At last, an accurate, authoritative account of the final leg of Amelia Earhart's around-the-world flight, on which she disappeared, based on a reexamination of forgotten radio logs and the authors' flying knowledge of the area where Earhart and her co-pilot disappeared.
One of the enduring mysteries of the last sixty years has been what happened to Amelia Earhart. The famed aviator disappeared on the next-to-last leg of her around-the-world flight - what would have been the first around-the-world flight by any pilot, male or female. The fact that she was a woman only increased Earhart's fame. After Charles Lindbergh she was the most famous aviator of her day.
It is all but impossible to imagine how primitive planes still were in 1937 when Earhart attempted her feat. There was no radar, and even radio communication was unreliable. In addition, the South Pacific, where Earhart went down, was still not well known, and in fact, Howland Island, where she was to land, was incorrectly mapped, a fact not discovered until years later (it was farther from New Guinea, where she had taken off, than believed).
This book is not a biography, of which there are several. It is a book that necessarily includes much biographical information about Earhart, but it is primarily an account of her as a flier and in particular a comprehensive account of her (second) around-the-world flight, which ended with her disappearance.
Speculation about Earhart's disappearance has persisted for sixty years. This book will put an end to the chief rumors and will explain that Earhart was pushing the limits of technology and ultimately pushed slightly too far. The book in no way diminishes her achievement or her fame.
