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CarveHerName

, 17 Mar 1964, Joan Merriam Smith set off from Oakland airport in California in an attempt to fly solo around the world. She followed Amelia Earhart’s easterly route from 1937 as far as New Guinea where Earhart had vanished.

Merriam Smith arrived back in Oakland on 12 May 1964, the first pilot to successfully make a solo circumnavigation by the equatorial route.

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Joan Merriam Smith with her plane the “City of Long Beach.” She is a white woman with blonde bouffant hair. The plane is covered with writing including her planned route and messages of good luck. Photo credit: UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library
Mar 17, 2025, 09:00 AM·Public·Fedica
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CarveHerName

Jerrie Mock set off two days later on her own solo flight, using a different route that took less time. Mock became the first woman to fly solo around the world.

Merriam Smith, a commercial pilot, was killed whilst on a test flight of a modified plane the following year. A recent biography of Merriam Smith, Fate on a Folded Wing, was written by Tiffany Ann Brown whose pilot grandmother Trixie had also died on the same test flight.
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