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