Chapter Two of Finding Amelia - The True Stroy of the Earhart Electra is titled:
"The tree upon which costly airplanes grow.” May 1935 – February 1936
It deals with how Earhart selected and acquired an airplane to fly around the world. We all know the story - right?
In the first chapter of the book that would become Last Flight, Earhart wrote that her need/desire for an Electra first occurred to her while flying over the Gulf of Mexico en route from Mexico City to Newark, NJ on May 8, 1935.
"So on that sunny morning out of sight of land, I promised my lovely red Vega I'd fly her across no more water. And I promised myself that any further over-ocean flying would be attempted in a plane with more than one motor, capable of keeping aloft with a single engine. Just in case.
Which, in a way, was for me the beginning of of the world flight project. Where to find the tree on which costly airplanes grow, I did not know. But I did know the kind I wanted - an Electra Lockheed, big brother to my Vegas, with, of course, Wasp engines.
Such is the trusting simplicity of a pilot's mind, it seemed ordained that somehow the dream would materialize. Once the prize was in hand, obviously there was one flight which I most wanted to attempt - a circumnavigation of the globe as near its waistline as could be."
In the fourth chapter she explained how the dream materialized.
"One day last summer President Edward C. Elliott of Purdue asked my husband what most interested me beyond immediate academic matters. ... So he divulged my suppressed pilot's yearning for a bigger and better airplane. Not only to go to far places further and faster and more safely, but essentially for pioneering in aviation education and technical experimentation.
So, in due time, I came into possession of my two-motor Lockheed Electra. ....I had intended to undertake a year;s research with my plane and thereafter plan some interesting flight. But circumstances made it appear wiser to postpone the research and attempt the flight first."
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Earhart wrote "it seemed ordained that somehow the dream would materialize" after the dream had materialized, but in May 1935 there was no hint that it would. She seems to have assumed her long-distance stunt flying days were over. After the Mexican flight she had the Vega converted to passenger configuration for use in a charter and flight school business she was starting in partnership with Paul Mantz.
Elliott's query to Putnam about Amelia's plans "beyond academics" turned out to be a totally unanticipated turning point in AE's life. How and why it came about is a fascinating story. One key source is Putnam's now-rare 1939 biography of Amelia "Soaring Wings." We've ordered a copy ($50). Anybody care to sponsor that?
I'm especially curious to figure out what "circumstances" made it appear wiser to do the world flight before making research flights with the airplane. There's a lot of story here that hasn't been told.