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About The Book

When Amelia Earhart disappeared on July 2, 1937, she was flying the longest leg of her around-the-world flight and was only days away from completing her journey. Her plane was never found, and for more than sixty years rumors have persisted about what happened to her.
Now, with the recent discovery of long-lost radio messages from Earhart's final flight, we can say with confidence that she ran out of gas just short of her destination of Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean. From the beginning of her flight, a series of tragic circumstances all but doomed her and her navigator, Fred Noonan.
Authors Elgen M. and Marie K. Long spent more than twenty-five years researching the mystery surrounding Earhart's final flight before finally determining what happened. They traveled over one hundred thousand miles to interview more than one hundred people who knew some part of the Earhart story. They draw on authoritative sources to take us inside the cockpit of the Electra plane that Earhart flew and recreate the final flight itself. Because Elgen Long began his own flying career not long after Earhart's disappearance, he can describe the equipment and conditions of the time with a vivid first-hand accuracy. As a result, this book brings to life the primitive conditions under which Earhart flew, in an era before radar, with unreliable communications, grass landing strips, and poorly mapped islands.
Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved does more than just answer the question, What happened to Amelia Earhart? It reminds us how daring early aviators such as Earhart were as they risked their lives to push the technology of the day to its limits -- and beyond.

About The Authors

Marie K. Long, a former public relations consultant with the Western Aerospace Museum (now the Oakland Aviation Museum) in Oakland, CA., and wife of Elgen Long, passed away in 2003.

Elgen M. Long is a retired Boeing 747 captain with more than 40,000 hours of worldwide airline flying spanning 50 years as a radioman and navigator, including over 100 U.S. Navy combat missions during World War II, and patrols over Howland Island, where Amelia Earhart disappeared. He is the holder of 15 world records and/or firsts, most notably as the first person to fly around the world solo, touching down on seven continents and flying over both the North and South Poles, in 1971.  Mr. Long lives in Reno, Nevada.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster (January 15, 2000)
  • Length: 320 pages
  • ISBN13: 9780743202176

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Raves and Reviews

Mary S. Lovell author of The Sound of Wings: The Life of Amelia Earhart This book will be indispensable to Earhart scholars and anyone interested in her story. It is based on solid research...the best study -- by far -- on this subject....In my own Earhart biography, I stated that if the Earhart mystery was ever to be cleared up, the Longs were the people most likely to do the clearing.

Clive Cussler At last, an in-depth account that finally lays the Amelia Earhart mystery to rest. Elgen and Marie Long lead us through the final flight and prove conclusively that Earhart and Noonan simply missed Howland Island, ran out of fuel, and set down in the sea. A must-read of a rock-solid verdict.

Reeve Lindbergh author of Under a Wing The quiet expertise and painstaking intelligence of this book are a tribute to all aviators and a real gift to aviation history.

Walter Boyne former director, National Air and Space Museum Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved is a turner. With compelling evidence in hand, Elgen and Marie Long demonstrate their mastery of the Earhart story, navigational technique, and pure logic to show the tragic reason for her loss and to offer the hope that her plane can be found. An utterly fascinating account of one of modern aviation's most famous mysteries.

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