S1 Ep7: Vanished Amelia Earhart: "The Changing"

Spring has arrived. Finally. It’s been a long and brutal winter in Atchison, Kansas. The interesting thing about Spring is that it signals a rebirth. Winter brings death, Spring brings that death back to life. And the birds' chirp. Which is always nice. Six episodes down in this series and tonight things start to shift. When last we left her, Amelia Earhart had an idea. And that idea was to fly around the world at the equator. Because of her connection to Purdue University she now had her vessel. A state-of-the-art Lockheed Electra 10E that was dubbed “the flying laboratory”. There are also a couple of characters that enter Amelia’s life at this point. Characters that will forever be etched into history alongside her. One especially.

Tonight, we discuss the first leg of her world flight and where that leg took her; Hawaii. All was well, spirits were up, and it seemed like Amelia Earhart was well on her way to adding “world flyer” to her already huge list of career accomplishments. Then, shortly after 5:40 Am on the morning on March 20th, 1937 everything changed. On takeoff, at Luke field, Amelia Earhart ground-looped her aircraft. We’ll talk a lot about this tonight. Pay close attention to the testimony throughout this episode. In the end, you decide. Did Amelia Earhart make a potentially fatal error on takeoff? Or was something else at play? Chasing Earhart may be wrapping up, but our investigation is just beginning.

SHOW NOTES:

• Hawaii Aviation's official website
• Captain Harry Manning bio @ "We are the United States"
• Paul Mantz @ "Aerofiles"
• Fred Noonan on Twitter
• Burl Burlingame; a tribute
• Honolulu Agonizer; Burl Burlingame's blog
• March 20th, 1937 @ "This Day in Aviation" blog
• Did Earhart Crash on Purpose in Hawaii Takeoff? Blog post on Mike Campbell's Earhart Truth blog.
• "Vanished: Amelia Earhart" was recorded in its entirety by the Zoom H1N microphone. Get yours here.
• A special thank you to Shaun Palmer from the "Doc Doc Goose Podcast" for recording tonight's exit script