Around-the-world flight
Amelia Earhart · 1937 CE · Earth
Fly around the world near the equator.
Historical context
By the 1930s aviation was rewriting the map, and long-distance flying captured the public imagination. Earhart's attempt to circle the globe near the equator ended in one of aviation's enduring mysteries.
The voyage, step by step
Round the world
March 1937
Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan set out to fly around the world near the equator.
Eastbound from Miami
1 June 1937
The second attempt starts on 1 June, flying east so the worst weather comes at the end.
The South Atlantic
1937 CE
From the Brazilian bulge they cross nineteen hundred miles of ocean to Senegal in thirteen hours.
Karachi
1937 CE
After Africa and Arabia they make the first non-stop flight from the Red Sea to India.
Lae, New Guinea
2 July 1937
Twenty-two thousand miles done, seven thousand to go, all of it over the Pacific.
Across the Pacific
1937 CE
They cross the ocean toward tiny Howland Island, their next refuelling stop.
Lost
1937 CE
Radio contact is lost near the island; the largest search of the era finds nothing.
Outcome
Disappeared over the central Pacific.
Amelia Earhart
American aviator who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and vanished attempting a flight around the world.
Sources
Continue exploring
- New York to Paris, aloneCharles Lindbergh · 1927 CE
- The transpolar flight of the NorgeUmberto Nobile · 1926 CE
- The half-mile dives off BermudaWilliam Beebe and Otis Barton · 1934 CE
- First crossing of the Empty QuarterWilfred Thesiger · 1946 CE – 1947 CE