In fact the two pilots could not been more dissimilar. While Lindbergh was genuinely shy and reserved, Earhart was entrepreneurial and ambitious. Lindbergh's record-setting flying career all but ended with the 'Spirit of St. Louis.' Earhart continued to pursue records and fame, culminating in her ill-fated flight around the world.
Setting issues of self-promotion aside, Earhart's 1932 flight remains a stunning accomplishment. A solo flight across the North Atlantic in an aircraft sporting a single piston-engine would be a dangerous endeavor today let alone 69 years ago. Author Randall Brink, in Lost Star: The Search for Amelia Earhart, describes the dangers Earhart faced on her record setting flight.
She [Earhart] bought a red Lockheed Vega and set out from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, on May 20th, 1932, to fly the Atlantic again, this time alone. It was a trip that underscored the perils of flight in the days before the invention of anti- and de-icing equipment. There were several violent storms, and ice accumulated to threatening levels on the wings and other parts of the airplane structure. At one point, there was so much ice that the flow of air over the wings was finally impeded. The Vega stalled and spun downward some three thousand feet, nearly striking the water, before the warmer air of the lower elevations melted the ice. At the other extreme, an in-flight fire caused by a broken manifold came just as close to ending the flight in disaster.
She would later write about this exhausting trip with her familiar clarity, wry humor, and frankness:
“Looking back, there are less cheering recollections of that night over the Atlantic. Of seeing, for instance, the flames lick through the exhaust collector ring and wondering, in a detached way, whether one would prefer drowning to incineration. Of the five hours of storm, during black midnight, when I kept right side up by instruments alone, buffeted about as I never was before. Of much besides, not the least the feeling of fine loneliness and of realization that the machine I rode was doing its best and required from me the best I had.”
At last, after a trip of fourteen hours and fifty-six minutes, Amelia reached Londonderry, Ireland, thus becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.
(This article courtesy of National Review Online.)
