Posted on 06/27/2014 7:25:23 AM PDT by re_tail20
Seventy-seven years ago, aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart disappeared over the south pacific, attempting to circumnavigate the globe.
Today, another Amelia Earhart takes off from Oakland, California to finish what her namesake started, CBS news correspondent Barry Petersen reports.
Her parents named her Amelia Rose Earhart, and she is flying the same route that her predecessor did in 1937 -- an 18-day, 28,000-mile trip around the world.
"They said, you know, we wanna give her a positive role model. And also give her a name that nobody will ever forget. And that's certainly been the case," Earhart said.
She took her first flying lesson when she was 21, and then found a career as a TV traffic reporter. Now her parent's decision, and her determination, are coming together as she prepares for her trip.
"We've got a small hand-held device which will allow us to send out texts and tweets through GPS satellite," Earhart said.
The cockpit remains a mostly male domain. Today women make up only about 5 percent of commercial airline pilots. To her, the voyage is as much about the future of female fliers as their past.
She recounts a conversation she had recently while taking a photograph in front of an aircraft: "A gentleman walked up and asked me if I wanted a pilot in the shot," Earhart told CBS News. "I said, 'sir, there is a pilot in the shot', and he said, 'oh, am I in it?' I said, no 'I'm going to go fly this airplane!'"
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Is she going to fly a Lockheed Electra?
Is she planning on reenacting the crash ?
Actually, a Pilatus PC-12 NG single-propeller monoplane.
Amelia A. vs Amelia M.
Not guilty!
Scuhhhh-rooooooooooooooooo that, homm-bray.
She looks great in the cockpit.
That is a wonderful thing she is doing, but what are they thinking. How is she going to navigate the middle east?
If she lands anywhere near Obama’s homies, she will have big problems. Just wondering.
I’m impressed, but I’d be more impressed it she were flying a Lockeheed Electra!
My recollection of the current Amelia Earhart is her doing traffic reports in Denver for a local media outlet.
That was my thought as well.
She’s a local traffic reporter - not a daring rough adventuress.
Leave it to other, more daring, women to fly the vintage Lockheed Electra around the world and make it. She’ll settle for state - of - the - art now, just as the Lockheed Electra was state - of - the - art then.
She’ll most definitely be the first “Amelia Earhart” to actually make it all the way.
And let’s hope she doesn’t suffer the same fate as Earhart 1.0.
My father, an WWII Navy vet, was convinced that Earhart and Noonan ditched close to Gardner Island - maybe even landed on the island - but they likely both suffered injuries as a result and died not long after that.
If the plane landed on Gardner, he always figured it was likely swept out to sea, probably within a few days, so he reckoned more that they ditched really close to the island, made it ashore, and the rest, as they say, is history.
She will need a navigator who drinks a lot like Amelia Earhart had. I think his name was Wrong Way Feldman.
She's going to drive a Plymouth Satellite, faster than the speed of light.
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