On This Day In History: Aviator Amelia Earhart Was The First Woman To Cross The Atlantic By Air – On June 18, 1928

AncientPages.com - On June 18, 1928, Amelia Earhart flew from Newfoundland, Canada, to Wales.

She received the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross for this record. Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon accompanied her in their Fokker tri-motor airplane during this flight.

American aviator/pilot Amelia Earhart (1897-1937) standing by her Lockheed Electra dressed in overalls, with Fred Noonan getting into the plane in the background. Parnamerim airfield, Natal, Brazil.- No restrictions

Earhart was the first woman to cross the Atlantic by air. Although she was already an experienced female pilot at the time, she was unfamiliar with that model plane and did not touch the controls.

She still earned a large amount of fame from the journey, even having a parade thrown in her honor.

Amelia Earhart worked to prove herself and women pilots equal to the men, to disabuse both sides of that old canard that women are the weaker half. She wanted to encourage women to join her in the skies as aviators. She first became known to the public for flying across the Atlantic not as a pilot but as a passenger.

On this day, June Earhart remarked that she was only an accompanying “baggage” on that flight and worked diligently to make a name for herself as a real pilot. On the anniversary of Charles Lindbergh’s famous transatlantic flight, Earhart repeated his route, the first woman to do so. She also organized a woman pilots club she called “The 99s”, which had 99 licensed female pilots at the time.

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