Earhart Solos the Pacific, Hawaii to California
On this day · 11 January 1935
In 1935, Amelia Earhart became the first person to fly alone across the Pacific, a route that had already killed several aviators.
On January 11, 1935, Amelia Earhart lifted off from Wheeler Field on Oahu in her Lockheed Vega 5C, pointing the single-engine monoplane east across open ocean. Roughly 18 hours later she touched down at Oakland, California, becoming the first person to fly solo and nonstop from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland.
The 2,400-mile crossing was no stunt for its own sake. The Pacific route had already claimed the lives of several fliers, and a cash prize offered for the journey had drawn criticism as reckless. Earhart, flying alone with only basic instruments and a radio, navigated through darkness and weather with no land in sight for most of the night.
She was the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to the Mainland.
The flight extended a remarkable run of firsts. Earhart had already become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932, and this Pacific solo cemented her standing as one of aviation’s most daring long-distance pioneers.
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