Missing in Action

AP

The first woman to fly solo, Amelia Earhart earned celebrity status for her uncommon daring

Amelia Earhart was flying into the sun. It was shortly after dawn on July 2, 1937, and the aluminum wings of her Lockheed Electra were ablaze with light. Earhart nosed the twin-engine aircraft down through the clouds and, at 300 m above the water, she began searching for her microscopic destination: a 3-km-long coral island with an airstrip in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. She had nearly completed her record-smashing journey around the globe. After a 20-hour flight, she had 35 minutes of fuel remaining, leaving her only the tiniest margin for error.

Earhart apparently never located...

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