Team Set for a New Search to Find Amelia Earhart Wreckage

[Ginger]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2...on-discovery0/ has a previously unreleased short movie of Earhart and her Electra from May of '37. This is apparently footage of the repaired airplane (it was damaged in an accident in March) returning to Los Angeles from the Lockheed works.

[GUT]

Today is the anniversary of one of her more famous flights.

[Pcdunn]

Poor Amelia. I can't help wondering what was in the suitcase in her closet that was so important it preyed on her mind in the last few hours of her life (assuming the story is true, of course). Was Amelia a bit wilder than known, and had she "a past", perhaps involving a love affair? Did she have some information that might have proved she was a spy? Was it just full of bad manuscripts? We'll never know now.

The idea that Amelia's accomplishment wasn't so special is being mentioned in ads for a new History program called "What History Forgot". Apparently someone else did her long-distance flight only a short time after she had completed it.

In the "Expedition Unknown" episode, Josh Gates investigated rumors that the remains of a woman and a man had been found on one of the islands and were supposedly taken to a museum. The museum claimed they were no longer there now, but perhaps a museum official had removed them to his home for safekeeping. So Josh then tried tracking down the man's descendants for more leads, and someone said, yes there was a box of bones under the house. (Yeah, it sounds bizarre!)
I hope they locate the poor people, if only so they can rest in peace, but with all of this time elapsed and conflicting speculation, we may never know the truth, ever.

[Mayerling]

Poor Amelia. I can't help wondering what was in the suitcase in her closet that was so important it preyed on her mind in the last few hours of her life (assuming the story is true, of course). Was Amelia a bit wilder than known, and had she "a past", perhaps involving a love affair? Did she have some information that might have proved she was a spy? Was it just full of bad manuscripts? We'll never know now.

The idea that Amelia's accomplishment wasn't so special is being mentioned in ads for a new History program called "What History Forgot". Apparently someone else did her long-distance flight only a short time after she had completed it.

In the "Expedition Unknown" episode, Josh Gates investigated rumors that the remains of a woman and a man had been found on one of the islands and were supposedly taken to a museum. The museum claimed they were no longer there now, but perhaps a museum official had removed them to his home for safekeeping. So Josh then tried tracking down the man's descendants for more leads, and someone said, yes there was a box of bones under the house. (Yeah, it sounds bizarre!)
I hope they locate the poor people, if only so they can rest in peace, but with all of this time elapsed and conflicting speculation, we may never know the truth, ever.

Hi P.C.,

A lot of people don't realize this but before Amelia became interested in aviation she was a social worker in Boston (I believe it was Boston) for a number of years. Maybe she had some documents she saved about this in that suitcase - that she saved for a later autobiography. She was planning to retire from further active aviation once she completed the 'round the world flight.

Any time there is a program on the history or Smithsonian Channel, even if it is on a topic of interest, I take the commercial hoopla offered to entice viewing with a grain of salt. There have been so many programs about solving the last "Titanic" mystery (what mystery? it hit an iceberg and sank!), but I find the story compelling enough to watch it again. Yes, I know about somebody trying to convince the Board of the White Star Line to have more life boats, and the issue about the low grade steel (because of the nature of cold in the North Atlantic) used. But this is hardly mysterious - it's just sad. Two more problems that helped lead to tragedy on April 14/15, 1912.

As for Amelia not being the best female aviatrix of her period, it's debatable. The one usually mentioned as an alternative was Amy Johnson of Great Britain, who made some impressive long distance flights. Interestingly enough, her death in World War II (over the Thames Estuary, in 1941, while on an air courier mission) is a bit murky (she seems to have been carrying a passenger, and we don't know who as both Amy and the passenger - as well as someone trying to rescue her - were lost. See Alexander McGee's thoughtful book "Great Mysteries of Aviation".

Jeff

[Ginger]

The idea that Amelia's accomplishment wasn't so special is being mentioned in ads for a new History program called "What History Forgot". Apparently someone else did her long-distance flight only a short time after she had completed it.

With any accomplishment that depends on technology, there are generally a host of people who could be first. The most aggressive and best financed one wins the fame, or occasionally ends up dead.