Amelia Earhart: aviation pioneer and disappearance

Amelia Earhart

The World of Aviation, the New World of flight of Amelia Earhart, as revealed by Mary S. Lovell

Lovell, Mary S. The Sound of Wings. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989

The Sound of Wings by Mary S. Lovell is primarily interested in the relationship of the developing cult of celebrity in 1920s America rather than Amelia Earhart's relationship with the world of the air. Perhaps the most astounding development chronicled by Lovell is not the development of the modern aircraft, initially spurned as a kind of dangerous gadget with little application to either transport or military deployment, but the modern publicity machine facilitated by creation the mass media of newspapers, advertising, and international 'lecture circuits.' It was through the development of mass media technology that Amelia Earhart became the legend she is today, although many other women pilots more qualified than Earhart made their names and reputations with daring flights.

Lovell's work chronicles the evolving implications of Amelia Earhart's husband George Palmer Putnam on her career. Putnam emerges in the text as a pure showman, eventually divorcing his first wife, heir to the Crayola empire, to pursue a more lucrative career exploiting Earhart's supposed technical prowess at an aircraft's controls. In fact, Lovell suggests that even before Earhart became an aviatrix, Lovell had already begun to pen the supposed autobiography of Amelia's first flight, which would propel her to world fame. After gaining fame as a pioneer of women's liberation, Earhart was called to speak to countless audiences, and became a tireless endorser of everything from cigarettes to clothes.

Although Lovell includes an appendix delineating the various conspiracy theories that have surrounded Earhart's final disappearance, the technical aspects of the aviator's final flight and disappearance in the South Seas tend to fall to the side as the narrative unfolds. Lovell continually questions Earhart's ability to effectively fly a plane, although not Earhart's apparently genuine enthusiasm for flying. At times, by attributing Earhart's fame solely to Putnam's publicity machine, rather than to the concrete accomplishments of her life, Lowell seems determined to deflate Earhart's legacy, rather than critically examine Earhart's legacy in the history of aviation. Also, although Lovell notes that other women pilots might have possessed more genuine credentials than Earhart, the author's failure to give these women equal textual attention makes Lovell's own text seem to have an anti-feminist tone.

Whatever Earhart's ability, there can be no doubt that Earhart was a tireless advocate for women's rights with the fame she gained. Earhart supported equal rights for women, and did not change her name after marrying, although Lovell believes this was merely because Putnam had decided that changing Earhart's surname would impact and damage the Earhart name 'brand.' Admittedly, however, in Lovell's favor, even Earhart called herself little more than baggage her first famous flight in 1928 flight. Earhart did not handle the controls rather the two men with her piloted the craft manned the plane. Although Earhart gave ample credit to these men, their names are forgotten to history, and Earhart's legacy lives on.

But Lovell's tone is grating when she only grudgingly concedes that when Earhart crossed the Atlantic on the fifth anniversary of Lindbergh's successful flight in 1932, Earhart's accomplishment was her own. That time, no one else was in charge of the craft. Clearly, Earhart had improved as a pilot since her early foray into the air. Still, that does not stop Lovell from arguing that Earhart was not a natural pilot and her fame was based more in notoriety and sensationalism than her contribution to the aviation. For the first time, in national newsreels, and through clips seen in movie theaters, the American public could follow a celebrity, famed not for acting or politics, but for doing daring things -- first Lindbergh, and now Earhart.

Finally, Lovell more convincingly argues that the practical value of the circumnavigation of the globe, the flight that resulted in Earhart's disappearance, was also of more financial value to her husband than to the history of flight. Putnam and Earhart's finances rested upon the lucrative speaking and celebrity endorsement engagements that Earhart would gain, if she completed the flight successfully. Lovell demonstrates that Earhart's plane and route was hastily and poorly planned and equipped. The route's navigator, Fred Noonan, also had a reputation for drinking. However, some of the details Lovell includes about the navigation, such as the fact the plane took off at exactly 00:00 Greenwich Mean Time suggests Noonan was more meticulous than Lovell might credit (Lovell 272).