SEATTLE, Sept. 29, 2009
--The Museum of Flight brings together resources from around the country for its major new exhibit about the remarkable life and times of the famous American pilot, Amelia Earhart. Opening Oct. 24, "In Search of Amelia Earhart" is one of the most comprehensive exhibits about Earhart in the country. Her story is told through original photographs, newspapers, newsreel footage and Earhart's personal belongings including the uniform she used as a young nurse, and the flying suit she wore on her solo trans-Atlantic flight in 1932. Also on display--for the first time in public--is the only known surviving piece of the Lockheed Electra aircraft Earhart flew on her ill-fated flight around the world in 1937. Special Earhart-related programs and events will take place at the Museum throughout the run of the exhibit. Please check the Museum website for up-to-date listings. "In Search of Amelia Earhart" will run until May, 2010.
"Amelia" captured the nation's imagination when she became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic in 1928--as a passenger--and became a legend when she mysteriously disappeared at the helm of a daring flight around the world just nine years later.
Growing up in the early 20th century, Earhart was inspired by the achievements of women of her day and would come to be an inspiration to many more. Earhart was one of a small number of women who earned their pilot's license in the early 1920s and promoted aviation her entire career. After the non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in 1928 as a passenger aboard the Fokker F.VII Friendship, she had many achievements and as a pilot broke a number of aviation records. In 1932 she became first woman--and second person after Charles Lindbergh--to fly across the Atlantic solo, and her celebrity grew. She published many newspaper and magazine articles, several books, and became a sought after public speaker and product endorser. In 1937, she nearly completed a record-setting flight around the world, but was lost in the Pacific Ocean--a mystery which captured the world's attention and continues to be a subject of interest today.
### The Museum of Flight is located at 9404 E. Marginal Way S., Seattle, Exit 158 off Interstate 5 (on Boeing Field between downtown Seattle and SeaTac Airport.) The Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $14 for adults, $13 for seniors 65 and older, $10 for active military, $7.50 for youth 5 to 17, and free for children under 5. Group rates are available. Admission on the first Thursday of the month is free from 5 to 9 p.m. courtesy of Wells Fargo. For general Museum information, please call 206-764-5720 or visit www.museumofflight.org.
Ted Huetter
PR and Promotions Manager
206.768.7105
PR Assistant
206.768.7128
