The world flight began on St. Patrick’s Day, 1937. Late in the afternoon, Amelia took off from a muddy Oakland, California field and headed for Honolulu. In addition to her technical advisor, she had on board two experienced navigators, Captain Harry Manning and Fred Noonan, an expert in celestial navigation.
Captain Manning was an experienced ship’s captain and navigator who was slow with Morse code. Throughout the flight, he worked the telegraph key. In her log Amelia wrote, At daylight the generator went out. Harry has held the key down so long it grew tired….” Throughout the night Amelia experienced icing problems and propeller difficulties. The plane landed successfully at Wheeler Field after a 15 hour, 43 minute flight. They had established an east-west record.
While at Honolulu, the plane was prepared for the long flight. The next stop was Howland Island, a tiny speck of land in the Pacific Ocean, a mile and a half long, a half mile wide and only eighteen feet above the water. This was the most critical leg of the entire flight and there was no room for error.
On the morning of March 20th, the heavily fuel loaded Electra, took off. Half way down the runway, a tire blew out and Amelia lost control of the plane, causing it to ground loop. She instantly cut off the ignition and prevented the plane from catching fire. The Electra was badly damaged and had to be shipped back to the California factory for repair. Amelia, naturally confident, stated that she would try again.
The second around-the-world flight began two months later, on May 21st, and again from Oakland. This time, because of weather conditions, Amelia reversed her route from west to east. She called this flight across the country a “trial flight,” as it would give her a chance to test the plane. If anything went wrong, she could return to Burbank. When the cross country trip was successful, her husband, George Putnam (GP) made an announcement from Miami that her around-the-world flight had begun again.
Captain Manning’s leave of absence from his ship was over and was unable to join Amelia for the second flight. With the departure of Manning, Amelia’s project lost a valuable capability. Fred Noonan now took full navigator responsibility. Amelia had every confidence in Fred’s navigational skill, and Fred, for his part, was ready to make the long voyage with her.
Picture: Amelia’s flying laboratory on Luke Field just after the tire blew out causing her aircraft to ground loop.
Credit: Leatrice R. Arakaki, Hickam AFB, Hawaii