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already arranged a way to use it: New York publisher and publicist George Palmer Putnam and pioneer aviator Richard Byrd had long hoped to back just such a flight. Putnam appreciated the public’s attraction to dangerous undertakings. He had taken part in museum-sponsored Arctic adventures himself, and learned of them through his friendship with Byrd, who had tried to fly over the North Pole just two years earlier.
    The two men thought they had found their woman in the American socialite Amy Guest, a member of the Henry Phipps family, who was successfully introducing herself to high society in England. Daring in many ways, Guest wanted to be the first woman to cross the Atlantic and would finance the trip herself, but family matters prevented her from making the crossing.
    The planners needed a substitute, and, by 1928, the name Amelia Earhart had become known beyond California and Massachusetts. Her reputation as a pilot and a resourceful leader was on the verge of becoming national. Earhart was at work at Denison House when she got a call from Hilton Railey, a Boston friend of Putnam. Amy Guest was insisting that the woman they chose be able to maintain her composure around British aristocrats, and Railey wanted to get a look at Earhart before he made his offer. He wanted to make sure she was well-bred and presentable, matching the modest, charming Lindbergh model.
    Railey told Earhart that he was looking for a woman to fly the Atlantic, but he was so evasive about the details that she balked at meeting him. She demanded more information before she would agree to discuss anything. But when his references checked out, Earhart asked a woman colleague to accompany her to meet Railey. When she heard the full offer, she wasted no time in agreeing to fly with others across the Atlantic.

 
    The plane for the historic flight had been custom-designed and built for Richard Byrd, who had hoped to make the first Atlantic crossing but was beaten by Charles Lindbergh. It was a bright orange, Fokker trimotor seaplane, set on oversize pontoons that enabled it to take off and land on water. Byrd had sold it to Amy Guest to finance other adventures he was planning. Guest named it Friendship to evoke the relationship between the United States and England.
    After a short hop from Boston up to Trepassey, a small fishing village in southeastern Newfoundland, the plane was in place for takeoff. The pilot, Wilmer “Bill” Stultz, and the mechanic, Louis “Slim” Gordon, weren’t planning to let Earhart do any work since they would have to fly mainly on instruments she was not yet qualified to use. They had hoped to have an auxiliary pilot, Lou Gower, but a crew of four and the extra fuel needed to make the trip made the plane too heavy for takeoff. Gower would have to be left behind.
    George Putnam, the experienced publicist, knew the value of surprise, so the crew worked to keep Earhart hidden until takeoff. Nevertheless, rumors about her part in Friendship’ sflight were buzzing around Boston. One false tale that made it into the newspapers claimed that Earhart had joined the crew to help cover her family’s financial losses. When she heard about it, she cabled Putnam in New York:
    PLEASE GET THE POINT ACROSS THAT THE ONLY STAKE I WIN IS THE PRIVILEGE OF FLYING AND THE PLEASURE OF HAVING SHARED IN A FINE ADVENTURE WELL CONDUCTED WHOSE SUCCESS WILL BE A REAL DEVELOPMENT AND PERHAPS SOMETHING OF AN INSPIRATION FOR WOMEN.
    Putnam made sure to leak her message to New York reporters. And when Earhart returned to the United States, she continued her to emphasize the vital of women in the future of aviation.
    As for her own career, she didn’t expect the flight to have much impact. Thinking the adventure would be relatively short, she asked for just two weeks off from her job at Denison House, paying a colleague to take her place. Further indicative of her thoughts about the trip’s consequences, Amelia agreed to a financial deal that