Realizing the Dream of Flight
Earhart standing in front of the Lockheed Electra in which she disappeared in July 1937. (GRIN database number GPN-2002-000211) about one more good flight left in my system.”38 Yet it was much harder work to pull off this 1937 flight than the 1928 and 1932 Atlantic crossings. The novelty of ocean flying had worn off, the commercial backers and endorsements had all but disappeared, and the syndication deals were drying up. All the major routes had been spanned, and many were now serviced by regularly scheduled air transport. Even flying around the world was not really newsworthy anymore. Between 1924 and 1933, six expeditions had circled the globe, including two by Wiley Post in his Lockheed Vega. The only thing left was to do old routes faster or with another twist or gimmick. Earhart’s novelty was flying around the globe close to the equator, a distance of 27,000 miles, which was 10,000 more than Wiley Post’s solo trip in 1933. And, of course, being a woman made a difference. What was her main motivation? “I am going for the fun,” she said, adding, “Can you think of a better reason?”39 Although her publicist husband could certainly have orchestrated an enthusiastic reception when she returned from her world flight (lecture dates at $500 a shot were already under contract before she left), it was hard to imagine Amelia Earhart receiving 38 New York Herald Tribune syndicate press release (3 July 1937) found in the Amelia Earhart Papers, Purdue Special Collections, Purdue University. 39 Amelia Earhart quoted in the New York Times (30 May 1937): 16.
44