by Sesh Heri
Putnam brought out a handkerchief and wiped his brow.
“G.P.,” Bernard Baruch said, “I agreed to let you see this test on the basis of our friendship and because you’re A.E.’s husband. But might I suggest you stay home from now on while she finishes her training. I’d like you to consider my suggestion. I think it would be better for everyone.”
Bernard Baruch nodded and then turned and walked away. Tesla and George Ade followed after Baruch. Putnam looked over to Lt. Brown.
“He suggests,” Putnam sneered.
“A suggestion from Mr. Baruch is an order,” Lt. Brown said.
“Don’t you think I know that?” Putnam asked, his eyes in a squint.
“She’ll be all right,” Lt. Brown said.
“Can you guarantee that in writing?” Putnam asked.
“No one can do that,” Lt. Brown said.
“Then don’t tell me that she’ll be all right,” Putnam said, and he turned and walked toward the Lockheed Model 12 Electra that was now slowing to a stop on the landing field one hundred yards away.
On the horizon a sand storm billowed upward into the blue sky, drawn by heat that was stronger than gravity.
On November 10th, 1936, Amelia Earhart formally wrote President Roosevelt of her plans for an around-the-world flight. In her letter, she detailed Putnam’s discussions with the Navy concerning the idea of a possible refueling in the air over Midway Island. This letter was meant to establish confidential, but non-secret, evidence that Earhart’s World Flight was entirely her own private venture. In the following weeks and months Amelia Earhart continued to make secret preparations for her World Flight. Bernard Baruch (MJ-2) visited Earhart at her Toluca Lake home on several occasions to verbally convey above top-secret orders to Earhart from President Roosevelt. Many of these orders were technical instructions and schedules determined by Nikola Tesla. At least one of Baruch’s visits involved a discussion concerning Amelia Earhart’s future after the World Flight. Putnam was allowed to sit in on this discussion. Baruch outlined a possible political future for Earhart that might lead to a seat in the Senate.
“I don’t really see A.E. as a politician,” Putnam said.
“Hmm,” Baruch said. “Well, I agree. A.E. is not a politician. She is a stateswoman.”
“A stateswoman?” Amelia Earhart asked. “I don’t believe I’ve ever heard that title before.”
“I just coined it,” Baruch said. “I see big things on your horizon, A.E.— important things.”
“The senate?” Amelia Earhart asked, her head tilted skeptically to one side.
“Why not?” Baruch asked. “Why not the senate? Why not the White House? And I don’t mean First Lady, with all due respect to G.P. here. No, I mean President. That’s right. G.P. how would you like to be married to President Amelia Earhart— the first woman President of the United States?”
Putnam looked over to Amelia Earhart and raised his eyebrows. Amelia Earhart slowly grinned at him.
“And G.P.?” Amelia Earhart asked. “Would he get to be First Gentleman?”
“Really!” Putnam huffed.
“If he’s lucky,” Baruch said. “I could imagine there would be a lot of men standing in line for that job if G.P. didn’t want it.”
“A woman President?” Putnam asked. “That’s absurd. How could a woman ever get elected?”
“Easily,” Baruch said. “Exactly the same way a man would. We put the candidate up there in the right way for the people to see, and the people will elect. All we have to do is put A.E. up there in the right way. And we’re experts in putting people up there in the right way.”
“I’ve already mapped A.E.’s career path after the World Flight,” Putnam said.
“Quit thinking about selling stamps, G.P.!” Baruch declared. “Quit thinking small potatoes. Your wife is a great American. Great Americans become Presidents. Think Washington. Think Lincoln. Think Earhart. Think, G.P., think! This is bigger than you and me, bigger than A.E., too. It’s what should be done!”
Putnam stared at Baruch, then looked over to his wife, then looked back to Baruch.
“It’s Project Electra,” Putnam said. “Isn’t it? There’s something about it you’re not telling me. A whole lot about it. Something about Project Electra is making A.E. Presidential material. Isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Baruch said. “And that’s all you need to know, G.P. Just get on board and sell your stamps for now. A.E. has much, much bigger fish to fry. Understand?”
Putnam looked over to his wife who looked back at him with a faint smile.
“I understand that I’m the odd man out,” Putnam said. “And with my own wife.”
“She’s your wife,” Baruch said, “but you’re going to have to get used to the idea that in a very real sense she belongs to the world now. Both of you are going to have to get used to that idea. It’s too late to turn back now.”
“I’ve never given a thought to turning back,” Amelia Earhart said.
In November 1936, Amelia Earhart returned to Purdue University for three weeks, involving herself in discussions with co-eds concerning their careers and marriage. Soon officials of the Purdue Foundation informed Earhart that they would award her $50,000 to fund the purchase of a Lockheed Electra airplane— her own “flying laboratory.” Thus, it was now possible for the public face of Project Electra to completely emerge. Already two Lockheed Electra planes had been secretly financed and built for Earhart’s training. Now the third, to be publicly owned by Amelia Earhart through the Purdue Foundation, would be built. Ultimately, a fourth Lockheed Electra plane would actually be used by Earhart in her World Flight. An elaborate shell game using Lockheed Electra airplanes was about to be played out across the circumference of the earth.
While waiting for the game to begin, Amelia Earhart and her husband spent the Christmas of 1936 in Indio, California at the home of her friend, aviatrix Jackie Cochran and her husband, financier Floyd Odlum. On December 15th, 1936, a Western Air Express airplane was reported missing. On December 22nd, Amelia Earhart telephoned Western Air Express and told them that she had seen a vision in which a trapper had looted the crashed airplane. Later, a trapper came into Salt Lake City and said that he had found the wreckage of the plane. Before he could be questioned, the trapper disappeared. Over the next three weeks Amelia Earhart located two other crashed planes in southern California using her psychic abilities, one at Saugus, and the other at Newhall. Amelia Earhart and Jackie Cochran made a pact at this time that they would attempt to psychically contact the other in case of an emergency.
In January 1937, Amelia Earhart completed her current series of lectures around the United States and on February 12th of that year she held a press conference at the Barclay Hotel in New York to officially announce her World Flight. After the announcement, Earhart flew back to California, taking with her Putnam, Harry Manning, her navigator, and Bo McKneely, a Lockheed mechanic. When a minor problem arose with the airplane’s propeller, Earhart landed in Blackwell, Oklahoma to spend the night. That evening, Putnam played a practical joke on his wife, arranging with a judge and the local police for her to be arrested for speeding in a borrowed car. After a mock trial in the town’s courthouse, Earhart said to Putnam, “You’ve behaved pretty well up to now but I’ve half a mind to take off without you.” The next day, Earhart’s party took off for California. There at her home in Toluca Lake, she met with Bernard Baruch again.
“This Harry Manning you’ve chosen for your navigator,” Baruch said, “he’s no good.”
“Why do you say that?” Amelia Earhart asked.
“Our technical people tell me that he doesn’t understand airplane navigation sufficiently,” Baruch said. “He’s an ocean-going ship navigator, not an airplane navigator.”
“I think he knows what he’s doing,” Amelia Earhart said.
“And then there’s his security clearance problem,” Baruch said.
“What problem?” Amelia Earhart asked.
“I can’t go into it,” Baruch said. “You don’t have a need to know it. You just need to know that we can’t give him clearance on Project Electra.”
“Then that’s it,” Amelia Earhart said. “It has nothing to do with his skills as a navigator.”
“We’ve found you another navigator,” Baruch said.
“And who is that?” Amelia Earhart asked.
“Frederick Noonan,” Baruch said.
“The drunk?” Amelia Earhart asked.
“He’s not a drunk,” Baruch said. “That’s just the rumors surrounding him.”
“Where there’s smoke there’s fire,” Amelia Earhart said.
“A.E., we’re the ones who made the smoke,” Baruch said. “We created those rumors about Noonan for a purpose.”
“What purpose?” Amelia Earhart asked.
“When you get lost in the South Pacific,” Baruch asked, “who do you think we’re going to blame?”
“Noonan?” Amelia Earhart asked. “I won’t let you do that.”
“Sure you will,” Baruch said.
“How do you know?” Amelia Earhart asked.
“Because Noonan has already agreed to go along with the scenario,” Baruch said.
“You’ve talked to him already,” Amelia Earhart said.
“He’s been thoroughly profiled, psychologically, medically, and politically,” Baruch said, “and we’ve already briefed him on his duties both before and after the flight— and he has already accepted.”
“He’s willing to take the fall?” Amelia Earhart asked.
“Yes, he is,” Baruch said, “so don’t try to make his decision for him. It has already been made.”
“What about Manning?” Earhart asked. “Did you make him the same offer that you did Noonan?”
“No,” Baruch said. “I can tell you this much: we psychologically profiled Manning and discovered that he would not take the blame for you getting lost in the South Pacific. Our psychologists tell us that Manning, categorically, would refuse to take the blame. In such a case, we don’t even ask a candidate. We don’t pursue it any further. So Manning is out. Noonan is in. The problem is how to get Manning out and Noonan in without attracting too much attention.”
“I’m sure you’ve thought of something,” Amelia Earhart said.
“Our people have thought of something, yes,” Baruch said. “We want you to tell Manning that you’re taking on Noonan as an extra crew member, someone to give Manning assistance in his many duties. You want Noonan to go along as far as Howland Island to lend extra assistance. From Howland Island, you want Noonan to return by ship to the mainland. You want Manning to go with you as far as Australia. From Australia, you’ll make the rest of the World Flight alone.”
“That’s what I tell Manning,” Amelia Earhart said.
“Right,” Baruch said.
“But what’s really going to happen?” Amelia Earhart asked.
“When you take off from Hawaii with Manning and Noonan aboard, you’ll crash your plane on the runway, as we’ve already planned,” Baruch said. “Our psychologists tell us that when that happens, Manning will quit on you.”
“He’ll what?” Amelia Earhart asked.
“Manning will quit on you after you crash,” Baruch said. “He’ll be disgusted with you. He’ll say to himself— Earhart the prima donna, completely incompetent yet world famous! Now do you see? Do you see why we can’t give Manning security clearance? He has no fundamental loyalty to you, and your navigator must have full loyalty to you and to the project.”
“You believe that’s the way Manning sees me?” Amelia Earhart asked. “A prima donna?”
“Believe me, A.E.,” Baruch said, “that’s what he really thinks of you.”
“All right,” Amelia Earhart said, “we’ll go with Noonan.”
Amelia Earhart’s World Flight officially commenced on March 17th, 1937 when she piloted her Model 10E Electra off the landing strip at Oakland’s airport and up over the Golden Gate Bridge. She carried with her Paul Mantz, her technical advisor and instructor, and her two navigators, Manning and Noonan. On March 18th they reached Wheeler Field on Oahu after a fifteen hour flight. Playing out Baruch’s scenario in every detail, Earhart feigned fatigue as they approached the runway and asked Paul Mantz to land the plane. This small act was to establish a plausible reason for the airplane crash which Earhart would stage in a carefully controlled maneuver two days later. This maneuver, referred to later as a “ground loop,” had been diligently practiced in a simulator and in an actual take-off using one of the Electra models at March Field the previous fall.
On March 20th, Amelia Earhart, Fred Noonan, and Harry Manning boarded the Electra, prepared to take off on the next leg of their World Flight that would take them to Howland Island in the South Pacific. As Earhart accelerated the Electra down the runway, the tail of the plane lifted off the ground. At that moment, Earhart steered the plane slightly to the right, then corrected to the left by pushing all the way down on the left rudder pedal. The plane continued on a course that would take it off the right side of the runway. Earhart eased back on the left throttle to take power away from the left engine. The moment she did this, the right wing dropped to the ground and the plane began to make a left turn across the airfield, the right wing almost scrapping the mat. Then the right landing gear collapsed— and then the left landing gear went. In a great rumble and whine, the Electra slid on its belly across the mat in a shower of sparks and came to a halt.
Inside the plane, Amelia Earhart shut off the ignition and master switches and then calmly looked back over the fuel tanks to Harry Manning whose eyes were squinted shut. He opened his eyes and glared back at her. She turned and saw Paul Mantz with all the color in his face drained out. Then she looked over at Fred Noonan who only gave her a quick nod.
Amelia Earhart opened the hatch above her, stood up on the pilot’s seat and stuck her head through the hatch. She saw the fire truck pull up to the left side of the plane. The fire crew extended their hose, but there was no fire. Earhart came out of the hatch and down on to the wing. First Lieutenant Donald Arnold, Engineering Officer at the Hawaiian Air Depot at Luke Field, and Chris Holmes, Earhart’s host in Honolulu, came roaring up in an automobile. Holmes and Arnold jumped out of the car and ran toward the plane. Holmes reached the plane in time to help Earhart down from the wing.
Outside the plane, Earhart and her crew saw that the landing gear had collapsed, leaving the plane on its belly. The propellers were bent aft and the engine mounts twisted out of alignment.
“I made a good job of it,” Amelia Earhart said.
Harry Manning stood in silent anger, enraged at Earhart’s inept flying, which he thought inexcusable. Paul Mantz looked the wreck over, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Fred Noonan also remained silent, but unlike Manning and Mantz, Noonan understood exactly what had just happened. Instead of seeing a wreck caused by incompetent piloting, Noonan saw something that approached a work of art: an expert maneuver made to look like an act of incompetence. In other hands, such a dangerous maneuver could have gotten them all killed. But because of Earhart’s extensive training at March Field, she was able to intentionally collapse the landing gear symmetrically, allowing a safe, sliding motion as the plane came to a halt. An asymmetrical collapse of the landing gear would have ruptured the Electra’s fuel tanks, and that would have instantly incinerated all aboard. Noonan realized that Amelia Earhart had just piloted a controlled crash, and was now calmly waiting to receive blame from everyone.
“Looks like we’ll have to start over,” Noonan said to Earhart with a wink.
“Looks like,” Earhart said with a nod.
“Well,” Noonan said, “when you’re ready to fly again, I’ll be ready to go along.”
Harry Manning, it turned out, was not “ready to go along.” Shortly after the crash, Earhart told Manning that she was replacing him with Noonan. Manning replied in a gentlemanly fashion that this was all just as well, since
the schedule for his regular job would not allow him to continue with the World Flight in any case. Earhart accepted his resignation with grace— and knowledge. Earhart, Manning, Mantz, and Noonan returned to Los Angeles aboard the SS Malolo. When they reached Los Angeles Harbor, G.P. Putnam came aboard and met with Earhart in her cabin. Then Earhart met with the press and told them that she would continue with her World Flight, but the delay of a month might change her flight itinerary. All of this was said according to Earhart’s secret orders, for her actual World Flight was planned for a west-to-east course.
Meanwhile, Earhart’s Model 10E Electra was shipped back to Los Angeles aboard the Matson liner Lurline.
Over the next several weeks Earhart prepared for a resumption of her World Flight. She met several more times with Bernard Baruch at her home in Toluca Lake. On one occasion Baruch came with Nikola Tesla. During the meeting with Earhart, Tesla stepped outside the house and into the garden, attracted there by some birds nesting in several bushes. Putnam saw Tesla at a window, and stepped outside to greet the inventor. Before Putnam could approach, he saw Tesla reach into the bush and pick up one of the birds in his hand. Putnam watched silently as Tesla seemed to whisper to the bird. The bird stood upon the flat of Tesla’s hand, then suddenly flew to Tesla’s shoulder, where it perched a moment, and then flew away.
“You have a way there,” Putnam said gently.
Tesla turned about and looked at Putnam.
“What did you tell it?” Putnam asked.
“Nothing,” Tesla said. “I asked it something.”
“Really,” Putnam said. “What did you ask it?”
“It’s a secret,” Tesla said.
Putnam nodded.
“They tell me you know many secrets of your own,” Putnam said.
“They?” Tesla asked.
“Admiral Byrd,” Putnam said.
“Oh,” Tesla said. “He told you things.”
“A few,” Putnam said. “Like the Mars Club.”