Amelia Earheart Part III

 

Gardner Island hypothesis

The Gardner Island hypothesis assumes that Earhart and Noonan, unable to find Howland Island, would not waste time searching for it, instead turning to the south to look for other islands. The 157/337 radio transmission suggests they flew a course of 157° that would take them past Baker Island; if they missed this, then sometime later they would fly over the Phoenix Islands, now part of the Republic of Kiribati, about 350 nautical miles (650 km) south-southeast of Howland Island. One of the Phoenix Islands, known as Gardner Island (now Nikumaroro), has been the subject of inquiry as a possible crash-landing site.

A week after Earhart disappeared, Navy planes from USS Colorado (which had sailed from Pearl Harbor) searched Gardner Island. The planes saw signs of recent habitation and the November 1929 wreck of the SS Norwich City, but did not see any signs of Earhart's plane or people. After the Navy ended its search, G. P. Putnam undertook a search in the Phoenix Group and other islands, but nothing was found. In October 1937, Eric Bevington and Henry E. Maude visited Gardner with some potential settlers. A group walked all the way around the island, but did not find a plane or other evidence. In December 1938, laborers landed on the island and started constructing a settlement. In late 1939, USS Bushnell did a survey of the island.

Around April 1940, a skull was discovered and buried, but British colonial officer Gerald Gallagher did not learn of it until September. Gallagher did a more thorough search of the discovery area, including looking for artifacts such as rings. The search found more bones, a bottle, a shoe, and a sextant box. On September 23, 1940, Gallagher radioed his superiors that he had found a "skeleton ... possibly that of a woman", along with an old-fashioned sextant box (later revealed to have been left during a recent hydrographic survey), under a tree on the island's southeast corner. Gallagher stated that the "Bones look more than four years old to me but there seems to be very slight chance that this may be remains of Amelia Earhart." He was ordered to send the remains to Fiji. On 4 April 1941, Dr. D. W. Hoodless of the Central Medical School (later named the Fiji School of Medicine) examined the bones, took measurements, and wrote a report. Using Karl Pearson's formulas for stature and the lengths of the femur, tibia, and humerus, Hoodless concluded that the person was about 5 feet 5+1⁄2 inches (166.4 cm) tall. Hoodless wrote that the skeleton "could be that of a short, stocky, muscular European, or even a half-caste, or person of mixed European descent." Earhart's 1930 pilot's license states she was 5 ft 8 in (173 cm) and 118 lb (54 kg). Hoodless also wrote that "it may be definitely stated that the skeleton is that of a MALE. Owing to the weather-beaten condition of all the bones it is impossible to be dogmatic in regard to the age of the person at the time of death, but I am of the opinion that he was not less than 45 years of age and that probably he was older: say between 45 and 55 years." Earhart was just under 40 years old when she disappeared. Hoodless offered to make more detailed measurements if needed, but suggested that any further examination be done by the Anthropological Department at Sydney University. These bones were apparently misplaced in Fiji and presumed lost. Around the turn of the 21st century, researchers used Hoodless's measurements to argue against his conclusions that the bones were that of a male. In two 2015 episodes of Expedition Unknown, host Josh Gates searched under a house which had belonged to another doctor from the Fiji School of Medicine, where in 1968 the house's new owner had found a box containing bones including a skull; these were brought to a local museum and lost. Gates combed several bone fragments from the area where the box had been found; these were DNA tested and determined to belong to a male.

During World War II, US Coast Guard LORAN Unit 92, a radio navigation station built in the summer and fall of 1944, and operational from mid-November 1944 until mid-May 1945, was located on Gardner Island's southeast end. Dozens of Coast Guard personnel were involved in its construction and operation, but were mostly forbidden from leaving the small base or having contact with the Gilbertese colonists then on the island, and found no artifacts known to relate to Earhart.

In 1988, The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) began an investigation and sent eleven research expeditions to Nikumaroro, producing inconclusive results. They have suggested that Earhart and Noonan may have flown without further radio transmissions for two and a half hours along the line of position Earhart noted in her last transmission received at Howland, then found the then-uninhabited Gardner Island, landed the Electra on an extensive reef flat near the wreck of a large freighter (the SS Norwich City) on the northwest side of the atoll, and ultimately perished. Artifacts discovered by TIGHAR on Nikumaroro have included improvised tools, an aluminum panel, an oddly cut piece of clear Plexiglas, and a size-9 woman's shoe heel. Recently rediscovered photos of Earhart's Electra just before departure in Miami show an aluminum panel over a window on the right side. Ric Gillespie, head of TIGHAR, claimed that the aluminum panel artifact has the same dimensions and rivet pattern as the one shown in the photo "to a high degree of certainty". Based on this new evidence, Gillespie returned to the atoll in June 2015, but operations using a remotely operated underwater vehicle to investigate a sonar detection of a possible wreckage were hampered by technical problems. Further, a review of sonar data concluded it was most likely a coral ridge. In July 2017, staff from the New England Air Museum notified TIGHAR that the unique rivet pattern of the aluminum panel precisely matched the top of the wing of a Douglas C-47 Skytrain in the museum inventory, particularly significant since a C-47B crashed on a nearby island during World War II and villagers acknowledged bringing aluminum from that wreck to Gardner Island.

Some consider TIGHAR's theory the most plausible Earhart-survival theory, although not proven and not accepted beyond crash-and-sink.Other sources have criticized TIGHAR as seizing on unlikely possibilities as circumstantial evidence; for example, an article criticized the suggestion that a jar of freckle ointment found on Nikumaroro might have been Earhart's, when the Electra was "virtually a flying gas station" with little room for amenities, as Earhart and Noonan carried extra gas tanks in every scrap of available space and absence of any corroborating evidence connecting the artifact to her.

The 2019 National Geographic special Expedition Amelia depicts an August 2019 search for Earhart's aircraft off Nikumaroro's reef conducted by ocean explorer Robert Ballard, who has found several ocean wrecks including the Titanic. Ballard was intrigued by documented radio signal bearings that intersect near Nikumaroro, although they were taken from different locations and at different times. Ballard's expedition had more sophisticated search equipment than TIGHAR used on its expedition in 2012. He completed his expedition in October 2019. After days of searching the deep cliffs supporting the island and the nearby ocean, Ballard did not find any evidence of the plane or any associated wreckage of it. Allison Fundis, Ballard's chief operating officer of the expedition stated, "We felt like if her plane was there, we would have found it pretty early in the expedition." The documentary states of the Gardner Island hypothesis that "It's a nice story. But like all the other evidence obtained here over the decades, there is no provable link to Amelia or her plane."

Japanese capture theory

Another theory is that Earhart and Noonan were captured by Japanese forces, perhaps after somehow navigating to somewhere within the Japanese South Seas Mandate.

In 1966, CBS correspondent Fred Goerner published a book claiming that Earhart and Noonan were captured and executed when their aircraft crashed on the island of Saipan, part of the Northern Mariana Islands archipelago. Saipan is more than 2,700 miles away from Howland Island, however. Later proponents of the Japanese capture hypothesis have generally suggested the Marshall Islands instead, which while still distant from the intended location (~800 miles), is slightly more possible.

In 1990, the NBC series Unsolved Mysteries broadcast an interview with a Saipanese woman who claimed to have witnessed Earhart and Noonan's execution by Japanese soldiers. No independent confirmation has ever emerged for any of these claims. Various purported photographs of Earhart during her captivity have been identified as either fraudulent or having been taken before her final flight.

A slightly different version of the Japanese capture hypothesis is not that the Japanese captured Earhart, but rather that they shot down her plane. Henri Keyzer-Andre, a former Pan Am pilot, propounded this view in his 1993 book Age Of Heroes: Incredible Adventures of a Pan Am Pilot and his Greatest Triumph, Unraveling the Mystery of Amelia Earhart.

Since the end of World War II, a location on Tinian, which is five miles (8 km) southwest of Saipan, had been rumored to be the grave of the two aviators. In 2004, an archaeological dig at the site failed to turn up any bones.

A recent proponent of this theory is Mike Campbell, who published the 2012 book Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last in its favor. Campbell cites claims from Marshall Islanders to have witnessed a crash, as well as a U.S. Army Sergeant who found a suspicious gravesite near a former Japanese prison on Saipan.

A number of Earhart's relatives have been convinced that the Japanese were somehow involved in Amelia's disappearance, citing unnamed witnesses including Japanese troops and Saipan natives. According to one cousin, the Japanese cut the Lockheed Electra into scrap and threw the pieces into the ocean, to explain why the airplane was not found in the Marshall Islands.

In 2017, a History Channel documentary called Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence, proposed that a photograph in the National Archives of Jaluit Atoll in the Marshall Islands was actually a picture of a captured Earhart and Noonan. The picture showed a Caucasian male on a dock who appeared to look like Noonan and a woman sitting on the dock but facing away from the camera, who was judged to have a physique and haircut resembling Earhart's. The documentary theorizes that the photo was taken after Earhart and Noonan crashed at Mili Atoll. The documentary also said that physical evidence recovered from Mili matches pieces that could have fallen off an Electra during a crash or subsequent overland move to a barge. The Lost Evidence proposed that a Japanese ship seen in the photograph was the Koshu Maru, a Japanese military ship. The Lost Evidence was quickly discredited, however, after Japanese blogger Kota Yamano found the original source of the photograph in the Archives in the National Diet Library Digital Collection. The original source of the photo was a Japanese travel guide published in October 1935, implying that the photograph was taken in 1935 or before, and thus would be unrelated to Earhart and Noonan's 1937 disappearance. Additionally, the researcher who discovered the photo also identified the ship in the right of the photo as another ship called Koshu, seized by Allied Japanese forces during World War I, and not the Koshu Maru.

A common criticism of all versions of the Japanese capture hypothesis is that the Japanese-controlled Marshall Islands were considerably distant from Howland Island. To reach and land there would have required Earhart and Noonan, though low on fuel, to change her northeast course as she neared Howland Island and fly hundreds of miles northwest, a feat "not supported by the basic rules of geography and navigation." Additionally, had the Japanese found a crashed Earhart and Noonan, they would have had substantial motivation to rescue the famous aviators and be hailed as heroes.

Myths, legends, and claims

The unresolved circumstances of Earhart's disappearance, along with her fame, attracted a great body of other claims relating to her last flight. Several unsupported theories have become known in popular culture.

Spies for FDR

The World War II-era movie Flight for Freedom (1943) is a story of a fictional female aviator (obviously inspired by Earhart) who engages in a spying mission in the Pacific. The movie helped further a myth that Earhart was spying on the Japanese in the Pacific at the request of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. By 1949, both the United Press and U.S. Army Intelligence had concluded that this rumor was groundless. Jackie Cochran, another pioneering aviator and one of Earhart's friends, made a postwar search of numerous files in Japan and was convinced that the Japanese were not involved in Earhart's disappearance.

Tokyo Rose

A rumor that claimed that Earhart had made propaganda radio broadcasts as one of the many women compelled to serve as Tokyo Rose was investigated closely by George Putnam. According to several biographies of Earhart, Putnam investigated this rumor personally but after listening to many recordings of numerous Tokyo Roses, he did not recognize her voice among them.

New Britain

The theory that Earhart may have turned back mid-flight has been posited. She would then have tried to reach the airfield at Rabaul, New Britain (northeast of mainland Papua New Guinea), approximately 2,200 miles (3,500 km) from Howland.

In 1990, Donald Angwin, a veteran of the Australian Army's World War II campaign in New Britain, contacted researchers to suggest that a wrecked aircraft he had witnessed in jungle about 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Rabaul, on April 17, 1945, may have been Earhart's Electra. Angwin, who had been a corporal in the 11th Battalion at the time, reported that he and other members of a forward patrol on Japanese-occupied New Britain had found a wrecked twin-engined, unpainted all-metal aircraft. The soldiers recorded a rough position on a map, along with serial numbers seen on the wreckage. The map was found in the possession of another veteran in 1993, but subsequent searches of the area indicated failed to find a wreck.

Angwin died in 2001. David Billings, an Australian aircraft engineer, has continued to investigate his theory. Billings claims that the serial numbers written on the map, "600H/P S3HI C/N1055", represent:

a 600 hp (450 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-1340-S3H1 model engine; and

"Constructor's Number 1055", an air-frame identifier.

These would be consistent with a Lockheed Electra 10E, such as that flown by Earhart, although they do not contain enough information to identify the wreck in question as NR16020.

Pacific Wrecks, a website that documents World War II-era aircraft crash sites, notes that no Electra has been reported lost in or around Papua New Guinea. Ric Gillespie of TIGHAR believes that based on Earhart's last estimated position, somewhat close to Howland Island, it was impossible for the aircraft to end up at New Britain, 2,000 miles (3,200 km) and over 13 hours' flight time away.

Assuming another identity

In November 2006, the National Geographic Channel aired episode two of the Undiscovered History series about a claim that Earhart survived the world flight, moved to New Jersey, changed her name, remarried and became Irene Craigmile Bolam. This claim had originally been raised in the book Amelia Earhart Lives (1970) by author Joe Klaas, based on the research of Major Joseph Gervais. Irene Bolam, who had been a banker in New York during the 1940s, denied being Earhart, filed a lawsuit requesting $1.5 million in damages and submitted a lengthy affidavit in which she rebutted the claims. The book's publisher, McGraw-Hill, withdrew the book from the market shortly after it was released and court records indicate that the company reached an out-of-court settlement with her. Subsequently, Bolam's personal life history was thoroughly documented by researchers, eliminating any possibility that she was Earhart. Kevin Richlin, a professional criminal forensic expert hired by National Geographic, studied photographs of both women and cited many measurable facial differences between Earhart and Bolam.

Legacy

Earhart was a widely known international celebrity during her lifetime. Her shyly charismatic appeal, independence, persistence, coolness under pressure, courage and goal-oriented career along with the circumstances of her disappearance at a comparatively early age have driven her lasting fame in popular culture. Hundreds of articles and scores of books have been written about her life, which is often cited as a motivational tale, especially for girls. Earhart is generally regarded as a feminist icon.

Earhart's accomplishments in aviation inspired a generation of female aviators, including the more than 1,000 women pilots of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) who ferried military aircraft, towed gliders, flew target practice aircraft, and served as transport pilots during World War II.

The home where Earhart was born is now the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum and is maintained by The Ninety-Nines, an international group of female pilots of whom Earhart was the first elected president.

A small section of Earhart's Lockheed Electra starboard engine nacelle recovered in the aftermath of the March 1937 Hawaii crash has been confirmed as authentic and is now regarded as a control piece that will help to authenticate possible future discoveries. The evaluation of the scrap of metal was featured on an episode of History Detectives on Season 7 in 2009.

Memorial flights

Two notable memorial flights by female aviators subsequently followed Earhart's original circum-navigational route.

In 1967, Ann Dearing Holtgren Pellegreno and a crew of three flew a similar aircraft (a Lockheed 10A Electra) to complete a world flight that closely mirrored Earhart's flight plan. On the 30th anniversary of her disappearance, Pellegreno dropped a wreath in Earhart's honor over tiny Howland Island and returned to Oakland, completing the 28,000-mile (45,000 km) commemorative flight on July 7, 1967.

In 1997, on the 60th anniversary of Earhart's world flight, San Antonio businesswoman Linda Finch retraced the final flight path flying the same make and model of aircraft as Earhart, a restored 1935 Lockheed Electra 10E. Finch touched down in 18 countries before finishing the trip two and a half months later when she arrived back at Oakland Airport on May 28, 1997.

In 2001, another commemorative flight retraced the route undertaken by Earhart in her August 1928 transcontinental record flight. Dr. Carlene Mendieta flew an original Avro Avian, the same type that was used in 1928.

In 2013, Amelia Rose Earhart (no relation), a pilot and a reporter from Denver, Colorado, announced that she would be recreating the 1937 flight in the middle of 2014 in a single engine Pilatus PC-12NG. She completed the flight without incident on July 11, 2014.

In June and July 2017, Brian Lloyd flew his Mooney M20K 231 around the world to commemorate Earhart's attempted circumnavigation 80 years earlier. Lloyd followed a route similar to the one taken by Earhart.

Other honors

Countless other tributes and memorials have been made in Amelia Earhart's name, including a 2012 tribute by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking at a State Department event celebrating the ties of Earhart and the United States to its Pacific neighbors, noting: "Earhart ... created a legacy that resonates today for anyone, girls and boys, who dreams of the stars." In 2013, Flying magazine ranked Earhart No. 9 on its list of the "51 Heroes of Aviation". The following list is not considered definitive, but serves also to give significant examples of tributes and honors.

Amelia Earhart Centre And Wildlife Sanctuary was established at the site of her 1932 landing in Northern Ireland, Ballyarnet Country Park, Derry.

The "Earhart Tree" on Banyan Drive in Hilo, Hawaii, was planted by Earhart in 1935.

The Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship Awards were established in 1938.

"Earhart Light" on Howland Island in August 2008

Earhart Light (also known as the Amelia Earhart Light), a navigational day beacon on Howland Island (has not been maintained and is crumbling).

The Amelia Earhart Memorial Scholarships (established in 1939 by The Ninety-Nines), provides scholarships to women for advanced pilot certificates and ratings, jet type ratings, college degrees, and technical training.

The Purdue University Amelia Earhart Scholarship, first awarded in 1940, is based on academic merit and leadership and is open to juniors and seniors enrolled in any school at the West Lafayette campus. After being discontinued in the 1970s, a donor resurrected the award in 1999.

In 1942, a United States Liberty ship named SS Amelia Earhart was launched. It was wrecked in 1948.

Amelia Earhart Field (1947), formerly Masters Field and Miami Municipal Airport, after closure in 1959, Amelia Earhart Park was dedicated in an area of undeveloped federal government land located north and west of the former Miami Municipal Airport and immediately south of Opa-locka Airport.

Amelia Earhart Airport (1958),[292] located in Atchison, Kansas.

Amelia Earhart Commemorative Stamp (8¢ airmail postage) was issued in 1963 by the United States Postmaster-General.

The Civil Air Patrol Amelia Earhart Award (since 1964) is awarded to cadets who have completed the first 11 achievements of the cadet program along with receipt of the General Billy Mitchell Award.

Amelia Earhart Residence Hall opened in 1964 as a residence hall for women at Purdue University and became coed in 2002. An eight-foot sculpture of Earhart, by Ernest Shelton, was placed in front of the Earhart Hall Dining Court in 2009.

Member of National Aviation Hall of Fame (1968).

Amelia Earhart Statue by Ernest Shelton (circa 1971), Los Angeles, California

Member of National Women's Hall of Fame (1973).

Crittenton Women's Union (Boston) Amelia Earhart Award recognizes a woman who continues Earhart's pioneering spirit and who has significantly contributed to the expansion of opportunities for women (since 1982).

Earhart Corona, a corona on Venus was named by the IAU in 1982 (initially as Earhart crater).

The Amelia Earhart Birthplace, Atchison, Kansas (a museum and historic site, owned and maintained by The Ninety-Nines since 1984).

In 1988, the Federal Aviation Administration announced that it had retired Earhart's aircraft registration number, N16020, from use in the United States.

UCI Irvine Amelia Earhart Award (since 1990).

She was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1992.

3895 Earhart, a minor planet discovered in 1987, was named in 1995 after her, by its discoverer, Carolyn S. Shoemaker.

Earhart Foundation, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Established in 1995, the foundation funds research and scholarship through a network of 50 "Earhart professors" across the United States.

Amelia Earhart Festival (annual event since 1996), located in Atchison, Kansas.

Amelia Earhart Pioneering Achievement Award, Atchison, Kansas: Since 1996, the Cloud L. Cray Foundation provides a $10,000 women's scholarship to the educational institution of the honoree's choice.

Amelia Earhart Earthwork in Warnock Lake Park, Atchison, Kansas. Stan Herd created the 1-acre (4,000 m2) landscape mural in 1997 from permanent plantings and stone to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Earhart's birth. Located at 39.537621°N 95.145158°W and best viewed from the air.

Amelia Earhart Bridge (1997), located in Atchison, Kansas.

Greater Miami Aviation Association Amelia Earhart Award for outstanding achievement (2006); first recipient: noted flyer Patricia "Patty" Wagstaff.

On December 6, 2006, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Earhart into the California Hall of Fame located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.

USNS Amelia Earhart (T-AKE-6) was named in her honor in May 2007.

Amelia Earhart full size bronze statue was placed at the Spirit of Flight Center located in Lafayette, Colorado, in 2008.

Earhart Tribute at Portal of the Folded Wings; note error in birth date

The Amelia Earhart General Aviation Terminal, a satellite terminal at Boston's Logan Airport (formerly used by American Eagle, now unused).

Amelia Earhart Dam on the Mystic River in eastern Massachusetts.

Schools named after Earhart are found throughout the United States including the Amelia Earhart Elementary School, in Alameda, California, Amelia Earhart Elementary School, in Hialeah, Florida, Amelia Earhart Middle School, Riverside, California, and Amelia Earhart International Baccalaureate World School, in Indio, California.

Amelia Earhart Hotel, located in Wiesbaden, Germany, originally used as a hotel for women, then as temporary military housing is now operated as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Europe District Headquarters with offices for the Army Contracting Agency and the Defense Contract Management Agency.

Amelia Earhart Road, located in Oklahoma City (headquarters of The Ninety-Nines), Oklahoma.

Earhart Road, located next to the Oakland International Airport North Field in Oakland, California.

Amelia Earhart Playhouse, at Wiesbaden Army Airfield.

To commemorate her first transatlantic flight, on the Millennium Coastal Path at Pwll, Burry Port, South Wales is a blue plaque sponsored by Llanelli Community Heritage.

In 2015, a newly discovered lunar crater [uk] was provisionally named after Amelia Earhart.

North Hollywood Amelia Earhart Regional Library and nearby sculpture.

In 2022, Kansas added a statue of Earhart in the National Statuary Hall Collection.

In popular culture

Earhart's life has spurred the imaginations of many writers and others; the following examples are given although many other mentions have also occurred in contemporary or current media:

"Amelia Earhart's Last Flight", by "Yodelling Cowboy" Red River Dave McEnery, is thought to be the first song ever performed on commercial television (at the 1939 World's Fair). He recorded it in 1941 and it was subsequently covered by artists including Kinky Friedman and the Country Gentlemen.

The Rosalind Russell film Flight for Freedom (1943) derived from a treatment, "Stand by to Die", was a fictionalized treatment of Earhart's life.

Possibly the first tribute album dedicated to the legend of Earhart was by Plainsong, In Search of Amelia Earhart (Elektra K42120), released in 1972. Both the album and the Press Pak released by Elektra are highly prized by collectors and they have also gained a cult status.

Singer Joni Mitchell's song "Amelia" appears on her album Hejira (1976) and it also features in the video of her 1980 live album Shadows and Light (1980) with clips of Earhart. Commenting on the origins of the song, which interweaves the story of a desert journey with aspects of Earhart's disappearance, Mitchell said: "I was thinking of Amelia Earhart and addressing it from one solo pilot to another ... sort of reflecting on the cost of being a woman and having something you must do."

"In Search of: Amelia Earhart", (1976) was episode 16 of the 1976–1982 In Search Of series; this episode spurred a number of popular documentaries that followed.

A television biographical drama titled Amelia Earhart (1976), starring Susan Clark and John Forsythe, included flying by Hollywood stunt pilot Frank Tallman whose late partner in Tallmantz Aviation, Paul Mantz, had tutored Earhart in the 1930s.

"Amelia Earhart: The Price of Courage" (1993) is an American Experience television documentary.

Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight (1994) starring Diane Keaton, Rutger Hauer, and Bruce Dern, was initially released as a TV movie and subsequently re-released as a theatrical feature.

In the video game The Simpsons: Hit & Run (2003), Mr. Burns admits to having Amelia Earhart's plane shot down, claiming she was "getting too big for her jodhpurs".

Actress Amy Adams portrayed Earhart in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009).

In the film Amelia (2009), Earhart is portrayed by Hilary Swank, who also served as co-executive producer of the biopic.

In 2011, the Great Canadian Theatre Company hosted a musical play titled Amelia: The Girl Who Wants To Fly. This is one of numerous plays on the subject.

Google honored Earhart with a Doodle on her birthday in 2012.

Earhart was one of several inspiring women represented by a new line of Barbie dolls introduced March 6, 2018.

The online battle royale game Fortnite Battle Royale introduces an unlockable costume character named "Airheart", who parodies Earhart.

In Flying Blind, a "Nathan Heller" novel by Max Allan Collins, Earheart is a major character, a love interest of "Nathan Heller," who was first her bodyguard and who, after her 'disappearance,' seeks to rescue her from her Japanese captors.

A 2020 digital comic, Wonder Woman: Agent of Peace, had Wonder Woman reveal that a 1930s woman aviator crashed at the Amazons' island Themyscira and chose to remain there permanently. The story doesn't give her name, but was accompanied by a navigator named Fred who didn't survive the crash.

The Star Trek: Voyager episode "The 37's" solves the mystery of her disappearance via alien abduction.

Lego produced a limited run of Amelia's "Little Red Bus." Lego Model Number 40450.

In the 2021 alternate history novella Or Even Eagle Flew by Harry Turtledove, Earhart does not go missing in 1937 and later joins the Eagle Squadrons of the British Royal Air Force to fight against the Nazis in World War II.

In the Legends of Tomorrow episode "Meat: The Legends", Earhart is revealed to be a lone survivor on an alien planet now possessed by an extraterrestrial.

In American Horror Story: Double Feature, Earhart (portrayed by Lily Rabe), is found alive by President Dwight Eisenhower and dies giving birth to an alien.

Records and achievements

Woman's world altitude record: 14,000 ft (1922)

First woman to fly the Atlantic Ocean (1928)

Speed records for 100 km (and with 500 lb (230 kg) cargo) (1931)

First woman to fly an autogyro (1931)

Altitude record for autogyros: 18,415 ft (1931)

First woman to cross the United States in an autogyro (1931)

First woman to fly the Atlantic solo (1932)

First person to fly the Atlantic twice (1932)

First woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross (1932)

First woman to fly nonstop, coast-to-coast across the U.S. (1932)

Women's speed transcontinental record (1933)

First person to fly solo between Honolulu, Hawaii, and Oakland, California (1935)

First person to fly solo from Los Angeles to Mexico City (1935)

First person to fly solo nonstop from Mexico City to Newark, New Jersey (1935)

Speed record for east-to-west flight from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii (1937)

First person to fly solo from the Red Sea to Karachi (1937)

Books by Earhart

Earhart was a successful and heavily promoted writer who served as aviation editor for Cosmopolitan magazine from 1928 to 1930. She wrote magazine articles, newspaper columns, and essays, and published two books based upon her experiences as a flyer during her lifetime:

20 Hrs., 40 Min. (1928) is a journal of her experiences as the first woman passenger on a transatlantic flight.

The Fun of It (1932) is a memoir of her flying experiences and an essay on women in aviation.

Last Flight (1937) features the periodic journal entries she sent back to the United States during her world flight attempt, published in newspapers in the weeks prior to her final departure from New Guinea. Compiled by her husband GP Putnam after she disappeared over the Pacific, many historians consider this book to be only partially Earhart's original work.