Amelia Earhart might be the most famous female pilot of all time, but her career path wasn't always rooted in aviation.
Despite a rocky few years attending six schools in just four years, Earhart showed a promising aptitude for chemistry and in spite of her parents' difficult relationship, the future looked bright.
After graduating from high school, Earhart went to spend Christmas with her sister in Toronto, Canada, and it was there she witnessed first hand the plight of wounded soldiers returning home from World War I.
Feeling compelled to help, she volunteered as a nurse's aid and began caring for a number of wounded veterans including many pilots.
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Earhart was inspired by her time caring for pilots to start spending her spare time watching the Royal Flying Corps practicing at an airfield nearby.
Despite having already fallen in love with aviation, she went on to enrol in medical studies at Columbia University in 2019, however, she quit after just one year to be with her parents in California.
Not long afterwards, Earhart attended an air show at Long Beach, where she took a 10 minute ride with pilot Frank Hawks that changed the trajectory of her life.
From this moment on, she knew she wanted to become a pilot, and so she started working any jobs she could get to fund flying lessons with Anita 'Neta' Snook, a pioneer aviator who went on to become Earhart's mentor.
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By May 1923, she became just the 16th woman in the world to receive a pilot's licence from The Federation Aeronautique, the world governing body for aeronautics.
Despite having bought her own second-hand Kinner Airster biplane in 1921, which she painted yellow and named 'the Canary', Earhart was forced to sell her plane and abandon her dreams of making a career out of aviation when her family completely ran out of money in 1924.
The following year, she enrolled in the medical studies course at Columbia once again but had to pull out due to lack of finances. Instead, she found work as a teacher, before going on to become a social worker; a far cry from her dreams as an explorer.
Fortunately, after a couple of years of paid employment under her belt, Earhart managed to get back into flying, becoming a member of the American Aeronautical Society’s Boston chapter and starting a role in sales for Kinner aeroplanes.
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By April 2028, she had received the call of a lifetime, inviting her to become the first woman to fly across the Atlantic and two months later, she took flight. Despite the significance of her presence on the flight, Earhart later revealed she felt like 'baggage' on the plane and vowed to do the journey solo one day.
In May 1932, that dream became a reality and she made history as the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, cementing her place in aviation history.
Then, on March 17, 1937, Earhart began her journey to become the first person to circumnavigate the earth, until her disappearance on July 2.
The story of what happened to the pioneer pilot has remained a mystery for nearly a century, but that could be set to change very soon.
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Researchers announced on 2 July that there was a fresh expedition launched to find Earhart’s plane, based on evidence of her crash may have been found.
A satellite photo showed what looked to be the same shape of Earhart’s plane peeking through the sand the island of Nikumaroro in Kiribati, nearly 1,000 miles from Fiji.
Topics: History
Emma Rosemurgey