East Toward The Dawn: Amelia Earhart's Second Worldflight

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Overnight To Burbank

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The first G.P. Putnam. His publishing partner was John Wiley. He was George Palmer Putnam’s grandfather

Lieutenant John Trippe, Commander of the U.S.S. Vixen was decorated for heroism during the War with the Barbary Pirates. He began the Trippe family’s long association with the sea. He was Juan Trippe’s Great-Great-Grandfather

The Putnam family and the Trippe family both began their mutual rising toward prominence in the 1830s, about 100 years before Amelia’s Worldflight. As charter members of the American capitalist elite, the two families had known of each other for generations and were distant kin. By the time George Palmer Putnam and Juan Trippe achieved fame during the Great Depression they had been parented with the same values, values that had been reinforced by the same prep schools and colleges, and confirmed by a series of social linkages. In the case of George and J.T., their most famous link was the old-family New York Knickerbocker, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 

Juan Terry Trippe in a very posed photograph. He was never really at ease, but his pipe was a favored indulgence

George Palmer Putnam. Amelia, standing beside him, was obviously cropped from this photo

But they were also men who saw themselves as pioneers, malcontents in the roles expected of them. George had literally gone West as a young man. J.T. had looked to the skies. Neither being an impossible snob, they had allowed someone not in “The Club” to join them, indeed to influence their lives profoundly. In Trippe’s case, that influence was Charles Lindbergh. In Putnam’s case it was Amelia Earhart. Both Lindbergh and Earhart rose from obscurity to world-shaking prominence by tailoring and riding on the coattails of Trippe and Putnam, who were afterward considered a little outre for leaving their family businesses and taking up with rustics (neither Earhart nor Lindbergh had Eastern Establishment roots).   

Of the two, George, with his impresario air, his unconventional marriage, and his reliance on a woman, was thought the more rebellious. J.T. was considered a crude barnstormer, at least at the outset of his storied career. Still in all, for both men bringing the rustics into their inner circle wasn’t much of a rebellion. Both Earhart and Lindbergh were Anglo-Saxon Protestant Midwesterners whose families had been solid Republicans and dedicated office-holders (Lindbergh’s father a legislator, Earhart’s grandfather a judge), and if they were unusual people they were at least heroically unusual.

Although the Putnams and the Trippes moved in the same circles and were socially friendly, Juan Trippe shied away from linking the Pan American Airways name with that of “Lady Lindy”. To some extent, it was because he had the original Lindy in his corner, and Lindy and Putnam had an uneasy relationship. There was also undoubtedly a whiff of sexism in the decision as well. Still, from time to time, Amelia could be seen in Pan Am’s promotional group photographs. She was never featured.

Amelia Earhart christening Pan Am’s Fokker Trimotor Clipper Cuba in Havana in 1929. Juan Trippe treated her as a curiosity. When it came to the ongoing management and development of his airline he gave the meaningful roles to Charles Lindbergh

Where Juan Trippe wouldn’t go others went. Earhart became a leading figure in the development of Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) the future TWA (Lindbergh was among its founders); still, Pan Am seemed oddly chary of Amelia, at least until the second Worldflight. At that point, Trippe and his fellows could no longer place Amelia in a group shot and hope to lose her among the cloche hats, especially because Amelia had hired Fred Noonan, Pan Am’s former lead navigator, as her own. When the eastbound route of the second Worldflight attempt became known, Trippe belatedly but wholeheartedly offered her the use of Pan Am’s facilities. 

In 1929, Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) inaugurated two-day coast-to-coast air service in the U.S. Charles Lindbergh  (R) was a big financial backer of TAT; the airline hired Earhart (L) as a technical advisor and actually gave her substantial work to do. TAT eventually evolved into TWA

 

Amelia left Oakland, California on May 20, 1937. She expected to return to her starting point on or before July 24, 1937, which was her 40^th birthday and the first anniversary of her having taken delivery of the Lockheed Electra.*

Departing Oakland, May 20, 1937

Preparing for liftoff at Burbank, May 21, 1937. At this point both George Putnam and Bo McKneeley had joined her

Earhart’s next (unscheduled) stop would be Tucson, of which apparently only this identifiable photograph exists. The heat of the Southwest combined with the altitude and thin air, affected the lift and handling qualities of the plane as well as the rate of fuel consumption. Fuel vaporized in the heat, making it more unstable and combustible. During a hot start, the left engine caught fire but the flames were quickly extinguished and there was no damage. She was supposed to fly on to El Paso; instead, she bypassed Texas and flew directly to lower-lying New Orleans, barely missing a sandstorm in Arizona

Shushan Airport in New Orleans, circa 1937

There was no hoopla surrounding her Oakland liftoff. The transcontinental flight across the U.S. had been envisioned as a shakedown cruise for the newly-rebuilt Electra, and it was made up of several short legs. The first and shortest leg was the 325-mile overnight hop from the San Francisco Bay area to the Los Angeles area, where she landed and refueled in Burbank, visited her nearby California home, grabbed a few personal items, and loaded George aboard the Flying Laboratory. Putnam and her mechanic, Bo McKneeley, were to accompany her to Miami where she would meet Fred Noonan, where the Worldflight would officially begin, and where the Press would have a chance to lionize her (not coincidentally with the Pan Am logo on full display, a little payback to Juan Trippe for his support). 

A short (450 mile) hop to Tucson on May 22^nd that necessitated engine repairs was followed by an uneventful but long (1250 mile) jump to New Orleans. Amelia was thrilled. The Electra was running true, the plane handled the long overland hop easily and with fuel to spare, and the weather was uniformly good.

An early photograph of Pan American Field (aka Miami Municipal Airport), Pan Am’s facility for landplanes. It lay inland to the west of the city, a fair distance from much busier Dinner Key. For a brief period after Earhart’s disappearance it was renamed Amelia Earhart Field. Today it is known as Miami International Airport

The Electra shortly prior to takeoff on June 1, 1937. Liftoff was at 5:43 A.M. The next stop: San Juan, Puerto Rico

During the eight-day Miami layover the Electra underwent numerous modifications. The high-gain trailing antenna (seen here) was removed and Bendix equipment replaced the Western Electric radio gear aboard. Two aft cabin windows, port and starboard, were removed and their gaps skinned over. Numerous other tweaks were made to bring the plane up to “Pan Am Standard”.

Bo McKneeley was in charge of the Pan American mechanics crew for the Miami layover

The next stop was Miami, and Miami marked the official beginning of the Worldflight. Arriving at Pan American Field, the airline’s landplane facility that lay miles west of the city amidst the Everglades, Amelia spent eight days having the plane thoroughly gone over by Pan American mechanics while she made numerous media appearances.  

Amelia in a typically cocky pose, Miami

The probable last photo ever taken of George and Amelia. Given the bulk and complexity of camera gear in 1937, the spontaneous shot was a miraculous rarity. Most photos were staged, especially, given George’s sense of marketing, those of Earhart. Thus, even this “intimate moment” was composited, although immediately thereafter the Putnams went off alone for several hours. Although they would talk by radiotelephone and correspond, it would be the last time they saw one another

Two weeks after it began the Worldflight would finally begin.

*Many aspects of the Worldflight seem shrouded in mystery or obscured by time, especially the last incomplete leg. But there is confusion about even the earlier legs. For example, some sources have Bo McKneeley in Miami awaiting the arrival of Earhart, Putnam, and Noonan, while others have Noonan waiting in Miami. The transcontinental weather is described variously as “fine” or “hot” or riven with scattered thunderstorms and a sandstorm in the Southwest. The equipment change-out that took place (or didn’t take place) in Miami has been addressed previously. There is even debate regarding what airport Earhart used while in Miami, since the city had several fields at the time. This blogger believes that all these conditions of weather existed along the route at some point, and that, in eight days, Earhart may have touched down at several airfields by the way of public relations. As for whether the Western Electric radio was replaced by a Bendix, it’s more than likely true. One of the oddities of the transcontinental flight was that it was poorly documented and produced few photographs being an “unofficial” leg. Therefore, it’s difficult to determine what changes might have been made to the Electra before and after its  arrival in Miami.