Amelia Earhart
(1897-1937)
In 1937, Amelia decided to become the first woman to fly around the world.
Permission to Fly High
You wouldn't have dared to tell this aviation pioneer that flying airplanes was a man's world. Earhart gave herself permission to think sky high - she knew a woman had the ability to fly an airplane across oceans.
"The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do," 1 she said.
She was the first person to fly solo between Honolulu and California. Her great thinking about aviation made her famous in her own day. Today, it's not unusual to find women piloting airliners all around the globe, inspired by Earhart's thinking and dreaming of the sky.
Amelia Earhart's path to becoming a Great Thinker:
- Grew up in difficult home-family moved a lot, and Amelia was partly raised by relatives.
- Saw first airplane at age ten.
- Gained an interest in aviation watching airshows, popular at the time.
- Studied nursing, and was a nurse during WWI.
- Taught English to immigrant children in Boston.
- Saved money to learn to fly-during that era few women flew. Amelia showed that it's important to get an education in something you're passionate about, even if the odds are against you.
- Was first woman to fly across the Atlantic as a passenger, long before she was the first woman to pilot a plane across the ocean.
- Set a goal to be the first woman to pilot a plane across the Atlantic, and stuck to that goal until she achieved it in 1932.
- In 1935 became first person to fly from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland.
- In 1937, Amelia decided to become the first woman to fly around the world. The attempt wasn't successful, making her a mysterious legend, but her dream and example as a female pilot showed that women can succeed in a "man's" world.