Amelia Earhart's 1932 transatlantic flight from Newfoundland to Ireland set a record of fourteen hours and fifty-six minutes, a milestone in the aviation achievements summarized in the novel's postscript. The account places the crossing within a wider record of unaccompanied flights and, in retrospect, alongside her disappearance over the Pacific Ocean five years later.

The Transatlantic Record

In 1932, Earhart set a transatlantic record by flying from Newfoundland to Ireland in fourteen hours and fifty-six minutes. The biographical note identifies the duration and route as the achievement's defining particulars, presenting the crossing as a measurable feat of distance and time.

Wider Aviation Milestones

The postscript places the crossing among Earhart's other pioneering achievements: she was the first woman to make unaccompanied flights across the Atlantic and across the Pacific Ocean, from Honolulu to California. This wider context frames the 1932 flight as part of a larger history of long-distance aviation rather than as an isolated record.

Retrospective Context

The account also notes that Earhart's plane was lost somewhere over the Pacific Ocean in 1937, during her attempt to fly around the world with navigator Frederick J. Noonan. That later disappearance does not alter the specific record set in 1932, but gives the biographical summary a retrospective shape: a documented crossing followed by an unfinished global flight. The postscript presents these biographical details in a reference section intended to help readers distinguish historical fact from the novel's imagined history.