Latest news with #LockheedElectra10E
Chicago Tribune
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Amelia Earhart soars back into the headlines in new book ‘The Aviator and the Showman'
Where's Amelia? We're still looking, though recent events seem to offer the possibility, the I emphasize, that we may find out what happened to aviatrix Amelia Earhart, who, along with navigator Fred Noonan, vanished in their twin-engine Lockheed Model 10E Electra as they attempted to fly around the world. Here's a recent report from Travel Noire: 'U.S. researchers have announced a new mission to locate Amelia Earhart's lost plane. … The expedition … follows compelling satellite imagery that potentially shows parts of Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10E protruding from the sand on Nikumaroro, a remote island in Kiribati, approximately 1,000 miles from Fiji.' We shall see. But this 'news' has popped Earhart back into the news. She vanished in 1937, 88 years ago if you're counting, and few mysteries have been as durable, few people as eternally alluring as Earhart. You would be hard-pressed to find a contemporary comparison to match her. She has an official agent and website. Hilary Swank played her in a movie. There have been many books. And there's Amelia Earhart Elementary School at 1710 E. 93rd St. in the city's Calumet Heights neighborhood. Also an exciting new book, 'The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made an American Icon' by Laurie Gwen Shapiro. Set for formal publication on July 15, it has already created a buzz, with a lengthy excerpt in The New Yorker magazine and a number of favorable reviews. David Grann, the author of such bestsellers as 'The Wager' and 'Killers of the Flower Moon,' says the book is 'an exhilarating tale of the adventurous life of Amelia Earhart and the remarkable relationship that helped to forge her legend … stripping away the myths and revealing something far more profound and intricate and true.' Publishers Weekly calls it a 'nuanced reprisal of Earhart's life (that) certainly tarnishes her reputation, but thereby makes her saga all the more captivating.' And makes the story of her husband all the more disgusting. His name was George Palmer Putnam, who had published aviator Charles Lindbergh's hugely successful life story before he met Earhart. On the prowl for another such novelty and hero, he glommed onto her, taken by her modest accomplishments but also her physical attractiveness and charisma. He wooed her and he promoted her. He's the one who gave her the 'Lady Lindy' tag and further cemented their relationship by having her write her own book, tour the country in her own plane, give hundreds of interviews, embark on a lecture tour, serve as the 'aviation editor' of Cosmopolitan magazine and endorse all sorts of products, including cigarettes. Smart he was, shrewd too. And a master manipulator who left his own wife to marry Earhart. (And, unusually for the time, Earhart did not adopt Putnam's last name). No question he pushed her but did he push her too far? Read the book. But know that you will find a man about whom writer Gore Vidal, whose father was a partner with Putnam and Earhart in an aviation venture, said, 'I never knew anyone who liked Putnam. It was quite interesting. Everybody who knew him disliked him. Some people disliked him and found him amusing and some people disliked him and found him unamusing.' Certainly, many of you know some basics of Earhart's life and a few know of her local connections, even though she wasn't here long. Born and raised in Kansas in 1897, she and her family moved around a bit before coming here in 1914. Her father, Edwin, was a lawyer with a dangerous relationship with booze, and her mother, also named Amelia but called Amy, was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. So, in 1914, Amy and her two daughters (Amelia and Muriel) came to Chicago at the invitation of friends and lived in the Beverly neighborhood home of their friends. Amelia, soon to begin her senior year, found the chemistry lab at nearby Morgan Park High School looked 'just like a kitchen sink.' So she traveled north to spend her senior year at the highly regarded Hyde Park High School, graduating as a member of the class of 1915. She did little to distinguish herself — no activities noted in the yearbook — and then it was off to college. She worked as a social worker and got hooked on airplanes. She had her first flying lesson early in 1921 and, in six months, bought her first plane. In 1928, she was asked to be a passenger with male aviators on a flight across the Atlantic Ocean, emphasis on . Together with pilot Bill Stultz and co-pilot Louis Gordon, she flew in the airplane Friendship, acting as navigator on the flight. On June 18, after 20 hours of flying, they landed in Wales and she became the first woman to cross the Atlantic by air. Acclaim was fast and furious. After lively visits to New York City and Boston, she came here and the celebrations and events were all but overwhelming. She visited Hyde Park High School, where a band played 'Back in Your Own Back Yard'; spoke at the Union League Club and at Orchestra Hall; was cheered by large crowds as she was paraded through the Loop; heard about Mayor Thompson's idea for a lakefront airport to be named Amelia Earhart Field. Headlines blared: 'Old Hyde Park School Friends Fete Girl Flyer.' Earhart spoke: 'I've always loved Chicago.' Famous forever for being lost, there is no denying that she was an inspiration for self-determined feminists and everyday daredevils, but I now think of her also as shy and vulnerable, a victim of shrewd manipulation by a slick operator. Doris Rich, author of 'Amelia Earhart: A Biography,' published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1989, has said, 'The one thing that she really feared was that nothing would happen. She had to have an important life, and that meant you had to have adventure.' That she did, but at what cost?
USA Today
03-07-2025
- Science
- USA Today
Could Amelia Earhart's plane be in this lagoon? New expedition plans to find out
After nearly a century, the disappearance of Amelia Earhart while she was attempting to fly around the world remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the 20th century. For decades, many top-dollar expeditions have attempted to locate Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10E airplane to no avail despite great advancements in technology. But a new expedition may just be what one official described as the "greatest opportunity ever" to finally bookend the enduring mystery. On Wednesday, the Purdue Research Foundation and the Archaeological Legacy Institute announced a joint-effort to locate Earhart's plane in a lagoon off a Pacific island between Australia and Hawaii, where a popular theory suggests Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, may have landed on May 20, 1937. A field team of researchers on Nov. 5 will journey by sea to the island Nikumaroro, part of the Phoenix Islands in the western Pacific Ocean, to determine whether a visual anomaly known as the "Taraia Object," seen in satellite and other imagery in the island's lagoon, is what remains of Earhart's plane. The effort is the latest to try and confirm whether an object captured in satellite or sonar imaging is the missing plane. Last year, an ocean exploration company conducted a deep-sea search within 100 miles of Howland Island, where Earhart and Noonan were last expected to land, after spotting what they believed to be the wreckage of the Electra 10E. It turned out to be a rock formation. But the search team conducting the upcoming expedition on Nikumaroro say they're optimistic, citing a "vast amount of circumstantial evidence" indicating the "Taraia Object" may just be the long lost aircraft. "With such a great amount of very strong evidence, we feel we have no choice but to move forward and hopefully return with proof," said Richard Pettigrew, Archaeological Legacy Institute's executive director, in a statement. "I look forward to collaborating with Purdue Research Foundation in writing the final chapter in Amelia Earhart's remarkable life story.' Evidence suggests Earhart landed on Nikumaroro, researchers say The organizers of the expedition have pointed to the long-running theory that Earhart and Noonan did not crash into the ocean but instead landed on the uninhabited of Nikumaroro and later perished there. Evidence of this theory includes radio bearings that converge on Nikumaroro, an analysis of human bones discovered on the island that are similar to Earhart's bone-lengths, and a number of artifacts including a woman's shoe, a compact case and a medicine vial that have also been discovered there, according to the Purdue Research Foundation. Additionally, a photographic anomaly captured three months after the plane vanished in 1937 appears to show a landing gear on the Nikumaroro reef. More recently in 2020, researchers managed to again spot the "Taraia Object," which has been in the same place on the island's lagoon since 1938. For nearly a century, Earhart's disappearance has been subject to a wide variety of theories, the most widely accepted explanation being that Earhart and Noonan ran out of fuel and crashed in the ocean. Some of the more implausible and disputed theories posit that the flight was part of a secret spy mission, that Earhart assumed another identity or that Earhart and Noonan were captured by a foreign government. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, a nonprofit organization based in Pennsylvania, is responsible for collecting much of the evidence supporting the Nikumaroro hypothesis. The upcoming expedition will depart from Majuro in the Marshall Islands on Nov. 5 and spend five days on Nikumaroro inspecting the "Taraia Object," according to the Purdue Research Foundation. If the initial expedition proves successful, the field team plans to return in 2026 to uncover and help return what remains of Earhart's plane, the foundation said. Who was Amelia Earhart? Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas, on July 24, 1897. She rode in an airplane for the first time in 1920 and soon began taking flying lessons. Within a year, she obtained a pilot's license and went on to set a women's altitude record, reaching the height of 14,000 feet in October 1922. A decade later, she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, journeying from Newfoundland to Northern Ireland. She then ventured on a solo flight across the United States. It was in 1936 that she began planning her most ambitious journey yet – a flight around the world. According to the Purdue Research Foundation, Earhart, who was a visiting adviser and counselor at the university, had prepared for the historic trip with the help of Purdue's then-president Edward Elliott. The university's research foundation also helped fund the Lockheed Electra 10E plane that was specifically outfitted for Earhart's global trip. Earhart had intended to give the plane to Purdue after her historic flight so it could be used to further scientific research in aeronautics, the foundation said. Amelia Earhart's final flight Earhart and Noonan departed from Oakland, California, on May 20, 1937. According to the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, they made 29 additional stops, including their last known refuel stop in Lae, Papua New Guinea, on July 2 at 10 a.m. Nearing the end of their historic trip, Earhart and Noonan were due on Howland Island – about 2,500 miles away from Lae and set between Australia and Hawaii – where U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca was waiting with fuel. Itasca received intermittent voice messages from Earhart as her signal increased. But neither Earhart nor Noonan knew Morse code, so there was no two-way contact, according to the Smithsonian Institute's analysis of government records. After losing contact, the Navy and Coast Guard searched about 250,000 square miles of ocean in search of Earhart and Noonan. On Jan. 5, 1939, they were declared legally dead. Now, with the joint expedition on the horizon, university leaders and researchers are hopeful they'll be able to definitively answer the question, "What happened to Amelia Earhart?" 'Based on the evidence, we agree with (Archaeological Legacy Institute) that this expedition offers the best chance not only to solve perhaps the greatest mystery of the 20th century, but also to fulfill Amelia's wishes and bring the Electra home," said Steven Schultz, senior vice president and general counsel of Purdue University. Contributing: Jillian Ellison, Lafayette Journal & Courier; Clare Mulroy and Samantha Shafiq, USA TODAY
CBS News
02-07-2025
- Science
- CBS News
New expedition will seek to locate Amelia Earhart's lost plane in the Pacific Ocean
An expedition to a remote and tiny island this fall will attempt to locate Amelia Earhart's plane in the Pacific Ocean. The effort, announced Wednesday by the Purdue Research Foundation and Archaeological Legacy Institute, will focus on a "visual anomaly" in satellite and other imagery in a lagoon at Nikumaroro, an island located between Hawaii and Australia. Nikumaroro was previously known as Gardner Island. A team will travel in November to inspect what is dubbed the Taraia Object to find out if it is Earhart's aircraft. "What we have here is maybe the greatest opportunity ever to finally close the case," Richard Pettigrew, the institute's executive director, said in a news release. "With such a great amount of very strong evidence, we feel we have no choice but to move forward and hopefully return with proof." Amelia Earhart at a refueling stop in Khartoum, Sudan, with the Lockheed Electra 10E in which she was attempting a circumnavigational flight of the world, June 13, 1937. On a subsequent stage of the journey, Earhart and Noonan disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island and were later presumed dead. Getty Images Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the central Pacific 88 years ago on July 2. Flying a Lockheed 10-E Electra, Earhart was trying to become the first female aviator to circle the world when they vanished. Various theories have since emerged about their fate. One of them suggests Earhart landed instead of crashed, and was marooned on an island where she died. As the Purdue Research Foundation and Archaeological Legacy Institute note, this idea is called the Nikumaroro hypothesis. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, a nonprofit organization based in Pennsylvania, has collected evidence it says supports the theory. A field team plans to travel from the Marshall Islands on Nov. 5 and spend five days inspecting the Taraia Object, the foundation and Archaeological Legacy Institute said in its news release. If the effort confirms the plane's identity, excavations will take place next year to try to return what remains of the aircraft. Earhart worked for Purdue University, and the Purdue Research Foundation helped fund her attempted flight around the world, the news release said. "Both Earhart and her husband and manager, George Putnam, expressed their intention to return the Electra to Purdue after her historic flight," Steven Schultz, senior vice president and general counsel of Purdue University, said. "Based on the evidence, we agree with ALI that this expedition offers the best chance not only to solve perhaps the greatest mystery of the 20th century, but also to fulfill Amelia's wishes and bring the Electra home."
NBC News
02-07-2025
- Science
- NBC News
Researchers announce new effort to find Amelia Earhart's plane
Researchers on Wednesday announced a new expedition to find Amelia Earhart's plane, based on evidence that suggests the famed aviator may have crash-landed on a remote island in the South Pacific. A satellite photo may appear to show the remains of Earhart's plane peeking through the sand on the small, remote and inhospitable island lagoon of Nikumaroro in Kiribati, nearly 1,000 miles from Fiji, according to Richard Pettigrew, the executive director of the nonprofit Archaeological Legacy Institute in Oregon. In one of the world's most intriguing mysteries, Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan vanished while attempting to fly around the world exactly 88 years ago on July 2, 1937. Now, Purdue University — which had employed Earhart and helped fund her historic flight — said it will send a team to Nikumaroro in November in hopes of digging up her Lockheed Electra 10E aircraft and returning what's left of it. 'We believe we owe it to Amelia and her legacy at Purdue to fulfill her wishes, if possible, to bring the Electra back to Purdue,' Steve Schultz, Purdue's general counsel, said. The satellite photo was captured in 2015, a year after an intense tropical cyclone shifted the sand, potentially revealing the plane, said Pettigrew, who took the evidence to Purdue. He said the size and composition of the object matches Earhart's plane. The location is also close to Earhart's planned flight path and almost precisely where four of her radio calls for help seem to originate, said Pettigrew, who has traveled to Nikumaroro. 'It satisfies all the criteria,' he said. 'Everything fits.' The archaeologist, who has tried to solve Earhart's disappearance for years, said other evidence, including the discovery of American-made tools and a medicine vial, suggests Earhart may have been on Nikumaroro. And in 2017, four forensic dogs and a team of archaeologists with the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) ventured to Nikumaroro, where the canines indicated they had detected the scent of human remains, according to National Geographic. Still, there's been no clear proof of her presence there, Pettigrew said, and the object seen in the satellite photo has been elusive. In images taken since 2015, it is hidden under the sand again, he said. 'What we lack now so far is what you call, what I call the smoking gun evidence,' he said. TIGHAR executive director Ric Gillespie doubts they will find that proof. Gillespie's team on The Earhart Project has conducted a dozen expeditions over 35 years and recovered other physical evidence they believe shows Nikumaroro is where Earhart landed and died. But he believes the object in the satellite image is a coconut palm tree with a root ball, washed up in a storm. 'We've looked there in that spot, and there's nothing there,' he said. Gillespie, who published the book "One More Good Flight: The Amelia Earhart Tragedy" last year, said the plane would not be hidden in the sand but buried in coral rubble. 'I understand the desire to find a piece of Amelia Earhart's airplane. God knows we've tried,' he said. 'But the data, the facts, do not support the hypothesis. It's as simple as that.' Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. The trailblazer worked at Purdue, serving as a career counselor for women and an adviser on its aeronautical engineering department, from 1935 until her disappearance in 1937, according to the university's website. Schultz, Purdue's general counsel, said Earhart's post-flight plan was to return the plane to the school to be studied by future aeronautical engineers and aviation students. The Purdue Research Foundation has given the first phase of the expedition a line of credit of $500,000, Schultz said. It will take six days for the team of explorers to get to Nikumaroro by boat in November, he said. They'll then have another five days on the island to find the object in the sand and identify it as the missing plane. 'If we hopefully solve the mystery and confirm that it is, then there will be further efforts to bring it back, hopefully to a permanent home,' Schultz said.
