Amelia Earhart: Distant relative with same name to retrace last flight
Amelia Earhart aims to fly the route of her storied relative in a latest-model single-engine plane next year. The flight is to raise money for her foundation to encourage girls to fly.
Amelia Earhart will finally complete her flight around the globe in June 2014.
Or at least that鈥檚 the symbolic connection a distant relative, Amelia Rose Earhart, hopes to make when she attempts to retrace the famed pilot鈥檚 route around the world in a single-engine plane next summer.
Ms. Earhart, a traffic and weather anchor at a Denver television station聽and philanthropist, announced her plans at an aviation show in Oshkosh, Wis., Wednesday.
Of course, the Earhart doesn鈥檛 plan on repeating the mysterious disappearance of her namesake鈥檚 plane in the Pacific Ocean, but she does plan on capitalizing on the enduring fascination with the incident to raise money for her foundation that encourage girls to enter aviation.
"One year from now I will be completing, symbolically completing, and recreating Amelia Earhart's historic flight around the world. It's a dream that I've had since I was about 18-years-old,鈥� she .
Despite sharing the same name as the famed aviatrix, Earhart told she didn't discover the connection until she found a 鈥渃ommon ancestry鈥� by tracing her roots to the early 1700s.
Earhart, who started flying lessons in 2004 and earned her instrument rating about two months ago, won鈥檛 be attempting the journey in quite the same style as the original Earhart. She鈥檒l be flying an aircraft significantly more technologically advanced than the Lockheed Electra plane flown in 1937. The 2014 Earhart will fly in a latest-model $4.6 million PC-12 NG aircraft supplied by sponsor聽Pilatus Business Aircraft, Ltd., based in Stans, Switzerland.聽
Like the original Earhart, Amelia Rose will have a co-pilot on her round-the-world flight. She's planning on flying with Patrick Carter, a former test pilot and corporate charter pilot. The pair will take off from Oakland, Calif., and plans on flying聽more than 100 hours and making 14 stops on the journey.
The flight will be co-sponsored by聽Pilatus Business Aircraft, Ltd.; Jeppesen, a Boeing subsidiary that sells navigation products; and Denver鈥檚 Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum.
"Amelia Earhart said adventure is worthwhile in itself," Amelia Rose told the . "I think there's a new focus on adventure that we've only seen in the last five to 10 years. But whatever your version of flying is 鈥� it could be starting a business, it could be something entrepreneurial聽 鈥� we want to encourage people to pursue their own adventure."
If successful, Earhart won鈥檛 be the first woman to recreate the journey. Anne Pellegreno completed the flight in 1967 in a Lockheed 10A Electra and Australian Gaby Kennard flew it in 1989 in a Piper Saratoga, 聽to聽Louise Foudray, a historian at the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum in Atchison, Kan.聽
In April, Earhart started the Fly with Amelia Foundation, which aims to provide flight training for 16-to-18-year-old girls.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a confidence builder. It allows you to understand what you鈥檙e capable of,鈥� she said of flying.