In 1930 Earhart bought a Lockheed 5B Vega, NR-7952, and she ultimately owned four Vegas and leased two. Vegas were highly prized as racing and record-setting aircraft, and as seven-place airliners. Earhart's Vega NR7952 was a high-speed cabin monoplane with a streamlined design, and she called her bright red Vega the "Little Red Bus." After a nose-over accident, the fuselage was replaced and strengthened to carry extra fuel tanks.

Earhart learned to fly by taking flying lessons and received her pilot's license in 1923. In 1928 she was the first woman to cross the Atlantic by air. She rode as a passenger on the Friendship while two men flew the plane, but she did fly it on the final hop from Wales to England. She wrote a book about the flight, titled 20 hours and 40 minutes. In August 1929 she finished third in the first air race across the United States for women, and in 1930 she set the women's flying speed record of 181.18 mph and earned her transport pilot's license.

In May 1932 Earhart flew from Newfoundland across the Atlantic to Northern Ireland in a Vega, and ice formed on its wings. Some people think she was the first person to fly alone across the Atlantic. She was not. In 1932 she became the first woman, and the second person, to do it, and the flight made her an international hero. In 1935 she became the first person to fly solo from Los Angeles to Mexico City, and her solo flight from Honolulu to Oakland began on January 11, 1935, when she flew alone over the Pacific Ocean from Hawaii to California. She also set many flying records.

In 1937 Earhart tried to fly around the world in a Lockheed Electra. The flight set off from Miami, Florida, on June 1, 1937. Fred Noonan, the navigator, also flew with her. In July 1937 they left New Guinea heading for tiny Howland Island, where the Coast Guard cutter Itasca was waiting to support the flight. Radio contact between the plane and the Itasca was lost on July 2, 1937. After the plane went missing, ships and planes searched for her. The official search ran from July 2 to July 18, 1937. It found no trace of the plane or its crew. As of November 2026 the Electra has not been found.

Earhart did more than fly. She was the first president of the Ninety-Nines, a group of women pilots. She was a partner in Transcontinental Air Transport and Ludington Airlines, and she lobbied Congress for aviation legislation. She was a two-time winner of the Harmon Trophy and received the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross. In 1933 she sold her 5B Vega to Philadelphia's Franklin Institute after buying a new Lockheed 5C Vega. The Smithsonian acquired it in 1966. As of November 2026 it is on display in the Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight gallery at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

Words to know

• fuselage: plane's body
• monoplane: one-wing plane
• navigator: route finder
• cutter: Coast Guard ship