4 h 15 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Above the Atlantic, cloud and fog close around a seaplane with little fuel to spare if anything goes wrong.
In 20 Hrs., 40 Min., Amelia Earhart tells her own story of crossing the Atlantic aboard Friendship. A Boston social worker and trained pilot, she joins a three-person crew bound from Newfoundland to Wales. She is a passenger, not the pilot, and makes that distinction plain.
The adventure begins with an unexpected telephone call and moves toward a fishing harbor where weather controls every plan. Earhart takes you through the waiting and the hours above cloud and sea. Alongside the journey, she explores the freedom of flying and the skill it demands in an age of danger.
What you’ll discover
- An unexpected chance Follow the telephone call that draws a Boston social worker toward an Atlantic crossing.
- A passenger's honest account Meet a trained pilot who clearly states her role aboard Friendship without claiming the controls.
- Weather sets the pace Share the long wait in Newfoundland, where the crew cannot simply choose its moment.
- Cloud, fog, and ocean Enter the uncertain hours over the Atlantic, with fuel depending on everything going right.
- Freedom that demands skill Discover why Earhart loves flying for its own sake, beyond the attention surrounding her crossing.
Who will love it
For readers who love true adventure, early aviation and the first-hand voice of a pioneer, and anyone curious about Earhart before her later fame.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A telephone call changes a quiet life
- She is a passenger, and says so
- Weather decides when the flight begins
- Twenty hours above cloud and sea
- Landing in Wales and meeting the crowds
- What flying means to Earhart
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20 Horas, 40 minutos
by Amelia Earhart · 1928
Amelia Earhart joins the Friendship crew above the Atlantic, where cloud and fog stand between Newfoundland and Wales.
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In short
In June 1928 a three-person crew flew a Fokker seaplane named Friendship from Newfoundland to Wales. One of them was Amelia Earhart, a Boston social worker and trained pilot.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A telephone call changes a quiet life
Before 1928 Amelia Earhart was not a public figure. She worked at Denison House, a settlement house in Boston, where she helped immigrant families and their children. She flew in her spare time and held a pilot's license, which was rare for a woman then. Flying was her passion, but it was not yet her career.
The chance came by telephone. A representative of a wealthy backer asked whether she would like to join a flight across the Atlantic. The backer was Amy Guest, an American living in Britain, who had bought a plane for the crossing. She wanted the first woman to cross by air to be an American woman. Earhart was asked to meet people in New York who would judge whether she was suited to the role.
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What is 20 Hrs., 40 Min. about?
It is Amelia Earhart's own account of the 1928 flight of the Friendship from Newfoundland to Wales. It covers how she was chosen, the wait for weather, the long flight over the Atlantic and the welcome in Britain.
Did Amelia Earhart fly the plane on the 1928 Atlantic flight?
No. Wilbur Stultz was the pilot and Louis Gordon the mechanic. Earhart was a passenger who kept the flight log. She says this openly in the book and gives the crew credit for the crossing.
What does the title 20 Hrs., 40 Min. mean?
It is the time the flight took, twenty hours and forty minutes, from taking off in Newfoundland to landing in Wales in June 1928. The title puts the achievement into a single measure of time.
The author
Amelia Earhart
1897–1939 · American aviator and author
Amelia Earhart was an American aviator and author born in Atchison, Kansas, in 1897. She wrote 20 Hrs., 40 Min. in 1928 and The Fun of It in 1932. She lived in the United States and disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937. She was declared legally dead in 1939.
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