Amelia Earhart Movie

I enjoyed seeing the movie about Amelia Earhart yesterday, starring Hilary Swank and Richard Gere. The movie falls into the class of B movies and is somewhat slow and boring. That's why it is only showing in independent film theaters. It is historically accurate though and does tell of the contributions of Amelia Earhart to aviation.

The sad part of the movie is her loss at the end. This movie is like Titanic in that you know what the ending is going to be, but you hope for an interesting story until you get there. The reason why Amelia died was the method of navigation they used to cross the Pacific Ocean. It's ironically called "Dead Reckoning" and you can see why. This method of navigation uses compass direction, air speed, wind speed, and computation to get you to your destination.

The other method of navigation is called "Pilotage." It is flying by using ground references to guide you to your destination, which isn't of any use over the open ocean. Most flying today uses a combination of both and also much more sophisticated devices like GPS, Loran, and DME devices. Navigation in 1937 was pretty risky. Amelia certainly had the airplane and piloting skills to circle the globe, but the radios and star nav systems were woefully inadequate for the task.

Amelia also started the 99's, which is the women's flying organization in the United States today. The husbands of the 99's are called 49 and 1/2's. I asked a woman in the 99's if men can join the club. She said "no" and was quite adamant about the fact that it is only for women. Why then can husbands be members?

I think Amelia Earhart made her identity in aviation because her name literally says "Air Heart." Her heart was in the air, just like many people with the last name of Carpenter become carpenters as a profession. I know a young lady named Zoe Loomis that is looking to get a PhD in zoology too. I told her it was because she is looking to find herself there in Zoe-ology. I am surprised at how often these name analogies go unnoticed by the people who are so affected, even in the formation of their identity, by these nomenclature forces.

The movie showed Amelia's other romance too that existed while she was married. I wonder if that was part of the publicity back then, or if they were truly more tolerant of infidelity. Amelia's husband, Putnam, was a professional publicist, and these record breaking stunts had as much to do with making money as they did with creating aviation achievements. At least they were honest about that in the movie.

We honor Amelia Earhart today and for all times, as it is these individuals who break the barriers and open the doors for others to follow and go on to achieve even greater things.

Dr. Doug Ikeler. http://www.ikeler4000.com/

http://www.ikelerbooks.com/ http://www.ikeler4000.blogspot.com/