On the morning of May 20th, 1932, the pioneering pilot Amelia Earhart departed from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, Canada, flying her single-engine Lockheed Vega 5B aircraft, becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean and the second person to achieve this milestone. After 14 hours, 56 minutes of flying in terrible weather and mechanical problems, Earhart landed in Culmore, north of Londonderry, Northern Ireland. This accomplishment brought her worldwide fame and publicity and challenged her to break more records.
Amelia Earhart (1897-1939) was an American aviator. Although she was not the first female pilot in the US, she completed many firsts as an aviator and as a woman, and she is still considered one of the most famous aviators of all time. In 1937, while completing a flight around the globe, planning to become the first woman to do so, she and her navigator disappeared. An extensive and expensive search did not find any trace of them, and two years later, they were declared dead.
In 2007, seventy-five years after Earhart left for her flight, a statue was unveiled in the Spirit of Harbour Grace Park, commemorating her achievement and legacy as a pioneer aviator and fearless woman. Lorne Rostotski designed the site, Roger Pike funded the statue, and the Canadian sculptor Luben Boykov created it.
The original Lockheed Vega 5B aircraft is on view at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.
This post is also available in:
Español
This post is also available in:
Español
