I've heard the Earhart story a zillion times (it seems) but never in such detail, or that made the whole thing seem like such a cluster.... 😢

 

Excellent video presentation of the possibility of the radio technology of the time, and not being fully understood, lead to their demise.

That guy has a ton of great videos - highly recommend his channel

Yeah I use his video on lead in fuel as one of a few training videos for our new hires at the marina I work at. Its less about specifics and more about general understanding of why its called unleaded, the dangers of lead, why high performance needs or benefits from a higher octane (which marine motors are) and how diesel is different. I follow his channel and like most of his videos I start out following them but then he cranks up the math an science and I start to fall off the rails. However, the videos that I can stick with, I learn a good amount from.

I used to really like watching Veritasium's videos until the wildly enthusiastic one on Waymo's self driving taxis.  The comments for that video tell quite a story.  I haven't watched any of his videos since.  

A few things to mention about the Amelia Earhart story.  Things that are usually omitted when telling her story.

She was not known to be a particularly good pilot.  Not everyone was surprised when she disappeared.  She was advised not to show her teeth when she smiled due to the gap between her front teeth, and this is the first time I've seen pictures of that.  It wasn't so much that radio was not well understood, but that Earhart herself didn't understand it.  Still, we have to give her credit for even attempting such a flight, and regard her as a hero, and her disappearance was tragic.

Her husband Putnam was mentioned, but not that he was the head of Putnam publishing.

Fred Noonan was regarded as one of the world's best navigators... when he was sober.  This is apparently why he no longer worked for TWA.

I read that Noonan was not in the co-pilots seat, but was seated behind the fuel tank that was installed in the fuselage.  This is why they communicated by notes.  I assume this is true.  It is also why Noonan couldn't give Earhart detailed instructions on using the radio, the use of which he likely understood.

Her loss wasn't due to one big problem, but many little problems where everything failed in the same direction.  Truly unfortunate.

Hook

1 hour ago, LHookins said:

I used to really like watching Veritasium's videos until the wildly enthusiastic one on Waymo's self driving taxis.  The comments for that video tell quite a story.  I haven't watched any of his videos since.  

A few things to mention about the Amelia Earhart story.  Things that are usually omitted when telling her story.

She was not known to be a particularly good pilot.  Not everyone was surprised when she disappeared.  She was advised not to show her teeth when she smiled due to the gap between her front teeth, and this is the first time I've seen pictures of that.  It wasn't so much that radio was not well understood, but that Earhart herself didn't understand it.  Still, we have to give her credit for even attempting such a flight, and regard her as a hero, and her disappearance was tragic.

Her husband Putnam was mentioned, but not that he was the head of Putnam publishing.

Fred Noonan was regarded as one of the world's best navigators... when he was sober.  This is apparently why he no longer worked for TWA.

I read that Noonan was not in the co-pilots seat, but was seated behind the fuel tank that was installed in the fuselage.  This is why they communicated by notes.  I assume this is true.  It is also why Noonan couldn't give Earhart detailed instructions on using the radio, the use of which he likely understood.

Her loss wasn't due to one big problem, but many little problems where everything failed in the same direction.  Truly unfortunate.

Hook

Yet everyone still assumes Amelia was the first Woman to fly around the World solo, without knowing the name of the Woman who actually achieved the feat because she wasn't a 'household Name' like Amelia was.

Edited November 24, 20241 yr by ViperPilot

Amelia never made it around the world. She was extremely brave. On most of her "first" flights, the people who tried immediately before she did, perished. It never stopper her from trying, however.

That feat was realized 27 years after Amelia and Fred's attempt, by a mild mannered housewife from Columbus, OH named Jerrie Mock. She did it in a Cessna 180 called "Charlie", which resides at the National Air and Space Museum.

A very good video presentation!

Amelia Earhart's attempt to fly around the World was a media spectacle at the time. We will probably never know if any (or how much) of her decision making was clouded by the publicity (and pressure) to "carry on".

In present day terms, you can't help but wonder if this loss of an aircraft with two people wasn't just an earlier form of a "social media tragedy".

I suspect every "av-geek" is familiar with the story of Amelia Earhart. Even to this day, there are still "hunters" searching for her wreck, and I suspect, some closure to her story.

I believe in the "Swiss Cheese" model...there tend to be multiple reasons for an accident to occur...in that 18-20 hours, several deficiencies just "lined up". What Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan tried to accomplish back in the very early days of aviation was a very difficult task. I believe there were a multitude of compounding reasons as to why they did not complete their mission...including fatigue.

I think her legacy is her spirit and determination as an adventurer and her accomplishments as an early pioneer in aviation.