Amelia Earhart Learn English through story level 3

amelia earhart

the first woman to fly alone across the

atlantic

i was the first woman to fly alone

across the atlantic ocean

after that i broke many flying records

but flying was always a dangerous job

a crash in 1937 ended my career

and my life at the age of 39.

[Music]

i was born in atchison in kansas usa

on the 24th of july 1897.

my father was a lawyer who worked for a

railway company

our family lived in kansas until 1907

when we moved to iowa we moved

because my father took a new job there

i was with my father when i saw

an aircraft for the first time

that was in 1908 only five years

after the first heavier-than-air

machines had flown

the owner of the aircraft offered to

take people for short pleasure flights

my father asked me if i wanted to take a

flight with him

[Music]

i looked at the aircraft which was made

of wood

and wire and cloth it looked

very dangerous to me so i didn’t accept

the offer

[Music]

in 1915 our family moved to chicago

and i finished high school there the

next year

in that year 1916 most of europe

was fighting in the first world war

america wasn’t fighting that year but

canada was fighting with britain

against germany when i visited canada

that year

i visited an army hospital

the soldiers in the hospital were badly

hurt

their bodies were injured but often

their minds were injured too

men had lost arms and legs

and men had lost their memories and

their wish to live

i wanted to help these people so i

trained to be a nurse’s assistant

one day after the war ended in 1918

i went to a flying display with a friend

a pilot who had flown in the war did

some stunt flying

he flew very low over our heads in his

little red

aircraft and did dangerous tricks

this time i thought the flying machine

looked exciting

not dangerous it seemed to speak to me

as it flew over us

i remembered that aircraft for many

years afterwards

the next year i had a serious health

problem

my sinuses became infected

as a result i had bad headaches

pains in my head during the next

few years i needed surgery on my sinuses

this happened several times but the

surgery didn’t help much

my parents decided to move to california

one day when i was staying with them my

father

asked me to go to an air display with

him

the date was the 28th of december 1920

and that was a day that changed my life

a pilot called frank hawks offered to

take me on a pleasure flight

the flight lasted for only 10 minutes

but by the time the aircraft had reached

a height of

70 meters i knew that flying was my

future

i also knew that i needed money for

flying lessons

in fact i needed one thousand dollars

my mother gave me some of the money

my first flying lesson was at

kinnerfield

near long beach anita snook

was my flying teacher

she was one of the first american woman

aviators

flying at that time was still a new and

dangerous hobby

but i enjoyed my lessons

within six months i’d bought my own

aircraft it was a secondhand

kinner airster biplane which i called

the canary on the 22nd of october

1922 i flew my aircraft to a height of 4

300 meters that was a new world record

for altitude by a female pilot

soon there were other flights and in may

1923 i earned my pilot’s license

so i was a qualified pilot

but not a very experienced one

pilots with more experience sometimes

warned me about taking risks

they thought that i was careless and

perhaps they were right

in 1924 my headaches

became very bad again they were so bad

that i had to stop flying

i sold my aircraft and i bought a car

i called the car the yellow peril

because of its color

my mother and i drove across the usa in

that car

we drove from los angeles to boston

in boston i had surgery on my sinuses

again

this time the surgery was successful

i was able to fly again although i often

had headaches

in fact i had headaches for the rest of

my life

in 1927 charles lindbergh

became famous when he flew non-stop and

alone

across the atlantic ocean he was

the first pilot to do that

suddenly americans started to think

we can go anywhere and suddenly

everyone who cared about aviation was

excited about

flight across the atlantic

who will be the first woman to do it we

all wondered

[Music]

one famous woman pilot amy

phipps guest was asked to make the

attempt

she thought that the risks were too

great and she refused

but she offered to pay for the attempt

if another woman pilot

wanted to take the risk i knew about

taking risks

and i had at that time completed 500

hours of solo flying

so when i was asked about the idea i was

ready to say yes

on the 17th of june 1928

i did cross the atlantic non-stop by air

but i wasn’t alone there were two other

people in the aircraft

we flew from newfoundland and canada to

wales in britain

it took us 21 hours to complete the

flight

i didn’t fly the aircraft on that trip

i made notes about the flight while the

others

controlled the machine but i made a

decision

next time i’ll be the pilot

i told myself

while i was in britain i bought another

plane

an avro avian 594

and when i returned home i toured the

country

talking about my flying experiences

a man called gp putnam promoted me

as the queen of the air

he published books but he also became

the manager

of my flying career

i became famous as a result of this tour

in fact i became a brand

one company named a brand of luggage

modern air

earhart luggage another company

gave my name to a brand of clothes

soon i and several other woman pilots

started to compete in air races

some of the male pilots tried to make

this difficult for us

they stopped women competing in several

races

perhaps they were jealous of our success

my manager gp putnam wasn’t jealous

he asked me to marry him several times

finally i agreed and gp

and i were married on the 7th of

february 1931.

[Music]

the next year i was ready to make my

solo attempt at the atlantic crossing

i was 34 years old on the 20th of may

1932 i took off from harbor grace

in newfoundland and 15 hours later

i landed near derry in northern ireland

i’d succeeded in my ambition i was the

first woman pilot to fly

solo and non-stop across the atlantic

as a result the american government gave

me a medal

the distinguished flying cross the

french government

gave me a medal too i attempted other

records after that

i made the first solo flight from hawaii

to california

and then a flight from los angeles to

mexico city

and after that i flew from mexico to new

york

could around the world trip be next i

wondered

other people had flown round the world

but i

wanted to do it by the longest route

this meant following the equator the

widest

part of the planet for most of the

journey

in 1935 my husband and i moved from new

york

to california gp

left his job with his family’s

publishing company

because he wanted to work for a film

company in hollywood

in california i did some work at purdue

university talking to women students

about their careers

and supporting their ambitions

and the university decided to support

my ambitions people at the university

helped to pay for my round the world

record attempt

a lockheed 10 e electra was the aircraft

that i chose for this flight

lockheed company put extra fuel

containers in the aircraft for me

but this flight couldn’t be non-stop

i needed to land for refueling and rest

in a lot of places

and i chose to take two navigators and

an

engineer with me on the flight

i wanted to fly the aircraft myself but

i needed to take people to help with

navigation and repairs

i planned to leave these people at the

refueling stops

and fly the last part of the journey

alone

in fact my first attempt to fly around

the world

failed

the aircraft was damaged during takeoff

for the second stage of the flight

but it was possible to repair the damage

and on the 1st of june 1937

i set off again this time

i took only one person with me my

navigator

fred noonan we flew in stages to south

america

to africa to india to southeast asia

and then to australia

we’d completed 35 000 kilometers when we

arrived in lai

in papua new guinea on the 2nd of july

1937 we took off again

we were trying to reach howland island

from there i planned to fly on to hawaii

and then to california howland island

was only 2 000 meters long and 500

meters wide

it was like a tiny dot in the pacific

ocean

and it was 5 000 kilometers from lye

an american navy ship the itasca

was in the harbor at howland island

as we got near the island the ship’s

crew heard

our radio signals they knew that we

weren’t far away

but they couldn’t see us our aircraft

was running out of fuel

and we had to land somewhere either on

an island

or in the sea we hoped that our last

radio message

had been received we hoped

but no help came