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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm editor Candace Keener, joined by fellow editor Katie Lambert's

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Speaker 1: Helen Candice. Hi. There, Katie, I conducted some very surprising

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Speaker 1: research this week. Was it on Lady Lyndy, Queen of

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Speaker 1: the Air. It was Amelia Earhart, who I think most

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Speaker 1: of us hold in our minds as an iconic figure

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Speaker 1: in American history and world history. Really of um, of

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Speaker 1: a very strong and determined and capable woman, the sixteenth

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Speaker 1: woman in the entire world. We granted her pilot's license

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Speaker 1: in fact, and I learned that there are some factors

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Speaker 1: which may explain her disappearance that color her in a

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Speaker 1: slightly different light. And that's not to say that we're

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Speaker 1: not going to celebrate him early air heart, because we

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Speaker 1: certainly are. But I think you'll learn a thing or

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Speaker 1: two just like I did. So maybe we'll start at

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Speaker 1: her beginnings, which were rather humble. Um. She was a

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Speaker 1: Kansas girl born in Her father was a lawyer for

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Speaker 1: the railroad. Um. She ended up being a nurse's aid

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Speaker 1: and a military hospital in Toronto, and she was actually

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Speaker 1: primed for a while at Columbia, which surprised me because

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Speaker 1: who knew, but she was only there for a semester.

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Speaker 1: When she was just ten years old. She was at

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Speaker 1: a state fair when she really had her interest kindled

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Speaker 1: in flying, watching the planes swooping overhead and rushing past

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Speaker 1: her and staring up the wind. She realized that she

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Speaker 1: wanted to do that too, and that ambition was cemented

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Speaker 1: in her mind in December of nineteen twenty when the

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Speaker 1: pilot Frank Hawks invited her on his plane for a flight,

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Speaker 1: and she thought, this is it, this is what I'm

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Speaker 1: going to do. So she bought her first plane in

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Speaker 1: nine It was yellow and she named it Canary, and

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Speaker 1: she had flying lessons from Nita Snook, who was also

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Speaker 1: one of the foremost female aviators of the day, because

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Speaker 1: there weren't many. And a critic has said that here

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Speaker 1: was a turning point for the Amelia It hurt story

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Speaker 1: for me at least, was that Snook I didn't think

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Speaker 1: that Amelia was necessarily skilled enough to become a pilot.

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Speaker 1: Perhaps her ambitions and enthusiasm outweighed her skill, and in

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Speaker 1: some cases that certainly compensates, and it makes up for

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Speaker 1: something you're not entirely good at but for an activity

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Speaker 1: as precis is flying, of course you need to have

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Speaker 1: all of your little ducks in a row. So Snook

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Speaker 1: maybe thought she had the drive but not the talent exactly,

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Speaker 1: but that didn't stop her from trying now. And her

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Speaker 1: first lesson, I like this fact was twenty minutes long

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Speaker 1: in Snooks World War one canuck um, and she charged

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Speaker 1: her seventy five cents per minute Snooks connect. You really

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Speaker 1: can't make this gun up yet. Early in her career

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Speaker 1: she established her prowess in the sky by setting record

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Speaker 1: for speed and altitude, and she became very slowly but

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Speaker 1: truly a huge celebrity in the aviation world. She was

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Speaker 1: the first female passenger on the Fokker Friendship. They flew

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Speaker 1: from Newfoundland to Wales, and it was a big deal

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Speaker 1: because a publicist named George Putnam was the one who

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Speaker 1: had set her up for this, and originally he had

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Speaker 1: been looking for someone else, but that woman ended up

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Speaker 1: not being able to take her place, and Amelia was

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Speaker 1: totally gung ho to go for this trip. And also

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Speaker 1: in nineteen it was a big year for her. She

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Speaker 1: was the first woman to make a solo return transcontinental flight,

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Speaker 1: and as far as her position on the friendship flight

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Speaker 1: with Walmer Stoltz and some Gordon. For them, it was

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Speaker 1: old hats this type of transatlantic voyage, but Putnam was

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Speaker 1: a publicist as much as a publisher, and he was

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Speaker 1: trying to put a new spin on it. It was

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Speaker 1: the first time that a woman was on board, and

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Speaker 1: she was given the title commander to lend her sense

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Speaker 1: of prestige. But Amelia was always very clear and very

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Speaker 1: adamant about the fact that she didn't do anything on

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Speaker 1: this flight. She was merely there for company, and one

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Speaker 1: could guess too that she was watching and observing and

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Speaker 1: learning what exactly people do to conduct themselves on these

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Speaker 1: long flights. And later when she would do solo trips,

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Speaker 1: she would remark that the company she kept where the

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Speaker 1: celestial bodies in the sky. It was some of the

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Speaker 1: most beautiful things she'd ever seen. And I think she

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Speaker 1: also felt a little bit guilty about getting so famous

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Speaker 1: for something where she wasn't really doing anything, and that

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Speaker 1: gave her the urge to prove herself exactly, and not

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Speaker 1: only the urge, it also gave her a bunch of

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Speaker 1: endorsement deals because she needed money to continue on with

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Speaker 1: her flight career. Lucky strikes cigarettes for one for one. Uh.

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Speaker 1: She went on to add another impressive feat to her resume,

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Speaker 1: and that was helping to organize the Woman's Air Derby

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Speaker 1: and becoming a founding member in president of the ninety nine.

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Speaker 1: And the ninety nine was a woman's aviation group, and

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Speaker 1: this was sort of a post suffrage effort to get

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Speaker 1: women to organize and explore their other interests. And as

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Speaker 1: women were gaining ground in the aviation industry, they found

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Speaker 1: they didn't have a lot of support from their male cohorts.

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Speaker 1: It was seen it was seen as a men's world,

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Speaker 1: and they wanted in and so by offering each other

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Speaker 1: support and sharing industry news, they could better gain ground,

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Speaker 1: get a better foothold. And one of my favorite things

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Speaker 1: that the ninety nine did, and I should mention too,

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Speaker 1: that the name ninety nine was Amelia's idea because when

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Speaker 1: they put out a call for interested parties, women answered anyway.

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Speaker 1: They campaign to overturn the government proposal that would ban

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Speaker 1: women from flying when they were menstruating. Fair enough, yes,

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Speaker 1: And I'm just gonna leave it at that. Just a

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Speaker 1: fine historical fact for everyone they're still around for the record,

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Speaker 1: I think have more than five thousand members today and

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Speaker 1: they note on their website that most women who have

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Speaker 1: achieved great things in aviation have been a member of

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Speaker 1: the ninety nine. So during this time with her involvement

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Speaker 1: with the ninety nine and her speaking engagements, she was

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Speaker 1: also writing for Cosmopolitan magazine and for other publications, and

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Speaker 1: she was actually the aviation editor or aviation writer for Cosmo,

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Speaker 1: And I'm I don't think we have that, No, I

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Speaker 1: don't think so. I think it was a much different

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Speaker 1: uh iteration of the magazine back in that day. But

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Speaker 1: in nive she was appointed to a consulting position at

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Speaker 1: Purdue University. More women were starting to have careers of

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Speaker 1: their own, and she became an advisor to them, which

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Speaker 1: I think is really significant. And it's interesting to note

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Speaker 1: that despite her own ambitions, Amelia Earhardt was also and

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Speaker 1: approachable and disarming enough woman that other young woman would

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Speaker 1: feel comfortable seeking her counsel. I think that speaks a

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Speaker 1: lot about her character, and at this point, I think

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Speaker 1: too she was also a bit of a style icon,

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Speaker 1: and I know we always like fashion throughout history. That

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Speaker 1: she had the leather jackets close cropped hair, um silk

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Speaker 1: ties and scarves, and people thought she was she was sassy.

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Speaker 1: She was. You can see pictures on the official Amelia

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Speaker 1: air Heart Museum website and plenty of other fan websites

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Speaker 1: out there of her wearing her her tight fitting pants

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Speaker 1: and her boots and the scarf tied around her neck.

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Speaker 1: She was really really classic. I think she even had

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Speaker 1: a clothing line. I know she had a luggage line. Wow,

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Speaker 1: I did not know that. But in the meantime, even

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Speaker 1: before perdue, in nineteen thirty two, she was the first

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Speaker 1: woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. She landed in Ireland,

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Speaker 1: and I think that's when she finally felt like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: she'd really done something. And she also got the Distinguished

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Speaker 1: Flying Cross that year, and she was also recognized by

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Speaker 1: President Herbert Hoover with the National Geographic Society Gold Medal.

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Speaker 1: So attention and awards and praise is being showered upon her.

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Speaker 1: And she's nearing her fortieth birthday and at this time

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Speaker 1: she's actually married to George Putnam. She rejected him six

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Speaker 1: times for the record before they ever got married. We

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Speaker 1: should know too that he was actually married when they

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Speaker 1: began touring together and helping to endorse her career together,

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Speaker 1: but he was granted divorce in so by thirty one

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Speaker 1: he and Amelia were an item, and he wrote her

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Speaker 1: a very interest She wrote him, excuse me a very

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Speaker 1: interesting letter, where she said, I shall not hold you

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Speaker 1: to any medieval code of faithfulness um to me, nor

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Speaker 1: shall I consider myself bound to you similarly, and then

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Speaker 1: went on to say that if she thought they were honest,

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Speaker 1: they could avoid any difficulties if one or the other

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Speaker 1: of them became too attract it to someone else. So

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Speaker 1: she knew what she was getting into. She did, and

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Speaker 1: she called the marriage a partnership with dual control and

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Speaker 1: kept her own name. She did, and George recognized that

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Speaker 1: for her to keep her celebrity index high, she needed

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Speaker 1: another big flying stunt, and nearing her fourtieth birthday, she

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Speaker 1: was ready to become the first woman to fly solo

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Speaker 1: around the world. And flying solo around the world had

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Speaker 1: already been accomplished by Charles Lindbergh, but she wanted to

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Speaker 1: show that a woman could do it too, and as

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Speaker 1: a matter of fact, she chose a course that wrapped

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Speaker 1: as tightly around the equator as possible, which extended the

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Speaker 1: journey just a bit, and also took it through some

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Speaker 1: more difficult to rain the Pacific Islands in particular as well.

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Speaker 1: Soon learn we're quite challenging navigate. So she started in

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirty seven on this trip and flew from California

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Speaker 1: to Hawaii, but a tire blue when they landed in Hawaii,

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Speaker 1: which sort of put their plans on hold for a

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Speaker 1: little bit. The plane had to be shipped back to

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Speaker 1: California to be fixed. And we should mention that this

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Speaker 1: plane was the Lockheed Electra. She had formerly used a

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Speaker 1: Lockheed Vega, but the Electra was better suited for long

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Speaker 1: distance flying, and she'd been flying in the Lockheed Vega,

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Speaker 1: but switched to the Lockheed Electra, which is better suited

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Speaker 1: for long di stints flying. They had to restart her

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Speaker 1: journey in Miami. They decided instead they just go the

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Speaker 1: totally other way this time, since they had already publicized

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Speaker 1: it well, and plus the winds were more favorable in

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Speaker 1: the opposite direction exactly. But they didn't want anyone to

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Speaker 1: know that they were actually having to fly there repaired

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Speaker 1: plane from California to Miami, so they just didn't make

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Speaker 1: any announcements on that right, and looking back now with

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Speaker 1: the historian's I you know, you could say it was

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Speaker 1: it was a prophetic bad start, and that you know,

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Speaker 1: this maybe was one clue, because there are some sources

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Speaker 1: that say that it was her handling of the plane

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Speaker 1: that caused it to scrape its belly across the runway

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Speaker 1: into crash. And even though there wasn't a fire, it

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Speaker 1: was very badly damaged. Perhaps it was nerves, I don't know.

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Speaker 1: But she also had on board a man who, again

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Speaker 1: some critics say, was not the best navigation advisor. This

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Speaker 1: was Frederick Noonan, and he'd formerly worked with Pacific Flight Navigation,

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Speaker 1: but had reportedly been let go from his previous job

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Speaker 1: for being a little bit too drunk at work. Sometimes again,

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Speaker 1: some of this is based on historical hearsay, but a

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Speaker 1: lot of historical sources do say that his method of navigation,

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Speaker 1: which was to your celestial positioning, couldn't be relied upon

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Speaker 1: entirely for and around the world flight. Imagine using just

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Speaker 1: the heavens and the sky to guide you. Well, what

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Speaker 1: do you do when it's cloudy? Exactly? And you'll see

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Speaker 1: that was a big downfall, and so pictures were back

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Speaker 1: in Miami we've got we should be feeling a little

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Speaker 1: bit nervous at this point with that background, and we've

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Speaker 1: already had an accident on the trip. We've got Fred

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Speaker 1: Noonan who were not entirely sure about and they take

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Speaker 1: off and eventually end up in New Guinea on June

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Speaker 1: twenty nine. And we should note that despite these omnus factors,

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Speaker 1: they've been doing swingly, I mean absolutely great. This was

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Speaker 1: a trip that was going to be about twenty nine

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Speaker 1: thousand miles and they only had seven thousand left to go.

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Speaker 1: They knocked out a substantial amount of the mileage. I

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Speaker 1: mean we're talking about crossing over South America and Africa

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Speaker 1: and India and Asia Australia, and it was very carefully

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Speaker 1: charted as to where they would stop and refuel. And

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Speaker 1: their next stop was Howland Island. Howland Island, which is

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Speaker 1: more than I think miles away from where they were,

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Speaker 1: and Helen Island is more of a toll than an island.

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Speaker 1: The teeny tiny's teeny tiny, uh it's about a mile

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Speaker 1: and a half long half mile across and she wasn't

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Speaker 1: even going to be able to uh get to the

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Speaker 1: island exactly without the help of the U S Coastguard,

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Speaker 1: So she had plans to meet this US Coastguard cutter

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Speaker 1: named the Itasca nearby, who would help give her exact

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Speaker 1: coordinates and refuel her and allow her to rest for

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Speaker 1: a while. So they take off on July two for

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Speaker 1: the Howan Island, and that's when things start to go terribly,

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Speaker 1: horribly wrong. The last positive siding of them was over

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Speaker 1: the New Kumanu Islands by the Atasca, and the Atasca

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Speaker 1: was attempting to communicate with Amelia and Frederick with a

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Speaker 1: two way radio. Amelia didn't know Morse code, she wasn't

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Speaker 1: comfortable using it, and furthermore, she didn't necessarily have all

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Speaker 1: the equipment that she did need. She had an antenna,

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Speaker 1: and she had radio equipment that operated on a certain frequency,

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Speaker 1: but the frequency she was using wasn't the same one

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Speaker 1: necessarily that the Coast Guard was using. And even when

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Speaker 1: they did get on the right frequency, they didn't seem

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Speaker 1: to be getting each other's messages. She couldn't hear them,

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Speaker 1: and her last message to them, I think um or

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Speaker 1: what's usually recorded as the last message, said we must

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Speaker 1: be on you, but cannot see you, but gases running

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Speaker 1: low have been unable to reach you by radio. We're

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Speaker 1: flying in a thousand feet and the coast Guard couldn't

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Speaker 1: get her to switch to Morse code, which they preferred

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Speaker 1: to communicate. It was much more exact because he's she

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Speaker 1: didn't have the capability to get the message, it didn't

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Speaker 1: have the right equipment. So essentially the two parties are

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Speaker 1: in communicado. At this point, conditions are incredibly overcast, so

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Speaker 1: noon isn't able to help guide them. And then nothing,

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Speaker 1: absolutely nothing. We're not quite sure what happened, but of course,

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Speaker 1: you know, the United States went into a bit of

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Speaker 1: a panic because here was their aviation Darling gone either

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Speaker 1: drowned at sea or washed up on some remote beach.

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Speaker 1: And there was a very very extensive rescue attempt undertaken,

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Speaker 1: the biggest one yet. Yeah, four million dollars, and it

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00:14:41,320 --> 00:14:45,720
Speaker 1: covered about two square miles in ocean, and it was

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Speaker 1: called off in July ninety seven. And here's the real

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Speaker 1: kicker for me. This is so interesting because Amelia Earhart

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Speaker 1: was officially declared dead on January five, nineteen thirty nine,

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Speaker 1: and Noonon was declared dead in June. We didn't want

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Speaker 1: to give up, hope, they didn't right they really didn't

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Speaker 1: want to let her go. And there was the Golden

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Speaker 1: Girl right and putnam to I mean, that was his

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00:15:08,680 --> 00:15:11,200
Speaker 1: wife out there, and she had written to him before

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Speaker 1: she even left on this monumental voyage. Please, now, I

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Speaker 1: am quite aware of the hazards. I want to do

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Speaker 1: it because I want to do it. Women must try

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Speaker 1: to do things as men have tried. When they fail,

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Speaker 1: their failure must be but a challenge to others. So

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Speaker 1: that brings us to what exactly did happen to Amelia Earhart?

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Speaker 1: And there are several theories out there, and some of

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Speaker 1: them are are much more conspiracy theory like than based

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Speaker 1: in some sort of evidentiary fact. And we're going to

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Speaker 1: cover as many as we can and as many as

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Speaker 1: we were able to happen upon no part intended there.

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Speaker 1: One of the most famous is probably that she was

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Speaker 1: captured by the Japanese and that she was taken to

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Speaker 1: Saipan and put to death, and that she was actually

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Speaker 1: a spy for the Japanese. Actually, that was quite a

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Speaker 1: common rumor at the time, because you have to remember

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Speaker 1: to put it in context that this is when there's

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Speaker 1: very much a policy of isolationism and people not wanting

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Speaker 1: the United States to get involved in World War Two,

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Speaker 1: So there was a lot of controversy over that, and

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Speaker 1: the idea that she was flying halfway across the world.

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Speaker 1: Well maybe she was by and some have even gone

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Speaker 1: as far as to say that she was captured by

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Speaker 1: the Japanese and she became Tokyo Rose. Isn't that interesting?

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Speaker 1: And her husband George listened to recordings of Tokyo Rose

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Speaker 1: and said that the voice was not Amelia's. And one

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Speaker 1: of the other theories um was that she survived the crash,

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Speaker 1: she and Noon and both and just went to live

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Speaker 1: on one of the islands until they starved to death,

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Speaker 1: which it's very sad to think about, but it was

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Speaker 1: likely more possible than becoming Tokyo Rose, right precisely. Other

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Speaker 1: reports say that she was living in a disguised type

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Speaker 1: of retirement after all of these supposed admissions for the

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Speaker 1: government or else, trying to find out a graceful way

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Speaker 1: to back out of this very celebrated career. And she

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00:17:03,680 --> 00:17:06,680
Speaker 1: was either in Chicago or she was in New York.

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Speaker 1: Under the pseudonym Irene Bolom, and his name is significant.

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Speaker 1: It was supposed to represent I believe the latitude and

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Speaker 1: longitude where she was supposed of the name of a

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Speaker 1: beach where she was supposed to have landed. I don't

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00:17:21,280 --> 00:17:26,200
Speaker 1: even quite understand how that works. But um, poor Irene Balm,

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Speaker 1: she swore up and down, no, I am not Amelia

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00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:32,520
Speaker 1: Earhart and sued them eventually. Right, they were publishers who

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00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:35,320
Speaker 1: put together a book based on this theory, and Bolm

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00:17:35,320 --> 00:17:37,520
Speaker 1: was having no part of it. And a lot of

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00:17:37,560 --> 00:17:40,480
Speaker 1: people thought in general that it was a staged accident,

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Speaker 1: that that was her point all along, and it was,

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00:17:42,760 --> 00:17:45,160
Speaker 1: you know, her way out of that way of life, right,

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Speaker 1: And so her sister actually stated, uh, this is Muriel

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Speaker 1: Earhart Morrissey. That she inquired directly to the Japanese government,

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Speaker 1: do you have my sister? And the answer was a

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00:17:58,840 --> 00:18:02,399
Speaker 1: very strong no, we don't. And she held the belief

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00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:04,960
Speaker 1: that the plane just simply ran out of fuel and

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00:18:05,040 --> 00:18:07,800
Speaker 1: it crashed under the bottom of the ocean. And that's

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00:18:07,800 --> 00:18:11,159
Speaker 1: the most accepted theory now, the crash and sink theory,

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00:18:11,280 --> 00:18:14,320
Speaker 1: I believe they call it, which is pretty self explanatory, right,

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Speaker 1: And it is believable to think that her plane crashed

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Speaker 1: and that a four million dollar search effort at the

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00:18:21,280 --> 00:18:24,960
Speaker 1: time could not recover the wreckage because in order to

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00:18:25,440 --> 00:18:28,119
Speaker 1: find the wreckage they would have had to have searched

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Speaker 1: about seventeen thousand feet deep in the ocean. And keep

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Speaker 1: in mind, if she's around the Pacific Islands, there would

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00:18:34,640 --> 00:18:37,119
Speaker 1: have been debris from other ships from World War Two.

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Speaker 1: So in order to identify Amelia Earhart's plane, not only

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Speaker 1: would wreckage have to be located, but search crews would

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Speaker 1: have had to have found the exact serial number that

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Speaker 1: matched her playing and so hard search and rescue efforts

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00:18:52,119 --> 00:18:55,320
Speaker 1: at the time were very They weren't based on as

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Speaker 1: much science as we have now. I mean, you'd have

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00:18:57,119 --> 00:19:00,760
Speaker 1: to be thinking about stuff like currents and the weather

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00:19:00,800 --> 00:19:03,520
Speaker 1: conditions at the time. And to be fair, they weren't

336
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Speaker 1: even entirely sure where she was going. They think she

337
00:19:06,280 --> 00:19:09,520
Speaker 1: got knocked off course, um by a few by several

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Speaker 1: miles actually, but who knows. They just have that last

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Speaker 1: radio transmission, So there were several hours between then and

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Speaker 1: probably when she crashed. There are two interesting academic theories

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Speaker 1: that I wanted to discuss because both of them come

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Speaker 1: with a lot of evidentiary support and they're pretty interesting,

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Speaker 1: and they suggest that the plane went down in different locations.

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Speaker 1: And the first is from the International Group for Historic

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Speaker 1: Aircraft Recovery, who thinks that after she couldn't get in

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Speaker 1: touch with the Atasca, she turned her plane southeast and

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Speaker 1: flew toward Gardner Island. And this is a considerably larger

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Speaker 1: tract of land right, and it's pretty topographically distinct. There's

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Speaker 1: a large lagoon in the middle and an interesting landmark

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Speaker 1: too erect freighter. So she could have seen this island

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Speaker 1: and thought maybe that was the Atasca. Well, there you go,

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00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:01,720
Speaker 1: and there plenty of room to land, so she could

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Speaker 1: have brought her plane safely down on the beach. And

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Speaker 1: if the plane went down on the beach and she

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Speaker 1: and Noonan walked inland just a little bit, it would

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Speaker 1: explain some strange radio messages that were picked up that

357
00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:18,760
Speaker 1: came at hours intervals of each other, and it was

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Speaker 1: a voice that sounded similar to Amelia's trying to help

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00:20:22,080 --> 00:20:26,639
Speaker 1: give some geographical bearings and trying to give some directions

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00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:29,120
Speaker 1: to where she could be found. And if they came

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Speaker 1: hours apart, that might be because as the tide came

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00:20:32,359 --> 00:20:36,720
Speaker 1: in on Gardner Island, the plane would get covered by water,

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00:20:36,800 --> 00:20:38,800
Speaker 1: and in order to power the radio from the plane's

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Speaker 1: right engine. She had to wait for the tide to

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Speaker 1: go out, which makes perfect sense, I think, and it's

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Speaker 1: a really interesting theory it does. And a search of

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Speaker 1: the island and turned up airplane debris, a skeleton and

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Speaker 1: a woman's shoe, and the skeleton was examined and at

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Speaker 1: first I was identified as uh An older pollen Asian man, no,

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Speaker 1: not Amelia, but then another inquiry said that it was

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Speaker 1: probably a European man, and then the skeleton was lost,

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Speaker 1: but an examination of the notes said that it was

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Speaker 1: actually a Tallish woman of European descent, somewhere between about

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Speaker 1: five ft five five ft nine that actually could have

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Speaker 1: been Amelia. And then other searches turned up cigarette lighters

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Speaker 1: which Noonan smoked so it could have been his, a

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Speaker 1: man's shoe, and plexiglass debris that matched era herts planes windows.

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Speaker 1: You have to wonder what happened to that skeleton. I know,

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00:21:39,200 --> 00:21:42,040
Speaker 1: I know well, and this information seems pretty convincing. So

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Speaker 1: I was pretty much sold on Gardner Island. And then

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Speaker 1: I read about and so I read about this other theory,

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00:21:48,480 --> 00:21:52,080
Speaker 1: which is that in five Australian soldiers on the island

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00:21:52,119 --> 00:21:55,160
Speaker 1: of New Britain were tracing through the jungle and they

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00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:58,440
Speaker 1: found record of a plane and it was practically overgrown

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00:21:58,760 --> 00:22:00,560
Speaker 1: by all the foliage. It was so done so they

386
00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:03,240
Speaker 1: could barely get to it, but they managed to get

387
00:22:04,480 --> 00:22:07,439
Speaker 1: a piece of the plane and a map that they

388
00:22:07,480 --> 00:22:10,240
Speaker 1: found near it, which had some numbers written on it,

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00:22:10,359 --> 00:22:14,000
Speaker 1: sip as three H one c N ten fifty five.

390
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Speaker 1: And these numbers actually correspond to the construction horsepower and

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Speaker 1: number of engines on air Hurts plane, which I don't know.

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Speaker 1: I don't want to make a judgment. I'm not here

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Speaker 1: to analyze. I'm here to offer the facts because we

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00:22:28,359 --> 00:22:30,440
Speaker 1: don't know the answer. And that's the cool thing. They're

395
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Speaker 1: all these fascinating loose ends that may never actually be

396
00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:38,240
Speaker 1: solved for us historical mystery for sure, but also it's

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Speaker 1: it's nice to remember Amelia not just for her disappearance,

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Speaker 1: which is certainly spawned a number of salacious conspiracy theories,

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Speaker 1: but for the fact that she was a very important

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Speaker 1: figure and early feminist movement. Her beliefs about women being

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00:22:55,400 --> 00:22:57,760
Speaker 1: capable of great feats and being able to try and

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Speaker 1: accomplish and even do better things that men had done first.

403
00:23:01,320 --> 00:23:04,919
Speaker 1: These are still relevant concerns and one of my favorite

404
00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:06,840
Speaker 1: quotes from her, it's pretty simple, but to me it

405
00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:10,160
Speaker 1: pretty much sums up Amelia Earhart is that flying may

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Speaker 1: not be all planes sailing, but the fun of it

407
00:23:12,240 --> 00:23:15,400
Speaker 1: is worth the price. And she was never walking into

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00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:18,080
Speaker 1: any of these flights thinking that it wouldn't all be fine,

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00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:20,600
Speaker 1: you know. She she knew it was dangerous when she

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00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:23,120
Speaker 1: undertook that last flight, she knew it was dangerous when

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Speaker 1: she took her other flights. She'd even croushed a plane before,

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Speaker 1: I believe with Nita Snook, But she wanted to do

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Speaker 1: in any ways because it was worth it to her exactly.

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Speaker 1: And I think that's important advice to look by for sure.

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Speaker 1: And if you want to learn more about Amelia Earhart

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Speaker 1: in the history of flight, be sure to check out

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Speaker 1: the website at how stuff works dot com. For more

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Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff

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Speaker 1: works dot com and be sure to check out the

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Speaker 1: Stuff you missed in History Class blog on the how

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Speaker 1: stuff works dot Com home page