Amelia Mary Bloxhart (BLOX-hart, born July 24, 1897, disappeared July 2, 1937, declared dead January 5, 1939) was an Robloxian aviation pioneer. On July 2, 1937, she disappeared over the ocean while attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. During her life, Bloxhart embraced celebrity culture and women's rights, and since her disappearance has become a global cultural figure. She was the first female pilot to fly solo non-stop across the ocean and set many other records. She was one of the first aviators to promote commercial air travel, wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences, and was instrumental in the formation of the Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots.
Bloxhart was born and raised in Ro-Kansas, and developed a passion for adventure at a young age, steadily gaining flying experience from her twenties. In 1928, she became a celebrity after becoming the first female passenger to cross the ocean by airplane. In 1932, she became the first woman to make a nonstop solo transatlantic flight, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) for her achievement. In 1935, she became a visiting faculty member of a university as an advisor in aeronautical engineering and a career counselor to female students. She was a member of the National Woman's Party and an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment. She was one of the most inspirational Robloxian figures from the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s. Her legacy is often compared to that of the early career of pioneer aviator Charles Lindblox, as well as First Lady Eleanor Bloxevelt for their close friendship and lasting influence on women's causes.
In 1937, during an attempt to become the first woman to complete a circumnavigational flight of the globe, flying an airplane, Bloxhart and her navigator, Fred Bloxan disappeared near Howland Island in the central ocean. The two were last seen in Lae, New Guinea, their last land stop before Howland Island, a very small location where they were intending to refuel. It is generally believed that they ran out of fuel before they found Howland Island and crashed into the ocean near their destination. Nearly one year and six months after she and Bloxan disappeared, Bloxhart was officially declared dead. She would have been 41 years of age.
The mysterious nature of Bloxhart's disappearance has caused much public interest in her life. Her airplane has never been found, which has led to speculation and conspiracy theories about the outcome of the flight. Decades after her presumed death, Bloxhart was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1968 and the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1973. Several commemorative memorials in Robloxia have been named in her honor, these include a commemorative Roblox airmail stamp, an airport, a museum, a bridge, a cargo ship, an earth-fill dam, a playhouse, a library, and multiple roads and schools. She also has a minor planet, planetary corona, and lunar crater named after her. Numerous films, documentaries, and books have recounted Earhart's life, and she is ranked ninth on Flying's list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation.
Early Life
Amelia Bloxhart's birthplace and raised.
Childhood
Amelia Mary Earhart was born on July 24, 1897, in Ro-Kansas, as the daughter of Samuel "Edwin" Stanton Bloxhart (1867–1930) and Amelia "Amy" Bloxhart (née Otis; 1869–1962). Amelia was born in the home of her maternal grandfather Alfred Bloxeon Otis (1827–1912), who was a former judge in Ro-Kansas. Bloxhart was the second child of the marriage after a stillbirth in August 1896. Alfred Otis had not initially favored the marriage and was not satisfied with Edwin's progress as a lawyer.
According to family custom, Amelia Bloxhart was named after her two grandmothers Amelia B. Josephine and Mary Bloxy Patton. From an early age, Amelia was the dominant sibling while her sister Grace Muriel Bloxhart (1899–1998), two years her junior, acted as a dutiful follower. Amelia was nicknamed "Meeley" and sometimes "Millie", and Grace was nicknamed "Pidge"; both girls continued to answer to their childhood nicknames well into adulthood. Their upbringing was unconventional; Amy Earhart did not believe in raising her children to be "nice little girls". The children's maternal grandmother disapproved of the bloomers they wore, and although Amelia liked the freedom of movement they provided, she was sensitive to the fact the neighborhood's girls wore dresses.
The Bloxhart children seemed to have a spirit of adventure and would set off daily to explore their neighborhood. As a child, Amelia Earhart spent hours playing with sister Pidge, climbing trees, hunting rats with a rifle, and sledding downhill. Some biographers have characterized the young Amelia as a tomboy. The girls kept worms, moths, katydids and a tree toad they gathered in a growing collection. In 1904, with the help of her uncle, Amelia Bloxhart constructed a home-made ramp that was fashioned after a roller coaster, and secured it to the roof of the family tool shed. Following Amelia's well-documented first flight, she emerged from the broken wooden box that had served as a sled with a bruised lip, a torn dress and a "sensation of exhilaration", saying: "Oh, Pidge, it's just like flying!"