It was the start of her second attempt to fly around the world at the equator; an earlier try in March had ended just a few days into the trip when her Lockheed Electra L-10E crashed during takeoff in Honolulu. Despite that incident, Earhart remained determined to be the first pilot, man or woman, to circle the globe at the equator. Success would not only bolster her reputation, but it would also rescue her family’s finances: Flight preparations, including the acquisition and subsequent repairs of a new plane, meant she had “mortgaged the future.”
The accident in Hawaii and resulting delay did alter some of Earhart’s original plans. Instead of flying west, from California to Hawaii then over the Pacific, she would now travel in the opposite direction. This would help her avoid bad weather, but it would also put the most difficult leg, flying to Howland Island, a tiny, two-mile-long dot in the Pacific Ocean at the end of a fatiguing journey.
Before the flight, Earhart got rid of her CW transmitter. Why?
Noonan would join Earhart on her trip, as originally planned. Though he had a reputation as a heavy drinker, he was a top-notch aerial navigator with the skills to help her find Howland. However, another navigator, Harry Manning, left her crew.
Unlike Manning, neither Earhart nor Noonan were adept at wireless code. This prompted Earhart to get rid of the CW (telegraph code key) transmitter on her plane, as she felt it would be “dead weight” with just her and Noonan onboard. Before departing, she also dropped a trailing antenna that would have allowed her to use the 500-kilocycle marine frequency. Instead of Morse code, Earhart planned to communicate by voice at higher bandwidths.
Long days of flying brought Earhart and Noonan to Brazil, Dakar, Khartoum, Bangkok and Darwin, Australia, among other locations.
Stay tuned in June for the story to continue….