On This Day In History: Aviator Amelia Earhart Was The First Woman To Cross The Atlantic By Air – On June 18, 1928

MessageToEagle.com – On June 18, in 1928, Amelia Earhart flew from Newfoundland, Canada to Wales.

Amelia Mary Earhart, born on July 24, 1897 – disappeared July 2, 1937 – was an American aviation pioneer and author. She was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

She received the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross for this record. During this flight she was accompanied by Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon in their Fokker tri-motor airplane.

Earhart was the first woman to cross the Atlantic by air. Although she was already an experienced aviatrix at the time, she was not familiar with that model plane, and did not touch the controls.

She still earned a large amount of fame from the journey, even having a parade thrown in her honor.

Amelia Earhart worked to prove herself and women pilots equal to the men, to disabuse both sides of that old canard that women are the weaker half. She wanted to encourage women to join her in the skies as aviators. She first became known to the public for flying across the Atlantic not as the pilot, but as a passenger.

On this day, June Earhart remarked that she was essentially “baggage” on that flight, and worked diligently to make a name for herself as a real pilot. Four years later, on the anniversary of Charles Lindbergh’s famous transatlantic flight, Earhart repeated his route, the first woman to do so. She also organized a woman pilots club she called “The 99s”, which had 99 of the 117 total licensed female pilots at the time.

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