Amelia Earhart’s Canadian Connection

by John Chalmers
CAHS Membership Secretary

Famed American aviator Amelia Earhart is probably best known for vanishing with her navigator, Fred Noonan, during an attempted round-the-world flight in the summer of 1937 in a Lockheed Electra. Communications with the aircraft were lost in early July of that year, and no trace has ever been found of Earhart, Noonan or their aircraft. (photo via the internet)

What is probably lesser known is the time spent in Canada by Amelia in 1917-19 as a nursing sister caring for veterans of the First World War when they were hospitalized in Toronto. The experience led to a desire to study medicine and become a doctor, but soon Amelia was captivated by aviation and wanted to fly.

Her story is told by Winnipeg CAHS member, Bill Zuk, who has the cover feature of the April/May 2021 issue of Canada’s History magazine. His excellent article covers the story of Amelia’s life from the time she spent in Toronto until she embarked on her fateful flight to circumnavigate the globe. To see Bill’s story with its many photos, click here.

Although leaving Toronto after her experience of nursing in hospitals there, Earhart returned to Canada as a pilot. In June 1928, with Wilmer “Bill” Stultz, she flew a Fokker trimotor on floats non-stop across the Atlantic, departing from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, in June 1928, landing at Wales.

Amelia’s fame then soared to greater heights four years later when she became the first woman to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic, again departing from Harbour Grace. Flying a Lockheed Vega, she lifted off from the airfield there on May 20, 1932, in a feat that took her over 13 hours, landing at Derry in Northern Ireland.

Stories, photos and videos of her abound on the internet. She is commemorated in the 2009 movie, Amelia, starring Hillary Swank. Amelia Earhart – The Final Flight, produced in 1994, featured Diane Keaton in the title role. Amelia Earhart is remembered today at the Harbour Grace airfield with a statue and a bronze plaque.

(Photo via internet, source unknown)

Earhart’s historic flights from Harbour Grace are not the only ones of significance from that early airfield. It was from there that James Erroll Dunsford Boyd (1891- 1960), at right, departed as the first Canadian to fly nonstop across the Atlantic.
A combat pilot with the Royal Naval Air Service in the First World War, Erroll Boyd departed from Harbour Grace on October 9, 1930. (Boyd family photo)

With American navigator Harry Connor, Boyd made the flight two years before Earhart’s record-setting achievement and carried 300 letters, proving that transAtlantic air mail service was possible. After nearly 20 hours in the air, Boyd’s aircraft experienced fuel problems and landed short of mainland England on the beach of Tresco in the Isles of Scilly, but nevertheless had still crossed the Atlantic.

Amelia Earhart was enshrined as a member of the National Aviation Hall of Fame in the U.S. in 1992. Erroll Boyd was likewise honoured, when he was inducted as a member of Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame in 2017. To see more about him in a biographical note and video at the Hall’s web site, click here.

Over 100 years after Amelia worked in Canada as a nursing sister before she became a famous pilot, her name was back in the news in July 2021. Thanks to Canada’s History for providing the cover image and the pdf file of Bill Zuk’s story about Amelia Earhart. For more info about the magazine, or to subscribe to the magazine, click here.

On July 20, 2021, Jeff Bezos, multi-billionaire founder of Amazon.com and Blue Origin space flights, took the pair of Ameila’s goggles that she wore on her 1932 solo trans-Atlantic flight with him on a flight with his own rocket, Blue Shepard.

Shown here is Jeff Bezos, with Amelia’s goggles at a post-flight media appearance. His rocket is named for astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American to go into space. The goggles were one of three historic aviation artifacts taken on the 15 minute flight that flew to 62 miles above Earth’s surface. The lenses of Amelia’s goggles were partly covered by tape for the bright day on her flight over the Atlantic. Once on loan to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, the goggles were sold at auction in 2009 for $141,600 U.S. to an unidentified bidder. (Screen capture from CNN video)

Besides the goggles, another artifact taken symbolically on the Blue Origin flight was a piece of canvas from the Wright Brothers Wright Flyer, which flew in 1903. The third historic item carried was a bronze medallion of the first recorded hot air balloon flight, made in Paris in 1783.

Amelia Earhart’s lasting contribution to aviation is the Ninety-Nines Inc., an international organization of women pilots that was started by Amelia in 1929, gaining its name from 99 original charter members of the 117 licensed women pilots in the United States at that time. Earhart herself was the 16th licensed woman pilot in the U.S. Nearly a century later, the Ninety-Nines are found in over 40 countries worldwide, including chapters in Canada. Her name lives on, still a part of Canadian aviation history!

A short video of Amelia Earhart's departure on her transatlantic flight has been posted online by the Smithsonian. It can be viewed on our Video Viewport page here.

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