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Amelia Earhart’s Transatlantic Crossing

In Londonderry, Ireland on 21 May 1932, Amelia Earhart landed her plane after flying solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

Five years after Charles Lindbergh set a world record, Amelia Earhart set out to be the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Earhart had already set a record as the first woman to be on a transatlantic flight, but that was as a passenger.

Earhart left Newfoundland on 20 May 1932, aiming to land in Paris (like Lindy did). After a harrowing flight that included leaky gas and a broken altimeter, Earhart set her Lockheed Vega down in Londonderry, Ireland. She couldn’t quite make it to Paris.

She made the flight in 15 hours and 18 minutes. Charles Lindbergh took twice that long to fly from New York to Paris.

For more on her record-setting career, visit the Who2 biography of Amelia Earhart.

This page from Centenniel of Flight also has a nice summary of her career.

Here’s a brief description from Air Space magazine of “Amelia Earhart’s Irish Soujourn.”

There are some photos of Amelia Earhart on the Flickr page of the National Library of Ireland on The Commons. The Glendale Public Library in California also has a set of photos on Flickr.

From the National Library of Ireland From the Glendale Public Library

For a teaser of video footage of Amelia Earhart’s landing in Londonderry, Ireland, go here.

And finally, for a neat little story about her scarf going up on the space shuttle Atlantis, here’s another piece from Air Space.

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