Amelia Earhart Commemorative Bronze Plaque

Amelia Earhart was taught to fly by Neta Snook, the first woman to graduate from the Curtiss School of Aviation; she received her pilot's license from the Federation Aeronatique Internationale in October 1922. Soon thereafter, on October 22, 1922, Earhart set a women's altitude record of 14,000 feet in a Kinner Canary, an open-cockpit, single-engine biplane. In 1929, Earhart co-founded an organization whose goal it was to advance women's participation and opportunities in aviation, called the Ninety-Nines for the 99 charter member women aviators. On May 20-21, 1932, Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, for which the U.S. Congress awarded her the Distinguished Flying Cross, the first woman to receive such an honor. On August 24-25, 1932, she flew from Los Angeles, California, to Newark, New Jersey in a Lockheed Vega, setting a transcontinental speed record of 19 hours, 5 minutes, also becoming the first woman to fly solo coast-to-coast. In January 1935, Earhart became the first woman to make a solo long-distance flight over the Pacific Ocean, flying from Honolulu, Hawaii, to San Francisco, but she wanted to be the first pilot of either gender to fly around the world at its widest, close to the equator. Her first attempt on March 17, 1937 ended with a crash in Hawaii resulting from a blown tire. Earhart began her second attempt to circumnavigate the globe on June 1, 1937, departing from the Miami Municipal airport in her twin-engine, red-winged Electra. Her flight segments were successful until she disappeared on July 2, 1937 on her flight from Lae to Howland Island in the Pacific. This 5 x 8" bronze plaque by Spartaco Filie (1915 - 1991) is an important commemorative of Earhart's accomplishments.