Amelia Earhart’s remarkable aviation career was tragically cut short when Earhart and her navigator went missing over the Nukumanu Islands. Before her disappearance, Earhart’s name became a household one, in 1932, when she was the first woman to make a solo-return transcontinental flight. Earhart flew her Lockheed Vega from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland to Londonderry, Ireland, on the fifth anniversary of Charles Lindbergh’s famous flight. In the remaining years of her life, she went onto break numerous speed and distance records.
