on swift, unseen legs through a Liliputian world of
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  Speaker 1: small green fields, narrow dirt roads, tiny adobe huts, bull
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  Speaker 1: rings that could be covered with a hand. They were
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  Speaker 1: the playthings of a child. She crossed the divide. Thick
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  Speaker 1: clouds formed and stretched out over the gulf. Briefly they parted,
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  Speaker 1: and through them she saw a cluster of oil tanks.
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  Speaker 1: She checked her map and estimated that she was over Tempico.
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  Speaker 1: Applying right stick and rudder, she turned, leveled her wings
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  Speaker 1: and took up a northeast heading straight ahead across the
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  Speaker 1: Gulf of Mexico and seven hundred miles away should be
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  Speaker 1: New Orleans over the water. She remembered the warning of
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  Speaker 1: Wiley post Amelia, don't do it, it's too dangerous. She
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  Speaker 1: grinned and shook her head. Why everything was fine? She
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  Speaker 1: scanned the instrument panel, listen to the steady purr of
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  Speaker 1: the motor. Fine indeed. She reached into the cupboard and
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  Speaker 1: unwrapped one of the peeled hard boiled eggs. She ate
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  Speaker 1: the egg quickly. Then she took out one of the
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  Speaker 1: thick sandwiches and the thermost bottle of water. She munched, sipped,
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  Speaker 1: and mused, Wiley Post was right in a way. It
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  Speaker 1: would be safer to make long overwater flights in a
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  Speaker 1: bigger and better plane. Two engines would be ideal. Why
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  Speaker 1: with a multi motored plane a pilot could fly anywhere?
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  Speaker 1: She rolled the paper wrapper from the sandwich into a
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  Speaker 1: tight little ball. She squeezed it hard in her hand,
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  Speaker 1: then popped it into the compartment in the left wing.
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  Speaker 1: Why with a two engined plane a pilot could fly
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  Speaker 1: around the world. She settled back in her seat and
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  Speaker 1: pressed her shoulders against the bulkhead behind her. One day,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps one more good long flight. It would be the
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  Speaker 1: l last. Then she could sit back, relax, and really
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  Speaker 1: write a good book about flying. The others, the articles
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  Speaker 1: and the books, had been done too hastily. She could
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  Speaker 1: do better. Ahead, she saw a ragged peninsula jutting out
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  Speaker 1: into the water, short stubby fingers of land, then the
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  Speaker 1: long index finger at the base of the notch formed
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  Speaker 1: by the thumb and index. A city. It must be
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  Speaker 1: New Orleans, she radioed in on the New Orleans frequency.
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  Speaker 1: She had made it her dead reckoning had been right
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  Speaker 1: on the nose. From New Orleans to Newark. She could
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  Speaker 1: be in radio contact all the way. She reported into
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  Speaker 1: mobile Montgomery, Atlanta, Charlotte, Richmond. She felt like a country
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  Speaker 1: telephone operator listening in on party lines. The conversations were
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  Speaker 1: so numerous and frequent. On the way across the country,
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  Speaker 1: she looked out and watched the darkness cover the earth.
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  Speaker 1: She snapped on her navigation lights successively each of the cities.
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  Speaker 1: As she looked down at the lights was a treasure
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  Speaker 1: of diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, a thousand and one night's
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  Speaker 1: treasure that had been tipped over, spilled out, and spread
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  Speaker 1: over the black land. She thrilled to the sparkle and glitter.
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  Speaker 1: At nine o five p m. She passed over Washington,
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  Speaker 1: d C. And reported her position into her earphones. Came
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  Speaker 1: the voice of Eugene Vidal, her old friend from the
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  Speaker 1: Luddington line. He came in loud and clear. You've done enough,
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  Speaker 1: he said, you'd better land at Hoover Airport. He was
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  Speaker 1: calling from his office at the Bureau of Air Commerce.
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  Speaker 1: Amelia grinned no thanks, she answered him, going through to
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  Speaker 1: New York. Then she added, cheerio. It was a beautiful
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  Speaker 1: night for flying, too beautiful to land. Clusters of bright
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  Speaker 1: green and silver stars against the black of the night
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  Speaker 1: were better than the emeralds and diamonds. At Tiffany's, Amelia
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  Speaker 1: checked the gasoline gages for the left and right wing
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  Speaker 1: tanks and for the big extra tank in the passenger compartment.
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  Speaker 1: She studied the fuel flow meter. Everything normal. The wasp
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  Speaker 1: purred in steady rhythmic beats. She pulled out the thermos
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  Speaker 1: of hot chocolate. She gulped a mouthful. The warmth from
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  Speaker 1: the sweet liquid spread through her. People had often offered
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  Speaker 1: her coffee or tea, and on other occasions liquor and cigarettes.
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  Speaker 1: She didn't believe in stimulants of any kind. She didn't
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  Speaker 1: need them. Once someone had asked her why she didn't smoke.
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  Speaker 1: He had undoubtedly seen her endorsement of a cigarette after
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  Speaker 1: the friendship flight, Amelia smiled as she remembered. To overcome
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  Speaker 1: any thoughts of prudishness he might have of her, She
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  Speaker 1: had thereupon taken two cigarettes, lit them, and puffed them
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  Speaker 1: into clouds of smoke there, she had said, after they
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  Speaker 1: had burned down and she had put them out in
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  Speaker 1: an ash tray, I have smoked. She never smoked again,
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  Speaker 1: not even in jest, but there was nothing to prevent
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  Speaker 1: her if she wanted to. That point had to be
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  Speaker 1: made clear. She looked out from the cockpit and ran
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  Speaker 1: her eyes from wing tip to wing tip. It was
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  Speaker 1: a lovely night, the new moon, the stars that could
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  Speaker 1: be scooped into the palm of her hand, the clean,
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  Speaker 1: fresh air that whistled through the opened windshield, space unlimited.
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  Speaker 1: She looked at the tachometer. The needle was steady at
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  Speaker 1: one thousand, seven hundred fifty RPMs, then at the indicated
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  Speaker 1: air speed, unwavering at one hundred fifty miles per hour.
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  Speaker 1: Homeward bound. Everything fine. Waiting for her at Newark were
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  Speaker 1: GP and thousands of other people who had heard about
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  Speaker 1: the flight and driven out to the airport with George.
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  Speaker 1: Were Paul Collins, ae's other good friend from the Luddington Line,
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  Speaker 1: Doc Kimball, the famous New York weather man, and doctor
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  Speaker 1: Eduardo Villi, signor Council General for Mexico. From the southwest.
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  Speaker 1: They saw a single motored, high winged plane. It was AE,
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  Speaker 1: and she was ahead of schedule. Paul Collins, a veteran
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  Speaker 1: of more than a million miles in the air, watched
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  Speaker 1: the plane come in the red and green passing lights,
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  Speaker 1: slid down and up in a turn, then rolled out
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  Speaker 1: and headed for a landing. Thinking of the long flight
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  Speaker 1: that was being finished apparently without effort, Paul shook his head.
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  Speaker 1: There was admiration in his voice. That's a flier, he exclaimed.
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  Speaker 1: Doc Kimball was proud that A E was one of
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  Speaker 1: his flyers. Such people are good for us, all, he said.
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  Speaker 1: Just after the plane touched down on the runway, Amelia
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  Speaker 1: taxied the plane to the parking ramp. She saw a
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  Speaker 1: huge crowd of people straining at the ropes that held
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  Speaker 1: them in. The crowd broke and ran for the plane.
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  Speaker 1: AE cut the switch. The throng, now wildly shouting, had
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  Speaker 1: eddied up and completely surrounded the plane. Amelia opened the
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  Speaker 1: hatch a loud roar of welcome, acclaimed her. G p
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  Speaker 1: lost in the sea of faces, looked up at his wife,
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  Speaker 1: who could not pick him out. She looked like a
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  Speaker 1: little girl in the heavy flying clothes. Her face was
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  Speaker 1: streaked with grime, her eyes were taut and strained. Two
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  Speaker 1: policemen pushed through the crowd to the side of the plane.
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  Speaker 1: Amelia jumped down to them. One policeman grabbed her right arm,
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  Speaker 1: the other her left leg. They started to move in
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  Speaker 1: opposite directions. Amelia screamed. The policeman reunited at the girl
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  Speaker 1: and plowed through the mob to the police car. End
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  Speaker 1: of Section twenty seven.