Around-the-world flight

Amelia Earhart · 1937 CE · Earth

Around-the-world flight — Amelia Earhart · 1937 CE · Earth — Recorded expedition route · schematic map

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

  1. Round the world

    March 1937

    Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan set out to fly around the world near the equator.

  2. Eastbound from Miami

    1 June 1937

    The second attempt starts on 1 June, flying east so the worst weather comes at the end.

  3. The South Atlantic

    1937 CE

    From the Brazilian bulge they cross nineteen hundred miles of ocean to Senegal in thirteen hours.

  4. Karachi

    1937 CE

    After Africa and Arabia they make the first non-stop flight from the Red Sea to India.

  5. Lae, New Guinea

    2 July 1937

    Twenty-two thousand miles done, seven thousand to go, all of it over the Pacific.

  6. Across the Pacific

    1937 CE

    They cross the ocean toward tiny Howland Island, their next refuelling stop.

  7. 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.

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Sources

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