Paul Mantz, AE, Harry Manning, and Fred Noonan before taking off for Honolulu from San Francisco, March 7, 1937, in the Lockheed Electra. (Courtesy The Smithsonian Institution)
Fragment of wood about 23 inches long, possibly associated with AE’s last flight, 1937, found by Robert D. Weishaupt at Baranof Island, Alaska, in 1942. (Courtesy The Smithsonian Institution)
Josephine Blanco Akiyama, who affirms she saw AE on Saipan in 1937.
AE and Fred Noonan at Calcutta on the last flight.
AE curled her long, tapering fingers about the stick and worked the ailerons and the elevator. She taxied down to the edge of the field, carefully easing on and off first the left then the right brake as she zigzagged across the close-cropped grass. She turned into the wind, held both brakes hard, pulled the stick all the way back into her middle, then revved up the motor to check out the magnetoes. She reached up and turned the switch: the rpm’s dropped within the minimum for first the left then the right, and finally held for both magnetoes. Amelia smiled in satisfaction.
With her left hand she slowly advanced the throttle. The prop blasted back hard and loud. Faster and faster the plane moved down the turf, and she eased the throttle ahead as far as it would go. She held the stick forward, bringing up the tail, then forced the plane to stay on the ground until it fought to get into the air. She pulled back on the stick. The plane clattered noisily off the ground. Amelia grinned. This little craft soared into the air quicker than the sandpiper she had owned in California.