Aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart departed on a journey to become the first pilot to successfully fly solo from Hawaii to mainland United States on this day in history, Jan. 11, 1935.
The daring flight across a vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean had claimed the lives of 10 previous aviators. She earned $10,000 from promoters in Hawaii for her death-defying achievement.
The pilot also hoped to promote a future in which commercial air travel closed distances around the world.
"I wanted the flight just to contribute," Earhart said of what was, at the time, an unprecedented trip across open ocean.
"I could only hope one more passage across that part of the Pacific would mark a little more clearly the pathway over which an air service of the future will inevitably ply."
She flew from Honolulu to Oakland, where she landed the following day and was greeted by a crowd of some 10,000 people celebrating her achievement.
"Though some called it a publicity stunt for Earhart and Hawaiian sugar plantation promoters, it was a dangerous 2,408-mile flight that had already claimed several lives," writes the National Air and Space Museum.
"Earhart’s nearly 19-hour flight across the Pacific took her 600 more miles over water than Charles Lindbergh’s famous transatlantic trip."
She made the journey in a small single-engine Lockheed 5C Vega. It marked the start of an incredible period for air travel for the famed American pilot.
"Later that year, Earhart made record flights from Los Angeles to Mexico City and from Mexico City to Newark, New Jersey," according to the National Air and Space Museum.
She also placed fifth in the 1935 Bendix Race, a transcontinental race sponsored by Bendix Corporation that achieved great renown in the 1930s and 1940s.
Earhart was born on July 24, 1897, in Atchison, Kansas and achieved fame in her 30s as one of the nation's most daring pilots — and one of the few women in what was a burgeoning and still largely male profession of flying planes.
She became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932, earning a Distinguished Flying Cross from the U.S. Congress.
Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared mysteriously on July 2, 1937, near Howland Island, a small coral shoal near the equator about halfway between Australia and Hawaii. She was attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the globe.
Earhart continues to capture the public's imagination today.
She was honored in the U.S Capitol just last year — joining Dwight D. Eisenhower as one of two Americans representing the great state of Kansas in the National Statuary Hall.
Earhart is one of only 11 women among the 100 Americans in the group — two for each state in the Union.
"We captured her as she often stood, in a gentle breeze, looking toward the sky with a hint of a squint in her eyes," said sculptor George Lundeen of the image of Earhart in bronze, "her scarf about to blow over her shoulder … as if she’s getting ready to fly."
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The Atchison Amelia Earhart Foundation, meanwhile, announced yesterday, on the eve of the 88th anniversary of her Hawaii-to-California flight, the expected April 14, 2023, opening of the new Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum.
The new attraction in Atchison "will become the first museum to blend STEM and historical storytelling to celebrate Earhart’s world-renowned legacy as a trailblazing aviator and innovator," the foundation said in a statement.
Earhart’s incredible 19-hour solo journey from Honolulu to Oakland is just one of many flights that thrilled Americans at a time when flight invoked images of freedom, mastery of one’s fate and the pioneer spirit at the heart of the nation.
"Amelia Earhart captivated the world with extraordinary bravery, unwavering perseverance and daring determination to defy the odds and pursue her dreams of flight," said Karen Seaberg, founder and president of the Atchison Amelia Earhart Foundation.
