The early 1920''s were yet to witness the wave of feminism and the society even in the west was essentially male dominated. It was at such a time in a New York office in the year 1928 that George Palmer Putman, publisher, author, entrepreneur was sitting at his desk and waiting. He was looking for a female candidate pilot to take up a vacancy on the plane Friendship, that was to make a transatlantic flight. The candidate had to be a young willing woman willing to risk her life, at no pay simply for the sake of adventure. It seemed in the day an arduous task to find woman who was both modest and dignified and was ready to face death with composure if the time so arrived. Putman''s prayers were answered in the person of Amelia Ear hart. Freckled, graceful with a pair of state- gray eyes, Amelia fulfilled all the credentials required by Putman. She was a social service worker with a passion for flying. She became the first woman to fly over the formidable waters of the Atlantic.

Amelia Earhart was born in 1898, the daughter of a Kansas lawyer. Like the other children of the U.S Middle West, Amelia''s life followed a set pattern. But unlike other girls her age, she showed a passion more for improvising break-neck slides from hayloft to the floor of her grandfather''s barn than playing with dolls, Fishing, riding astride and gymnastics were the fields that she pursued with enthusiasm. In school she was termed as the "girl in brown who walks alone." She even pioneered in the wearing of the first pair of bloomers ever to glaze the eyes of Atchison, Kansas''s. After leaving secondary school during the last year of the First world War she served as a nurse''s help.

Armistice set her thinking about her future. She tried to look for a job that would satisfy her urge to do something unconventional. She tried her hand at photography, motor-car repairing and she even spent one year in pre-medical work. Then, in 1920, Edwin Ear hart took his daughter to her first air meet, in California, Amelia discovered her destiny.

The fascination of seeing a plane was novel. Amelia was spellbound. She hopped in the aircraft for a "joyride" only to discover that the cascading ground hundreds of feet beneath her and the dizzying heights to which she had climbed made her ad- reline flow in full force and strengthened her decision to reach for the skies. The haunting cadence of the skies echoed her resolve to sing the music of the heavens forever. It was quite a surprise to Frank Hawks and a fellow pilot that this young lady did not get into hysterics.

Amelia received the Federation Aeronautique International license in 1923. She was the first woman to soar to fourteen thousand feet, and one of the first American filers to experiment with air- cooled engines. Even with this astounding feet to her credit Amelia could not make the aeronautics industry treat her seriously. In 1926, Amelia settled down to social service in Boston as flying as a hobby was too expensive to pursue. Two years later while she was attending to a group of Chinese and Syrian toddlers Amelia received a phone call that made all her dreams come true. The phone call was from George Putman and he was inviting her to join a crew of three members in a transatlantic flight. The plane was a tri-motor Fokker, equipped with floats and the pilot was none other than the famous Wilmer Stutz and his mechanic "Slim" Gordon. As Amelia''s heart beat faster she heard herself saying, "Yes, I''d be willing."

In June 17, 1928 on her flight aboard the Friendship Amelia spurred interest all over America. Millions stayed close to their radios that memorable Sunday. Everyone wanted to know who the brave, reckless girl was and all so thoroughly misguided. Friendship with Amelia on board, crawled its way out of the Trepassey Harbor in New found land and pressed its nose eastward against the clotting fog.

The voyage was more than twenty four hours long. Eighteen hours of the time was spent in Challenging conditions. The pilot flew through blinding storms, through solid poultices of fog. The plane dropped to shake ice from its ledges and sometimes it climbed to escape the waves. To combat hungry headwinds the plane consumed fuel and the motor strained under the overload. The radio drew a blank. Midst icy case cades and only sixty minutes of fuel in the tank Amelia wrote her impressions of the flight. It might as well have been her last flight. Her jotting were those of a dreamer and a practical pilot. They were later published in a book that became an instant bestseller. Poetry mingled with gay drawings and observations that revealed clouds as "fantastic gobs of mashed potatoes appealed to the public. They could Identify with the writer who was it seemed to them just like them.

The Friendship landed at Burry Port, Whales, the eleventh heavier-than air machine to complete the North Atlantic crossing Amelia''s Ear hart''s luggage for the journey was a comb and a toothbrush.

The Aeronautics industry embraced her, Amelia had become a celebrity the World over, for the next four years she became the super saleswoman of an expanding industry. Professional aviation opened its doors to her, and she slogged out distance records, pioneered the auto-gyro, tested experimental planes and engines, gave instruction, boosted air travel with articles and lectures. Amelia became a rage in West and emerged as the new woman of the day who spoke a language that crossed the sexist barriers. Men admired her femininity and women were charmed by her modesty and her sincere championing of their daughter''s careers in the field. George Putman married her.

The Spirit of adventure kept her going. She experimented with celestial navigation, radio communication and dead reckoning. She let herself be blindfold in innumerable cockpits and tried instrumental flying. After she had to her credit more than a thousand hours of flying she finally decided that she was ready for what seemed to be her heart''s closed desire-a transatlantic solo. Only Lindbergh had accomplished that.

On May 20 1932, Amelia climbed into the cockpit of her single-engine Lockheed – Vega at Harbors Grace, Newfoundland, Fourteen hours and fifty-six minutes later in a pasture at Londonderry, Ireland an alarming red machine belching blue smoke and flames landed among the grazing cows. Amelia had set a new world record under unfavorable conditions. With a broken altimeter and a flaming manifold ring Amelia had decided to carry on regardless. For five hours she flew by instruments through pummeling''s storms. The tachometer failed and there was a leaking fuel gauge not four feet from the blazing manifold ring. The result was that the plane was filled with fumes and Amelia was forced to make that decision to step down at the very first opportunity.

Amelia''s transatlantic solo secured her a permanent place in the aviation archives. Her spirit of adventure inspired many and she became the woman of her an endearing figure across the globe. With the laurels of fame and recognition at her beckoning Amelia Ear hart remained a simple girl. Her head remained unturned.

On her flight from Honolulu to California in 1935, Amelia sat snug in her cabin near the microphone giving vent to her poetic soul. She said "The moon set and I was alone with the stars. I have often said that the lure of flying is the lure of beauty, and I need no other flight to convince me...." Ten thousand people were waiting at Oakland Airport to meet her. But the plane never landed. Destiny in an ironic way fulfilled Amelia''s prognosis. She had said, "Some day I''ll get bumped off. I don''t want to go, but when I go I''d like to go in my plane. Quickly." A flight around the world was her final challenge with nature. She had said before the flight," I mean to give up long- distance flights. I have a feeling that there is just about one more good flight left in my system and I hope this is it,"

With navigator Fred Noonan Amelia took off in the new twin engine Lockheed Electra. They went from Honolulu to distant Howland Island, north of Samoa, They first went to Lea New Guinea. They had twenty two thousand nine hundred miles behind them. Ahead, more than two thousand five hundred miles across the loneliest water in the world lay Howland. On July 2, 1937, Amelia and Noonan took off. The last contact that the plane had was with a Coastguard cutter who picked up a message in a familiar voice, "Headwinds.... Half an hour''s gas... circling. "The plane was lost not a hundred miles from Howland. Amelia''s luck ran out.

Amelia Ear hart''s spirit soared for individualism that sought to free itself from the binding conventions of society. It strove to liberate the self in doing what it believed in most dearly. Brave, noble and dignified the spirit of Amelia Ear hart lives on in every individual''s desire to reach for the skies.