Speaking of the beach, they didn’t find Amelia Earhart. Seventy five years ago this month, Ms. Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in her attempt to become the first female pilot to fly around the world. Not knowing the minute details of their disappearance over by far the broadest expanse of water in the world has driven a nation bonkers ever since. Based on refuse located on a Pacific reef, the latest attempt to learn more seemed promising. However, an initial ocean search of the reef and surrounding waters to locate wreckage of the aircraft has come up empty.
Who was the first pilot to fly around the world? Hugo Eckener, in 1929. Whogo? Hugo Eckener was the pilot of record aboard the Graf Zeppelin, the first manmade thing to fly around the world. In 1930, aviator Wiley Post became the first pilot to circumnavigate the globe in a fixed-wing aircraft, along with navigator Harold Gatty. In 1933, Post, aided by a newly developed autopilot and other prototypical navigation equipment, flew around the world alone, becoming the first person ever to accomplish that feat. It’s hard to exaggerate the public’s fascination with aircraft and aviators in the era of the Great Depression. Of course, this was before airport security checks.