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Didn't pay attention in history class? HowStuffWorks has you covered.
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Announcer
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from howstuffworks.com.
Candace Gibson
Hello, and welcome to the Podcast. I’m Editor Candace Keynard joined by fellow editor, Katie Lambert.
Katie Lambert
Hello, Candace.
Candace Gibson
Hi there, Katie. I conducted some very surprising research this week.
Katie Lambert
Was it on Lady Lindy, Queen of the Air?
Candace Gibson
It was. Amelia Earhart, who I think most of us hold in our minds as an iconic figure in America history, in world history really of a very strong and determined and capable woman. The 16th woman in the entire world to be granted her pilots license in fact, and I learned that there are some factors which may explain her disappearance that color her in a slightly different light. And that’s not to say that we’re not going to celebrate Amelia Earhart, because we certainly are, but I think you’ll learn a thing or two just like I did.
Katie Lambert
So, maybe we’ll start at her beginnings which were rather humble. She was a Kansas girl. Born in 1897. Her father was a lawyer for the railroad. She ended up being a nurses aid in a military hospital in Toronto and she was actually pre-med for a while at Columbia, which surprised me because who knew but she was only there for a semester.
Candace Gibson
When she was just 10 years old, she was at a state fair when she really had her interest kindled in flying watching the planes swooping overhead and rushing past her and stirring up the wind, she realized that she wanted to do that too and that ambition was cemented in her mind in December of 1928 when the pilot, Frank Hawks invited her on his plane for a flight and she thought, this is it, this is what I’m going to do. So, she bought her first plan in 1921. It was yellow and she named it Canary.
Katie Lambert
And she had flying lessons from Neta Snook who was also one of the foremost female aviators of the day because there weren’t many.
Candace Gibson
And a critic has said that here is a turning point for the Amelia Earhart story, for me at least, was that Snook didn’t think that Amelia was necessarily skilled enough to become a pilot. Perhaps her ambitions and enthusiasm outweighed her skill and, in some cases, that certainly compensates and it makes up for something you’re not entirely good at but for an activity as precise as flying, of course you need to have all of your little ducks in a row.