Paul Mantz

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Albert Paul Mantz (August 2, 1903 – July 8, 1965).

  • Hollywood stunt pilot, racer.
  • Earhart began to work with Mantz as her technical adviser in 1934 in preparation for her flight from Honolulu to Oakland.

First round-the-world attempt

  • Mantz handled the throttles and landing gear on the takeoff from Oakland and made the landing in Hawaii. "Mantz came along because he didn't trust Earhart to be able to handle the heavy takeoff from Oakland" (Ric Gillespie, February 22, 2009, Forum).
  • The next day Mantz, who was remaining behind in Hawaii, flew the airplane to Luke Field on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor so that Earhart could use the airfield's recently paved runway for her departure on the anticipated thirteen hour flight to Howland Island with Manning and Noonan.

Second round-the-world attempt

  • Mantz was not at all convinced that a thorough search had been carried out of the most likely place for the flight to have gone down – the islands of the Phoenix Group.[1]

References

Dwiggins, Don
Hollywood Pilot. New York: Doubleday, 1967.
A biography of Paul Mantz with a substantial section devoted to his association with Earhart as her technical advisor. His comment, "She wouldn’t listen to Papa" speaks volumes about both Mantz and Earhart.