Amelia Earhart, Second Take Off

The operation of the 500 KC emergency band required the use of a 250-foot trailing antenna, which had a streamlined weight on the end. The antenna could be reeled into and out of the bottom of the Electra by a switch in the cockpit.

When deployed, the antenna increased the drag on the aircraft and had to be reeled in prior to landing. Amelia did not like the trailing antenna and had it removed in Miami. The effect of this modification reduced the range of the 500 KC radio transmissions.

On June 1,1937, Amelia and Fred Noonan climbed aboard the Electra at the Municipal Airport at Miami, Florida. Amelia waved to her husband, George Putnam (GP) and his tall son, David. They taxied out to the end of the runway, Amelia turned, and gunned the engines. The Electra was in the air, and Amelia and Fred were off to circle the globe.

Amelia's dispatches, sent back to GP to be relayed to the newspaper syndicate, were full of a spirit of adventure, pleasure and reward. She kept careful records of the Electra's performance and of the pilots’reactions to climatic changes, altitude, fatigue, and diet. A chore which never failed to amuse Fred, but which Amelia performed conscientiously, was the collecting of micro-organisms in the upper air by means of a sky hook, a metal rod about the size and length of a broomstick, with a metal cylinder at the end. This was fastened outside the slightly-opened window. The time of day, altitude, and location were recorded when the cylinder was pulled in, sealed, and tucked away in the rear of the fuselage. She collected these samples for Fred C. Meier of the Department of Agriculture.

During the next month, the Electra followed the equator in a series of flights half way around the world between Miami and New Guinea. She crossed the Atlantic, Africa, and the Indian Ocean before landing in Lae, New Guinea, above the northern tip of Australia.

In Last Flight, which GP published in 1937, Amelia commented that during their crossing of the South Atlantic, she and Fred passed a west-bound Air France mail plane, but unfortunately she could "not talk" to it. Amelia believed that the mail plane's radio equipment was telegraphic, that is, Morse code, while her radio equipment was "exclusively voice telephone."

Picture: Fred Noonan and Amelia pose with F. O. "Fuzz" Furman, a Glenn L. Martin Company field service representative. Fuzz helped Amelia out with her engine difficulties on her around-the-world flight, June 1937.
Credit: F. O. "Fuzz" Furman

Amelia's Bio | Role Model | Introduction | Fuel and Radio Concerns | Take Off |

Second Take Off | Engine Difficulties | Howland Island | History Not Mystery