Amelia Leaves Burbank Headed To Tucson

On this date seventy-five years ago and just several minutes ago (2:25 PM or 1425 Pacific Time), Amelia Earhart took off from her home field in Burbank, California, headed for Tucson, Arizona.  Crowded into the Lockheed, in addition to Amelia and her navigator Fred Noonan, were her husband George Putnam and a mechanic named Bo McKneely.  The mechanic was needed to make sure the repairs made after the Lockheed's Hawaii event were holding and Putnam because, well, he could.
History does not tell us where Amelia landed in Tucson.  There was no newspaper coverage of the landing nor are there records of her arrival and departure in the archives of Tucson International Airport or the Pima Air and Space Museum.  Viki Matthews, a spokeswoman for the Tucson Airport Authority, is quoted from the archives of the Tucson Citizen, "The only thing we can come up with is maybe she came onto a small airstrip at Ryan Field or someplace like that. There were so many airstrips and places a plane could land all over Tucson in those days."
We do know that on the ground in Tucson an engine fire caused some minor damage to rubber fittings but was cleaned up in a few hours.
Amelia, it seems, is no stranger to secrets.  To learn more about her secrets read But This Is Different at http://butthisisdifferent.com.

"I lay no claim to advancing scientific data other than advancing flying knowledge. I can only say that I do it because I want to." -- Amelia Earhart

Mechanic Bo McKneely and Amelia Earhart inspect the Electra.