Pioneer women may lead, inspire us

By Dave Kinnamon

January 11, 2008 10:26 am

— On this day in 1935, Amelia Earhart, the pioneer of women in aviation, became the first pilot — of either gender — to fly solo from Hawaii to the United States mainland. Earhart took off from Wheeler Field in Honolulu and landed at Oakland Airport in Oakland, Calif. During Earhart’s pioneering flight, she traversed 2,400 miles and consumed 18 hours.
I grew up in Kansas City, Mo., about 35 minutes south of Earhart’s hometown of Atchison, Kan., which is famous for, well, Amelia Earhart. In fact, Atchison holds an Amelia Earhart Festival every fall. Because of our proximity to Atchison, students in the schools my family and I attended were plied with Amelia Earhart history beginning at young ages. One result, we all learned the correct pronunciation of Earhart: pronounced “air-heart” not “eer-heart,” a confusion made irresistible by the name’s spelling.
Earhart’s courage and pomposity (a fancier way of expressing what I was actually thinking just now, which was “cojones”) intrigued me as a child and today. Earhart is my hero. She succeeded in a man’s profession, a new profession, and became the second greatest ambassador of early aviation, behind Charles Lindbergh (“Lucky Lindy”).
Today’s anniversary of Earhart’s amazing aeronautical accomplishment triggers deeper, more expansive reflection. Earhart blazed the figurative flight path through the sky for other bold, innovative and courageous professional women.
We have a lady pioneer in our midst this week — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Clinton is the first woman to win the New Hampshire Democratic primary. She is also the first woman to occupy, at least seemingly, the inside lane to the finish tape of the Democratic nomination. Hillary Clinton also would be part of the first husband-wife/male-female family legacy to be president. Hillary Clinton is a shrewd politician and a tireless campaigner, facts perhaps those from all political flavors may agree.
In today’s world, which is not at all far removed from Earhart’s — she was born in 1897 and died in 1937 — we witness several women summit Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth, almost every year. We observe women in CEO positions at some of the world’s largest, richest companies. Our eyes even try to keep track of professional race car driving women, like Danica Patrick, zooming around the speedways.
We lost one of the defining tragic heroes of our generation with the ugly and awful assassination of Benazir Bhutto late last month.
In May 1932, Earhart repeated Lucky Lindy’s aeronautical feat by flying solo, non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean. Like the Hawaii-California journey, Earhart was the first woman to accomplish the majestic challenge.
Tragically, on July 2, 1937, just a few weeks before her 40th birthday, Earhart’s plane went missing while she was attempting to fly around the world along with her co-pilot, Frederick J. Noonan. Investigators concluded that Earhart’s airplane went down in the South Pacific somewhere between New Guinea and Howland Island. Ham radio operators and a radioman from a U.S. naval vessel picked up on Earhart’s may day call signalling that she and Noonan were critically short of gas.
Very sadly, two of the reasons Earhart brought Noonan along on her last historic journey was because Earhart’s radio and navigational skills were deemed insufficient. Noonan was known to be a chronic alcoholic. We must sadly consider how these facts contributed to Earhart’s untimely demise and also to theorize that the tragedy might have been averted had she and her staff exercised more prudent planning and decision-making.
Earhart’s name has always struck me as so fitting because she lived up to it in multiple ways. Earhart mastered the air, and she had a lion’s heart.

Kinnamon is online/special projects editor of the News & Eagle. He may be reached at davidk@enidnews.com.

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