Tools led to Earhart job

Valley Press on ^ | Sunday, December 16, 2007. | ALLISON GATLIN

[BenLurkin]

One of the enduring mysteries of aviation lore is the disappearance of famed aviator Amelia Earhart. Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared with their aircraft somewhere in the Pacific Ocean during their attempted around-the-world flight in July 1937.

Earhart's ill-fated journey began in Southern California, where her specially modified Lockheed Model 10 Electra was built.

Among those who helped create that aircraft was Don Fowble, a young engineer and mechanic on the Lockheed assembly line.

Now 93 and a resident of Arcadia, Fowble's story is one of the first-person accounts of Earhart's attempt and the massive search effort featured in "The Hunt for Amelia Earhart," by Douglas Westfall.

Fowble was 21 years old when he started work at the Lockheed Aircraft Corp. in 1935.

He had been taking flying lessons at the old Alhambra airport, where he eventually earned his pilot's license.

"That's how all this started," he said.

While working odd jobs, he heard that the Lockheed Aircraft Corp. was hiring.

"I went out and stood in line with a thousand other guys" looking for work, Fowble said.

Because he had flight experience - and his own tools - Fowble got the job working on final assembly of Lockheed aircraft, installing the instruments and electrical systems.

[SunkenCiv]

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