July 2 - Amelia Earhart Lost (+ The Flying Flapper)

Amelia Earhart in the year she died. This photo is displayed
 in the small Air Museum in the Melbourne, Fla. airport.

This day in 1937, Amelia Earhart's plane disappeared.

Earhart  first learned to fly in 1921, at the age of 23. Although she had a passion for flying, it was largely a hobby until 1928, when she gained fame as the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean while a passenger aboard the plane Friendship.

After this, flying became Earhart’s career, promoted by her publicist and, later, husband G. P. Putnam.

First Woman to Fly Solo Across Two Oceans

When she was 34, in 1932, she became the first  woman to fly the Atlantic solo.

She took off from Newfoundland and landed in County Derry in Ireland. A puzzled farmer went out to see who it was and asked: "Have you come far?" She answered: "From America."

Then she was the first person to fly the Pacific solo, from Honolulu to Oakland. Her flight on a single-engine Lockheed Vega was routine - on her way in to Oakland she was listening on her radio to the broadcast of an opera from the Met in New York. She was called the female Lindy or "Queen of the Air".

National Woman's Party Member

Amelia Mary Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas, daughter of Samuel "Edwin" Stanton Earhart (1867-1930) and Amelia "Amy" Otis Earhart (1869-1962). She was married twice but did not take either husband's name. She was a member of the National Woman's Party.

Her plane disappeared in 1937 while she and a navigator were trying to circumnavigate the globe at the equator in an airplane with new equipment.

They were both assumed to be lost at sea. At the time of her disappearance, the 39-year-old Earhart was the most famous female pilot of her day.

Postscript on the Flying Flapper

Elinor Smith, the Flying Flapper.

Someone who read my post above on Amelia Earhart's disappearance alerted me to another famous early female aviator,  Elinor Smith Sullivan. She was known as the Flying Flapper of Freeport.

In 1927 she was the youngest U.S. Government certified pilot on record.

In 1928 she flew in one fell swoop under all four bridges on New York City's East River. Newsreel film documents her feat. No one apparently has ever duplicated it since.

The official reprimand from the Federal Government for her action was accompanied by a request for her autograph. (Mayor Jimmy Walker had sent a letter asking for lenience.)

She was a friend of Jimmy Doolittle, leader of the 1942 raid on Tokyo. Elinor Smith did the commentary on the famous Bendix Air Races.

She reportedly said that Earhart was a lousy pilot but a master of publicity. Watch a YouTube clip on the Flying Flapper and you will see why I am impressed with the FF.

Dragonboat Racing

Susan Rittenhouse, Wellesley
'66, with a racing shirt.

 The Wellesley Class of 1966 had a mini reunion in East Hampton hosted by Joan Hass and my wife Alice Tepper Marlin.

One of the participants in the event was Susan Rittenhouse, who was getting ready with other "senior warriors" to participate in a Dragonboat Race in Europe later this month.

That's her at left with one of the shirts she wears as a dragonboat racer.

Dragonboat with full complement of 20 paddlers, drummer and steerer.

Some of the 22 teammates required for a Dragonboat.

The boat has a drummer at front and a steerer - someone who wields an oar at the back to steer with, much like a gondolier.

The paddlers are in ten rows of two per row. The lead paddler in front of the drummer maintains the pace and the drummer follows the rhythm that the lead paddler establishes.

Susan recently participated the Nine Annual  Dragonboat Festival on Lake Champlain, at Burlington's Waterfront Park. There were 64 slots. Each team has 21 paddlers and a drummer who "race" over a 200-meter course. 

For her group it was not a race but rather an exhibition of local community and corporate teams, many of which are new to the sport and trained during a practice weekend in July. 

The Festival was a fund-raiser for Survivorship NOW, a cancer wellness program that is free service initiated by Dragonheart VT. It includes courses in subjects like yoga, art, finance, fitness and nutrition available to all cancer survivors in Vermont.

Dragonheart VT will have at least four teams (including two Senior teams 60+) representing the USA at the World Club Dragonboat Championships in Italy. The teams are setting off  on August 30. 

This is a sport that older paddlers can compete in because technique and teamwork have a lot to do with winning. Susan told me that her team of mature paddlers has defeated boats with much younger competitors.

There is a camp at Melbourne, Fla., and races are held in places like Princeton, NJ and Montreal. The festivals and races raise money for charity such as breast cancer research. Winning boats travel to Europe and Asia to compete.

Participants in one of the many dragon boat races.

Closer to home in NYC, the Hong Kong Dragonboat Festival in Queens last week drew nearly 200 teams in dragon-headed boats. They race across Meadow Lake in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

The all-female team known as the Dragon Queens competes in a variety of heats during the two-day festival.

The first day includes a competition for the Municipal Cup — a co-ed race for NY City agencies. The winning boat in this race is usually the NY State Chinese Auxiliary Police Association. The Dragon Queens were hoping before the race to come in second.