Is it just me or does Amelia come off as an arrogant and smug little twit to other people as well?
I don’t know...but seems the MSM loves to be conned by attractive simpletons who could not ‘make-it’ in a real world one-on-one with real world odds and actual facts. Amelia was only a so-so pilot and a worse navigator. How other experienced flyers didn’t warn her off her exploit is beyond me.
Lindbergh was another one of these flying, featherbrain simpletons. Maybe he was a better flyer than she was but he sure wasn’t real level-headed, politically.
I think I reached the saturation point with MSM manufactured ‘heroes’ a very long time ago. However, the American eagerness for these dubious deities is ravenous…and public discernment in assessing their authenticity is constrained by nothing!!!!
From my limited experience as a private pilot, that's been my conclusion also. The MSM adoration of her was boosted by her “first woman across the Atlantic” claim, which, as it turns out, she did with another (male) pilot. Yes, she was part of an important step in putting more women into the air. Let's just not put her on too high a pedestal. I wold also point out that she and Noonan likely died due to an overdose of ego. Backup plans are the name of the game, and she had none.
America has no royals, so we manufacture them from coast to coast. If they don’t come from a casting couch, they come from Camelot. ;)
>”Amelia was only a so-so pilot and a worse navigator.”
A few years ago, I saw on TV, a documentary on her life. Even the producers had to admit she couldn’t fly worth a darn and navigated even worse than that. Seems I want to say she had 3 or 4 major accidents, but cant remember the particulars. (I think most of them were on landing).
As some have stated, I think was a case of pandering to the press, to become famous for doing something she probably shouldn’t have been doing.
Virtually no one knows that this “aviator” was a manufactured publicity stunt. Once Lindberg had done his remarkable flying (and he was a very capable pilot), there was a fellow (I’ve forgotten his name) who realized that in the social environment of 1920s feminism there was money to be made by promoting a woman as essentially a female “Lindberg”. Earhardt fit the bill because she was young, pretty, and could give a good interview. As for her flying skils, she was the Kara Hultgren of her day - not up to the tasks put in front of her, and ultimately she killed herself and someone else.
Is it just me or does Amelia come off as an arrogant and smug little twit to other people as well?
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We never met.
It’s a compelling story for those so inclined. You are not, apparently, so inclined.
That hardly makes those of us who are interested guilty of a lack of discernment by any stretch. But I’m sure you feel better having gotten that off of your chest.
“and a worse navigator”
Her navigator was as good as they come. Pioneered the routes for the Pan Am clippers. Even that said, extreme range overwater flights were a very dangerous undertaking back then. Many things could go wrong, and apparently one did for those two.
In many flights of that nature, in that era, a picket line of destroyers was deployed along the route to assist navigation and provide rescue. That’s how much success was anticipated.
Whatever we think of her skills, that was a brave thing to try. An inch or two on the map or the pacific can take on terrifying proportions in reality.
Lindbergh was a genius in the cockpit. I read a story about his exploits in the Pacific. As a tech rep, he taught our guys how to extend the range of Corsairs and P-38s farther than anyone ever dreamed was possible. He flew numerous unofficial combat missions. He was basically exiled to the pacific because of his political mistakes.
Howard Hughes was another amazing flyer. His later mental degeneration is sad,, but he was another pioneer.
So many of those early fliers were basically loners who had extremely poor social skills. I guess it kind of fits, if you think about it for a minute.
Are you a pilot? Just curious.