Synopses & Reviews
When Amelia Earhart disappeared on July 2, 1937, she was flying the longest leg of her around-the-world flight and was only days away from completing her journey. Her plane was never found, and for more than sixty years rumors have persisted about what happened to her.
Now, with the recent discovery of long-lost radio messages from Earhart's final flight, we can say with confidence that she ran out of gas just short of her destination of Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean. From the beginning of her flight, a series of tragic circumstances all but doomed her and her navigator, Fred Noonan.
Authors Elgen M. and Marie K. Long spent more than twenty-five years researching the mystery surrounding Earhart's final flight before finally determining what happened. They traveled over one hundred thousand miles to interview more than one hundred people who knew some part of the Earhart story. They draw on authoritative sources to take us inside the cockpit of the Electra plane that Earhart flew and recreate the final flight itself. Because Elgen Long began his own flying career not long after Earhart's disappearance, he can describe the equipment and conditions of the time with a vivid first-hand accuracy. As a result, this book brings to life the primitive conditions under which Earhart flew, in an era before radar, with unreliable communications, grass landing strips, and poorly mapped islands.
"Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved" does more than just answer the question, What happened to Amelia Earhart? It reminds us how daring early aviators such as Earhart were as they risked their lives to push the technology of the day to its limits -- and beyond.
Synopsis
Earhart's last days are recreated in gripping detail, based on the authors' expert knowledge and a recently discovered report of the final leg of her fateful around-the-world flight. 40 photos. Maps.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 297-303) and index.
Table of Contents
Contents Preface
1 Tragedy Near Howland Island
2 In the Shadow of History
3 The Legend Begins
4 Preparations for the World Flight
5 The Flight to Honolulu
6 The Crash at Honolulu
7 Preparing for the Second World Flight
8 World Flight Resumes -- Oakland to Miami
9 World Flight -- Miami to Dakar
10 World Flight -- Dakar to Singapore
11 World Flight -- Singapore to Lae, New Guinea
12 Preparing for the Lae-to-Howland Flight
13 The Itasca and Howland Island
14 The Search for Earhart
15 Examining the Evidence
16 Solving the Mystery
Appendix
Flight Log for Earhart's Around-the-World-Flight
The Electra's Fuel Consumption
Notes
Sources
The Authors and Their Contributors
References
Acknowledgments
Index