TIGHAR
Amelia Earhart Search Forum => General discussion => Topic started by: Randy Conrad on July 11, 2020, 12:05:52 PM
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Ran across this interesting article this afternoon. I hope you find it as interesting as I did. Makes you wonder how much damage she could have done to the Electra flying in that fast on (Gardner) Nikumarro?
https://okcrotary.club/amelia-earhart-has-a-police-record-in-oklahoma/
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I've been aware of Amelia's stop-over in Blackwell for repairs, but was not aware of her brief trip to Ponca City. Many on this forum may not be aware of it, but for a public figure like Amelia in the 30's, Ponca would have been a place to visit. Less than 20 miles by car. Ponca was, and still is one of the big oil towns of Oklahoma. Ponca City at the time was headquarters for Continental Oil Company, later known as Conoco. Many fine mansions and hotels.
Could she have been trying to meet someone for financial backing for her trip?
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Wow- that opening paragraph is a hard one to read due to all the grammatical errors, plus a bit of typical mis-information. But the story is an interesting one.
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I'm a bit surprised that the plane was flying west to Burbank in February, 1937 from New York. I was unaware that the plane ever was that far east. Wasn't it in West Lafayette, IN at Purdue for a short time? Or was the plane never east of California prior to her take-off in Oakland in March?
Ric: do you know the whereabouts of the plane during this time?
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I never knew this. Thank you for posting!
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I'm a bit surprised that the plane was flying west to Burbank in February, 1937 from New York. I was unaware that the plane ever was that far east.
The airplane was delivered in July 1936. On August 29 she flew ro New York for the start of the Bendix Trophy Race, stopping at Kansas City and Cleveland on the way. On September 4 she flew back to :Los Angeles in the Bendix race, refueling at Kansas City.
On September 18 she flew the airplane to Purdue in West Lafayette, IN via refueling stops in Salt Lake, UT and North Platte,NB, arriving at Purdue on September 19. The Electra remained at Purdue until November 19 when she flew it to South Bend, IN to visit Vince Bendix and from there to New Jersey on September 22 where Western Electric and Bell Labs worked on the radios. From there she went to Garden City, Long Island where the planes was inspected by the Bureau of Air Commerce. On December 5, she and Jackie Cochran flew the plane to Wright Field in Dayton, OH to visit Fred Hooven who had installed his Radio Compass while the plane was at Purdue. On December 8 they flew to St. Louis, on the 9th to Amarillo, TX, on the 10th to Winslow, AZ and back to Burbank.
On February 8, 1937 she set off for New York with stops in Albuquerque, NM, and St. Louis, MO, arriving in Newark, NJ on February 10. She announced her world flight in New York on February 12. After more radio work in NJ, she headed back to Burbank on February 18 with stops in Cleveland, OH; St. Louis, MO; and Blackwell, OK; arriving in Burbank on February 22.
So that's three trips to the East Coast and back before the Oakland/Honolulu flight. Her fourth trip across the country was in May 1937 from Oakland to Miami via Burbank, Tucson, and New Orleans.
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Photos taken of Blackwell Municipal Airport.