What happened to Amelia Earhart? This $15 million Kansas museum will honor the pilot's legacy

Aviator Amelia Earhart's final radio message was so loud that crew members listening from a U.S. Coast Guard cutter felt certain she was nearby.

But that crew, stationed off tiny Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean, never heard again from Earhart, who had said earlier she was low on fuel.

The trailblazing female pilot vanished as she tried to fly around the world on July 2, 1937, along with navigator Fred Noonan and their Lockheed Electra 10-E airplane.

Their fate has become one of the world's great unsolved mysteries.

More: In Amelia Earhart’s hometown, new photo deepens mystery

Why is Amelia Earhart in the news?

Only one Lockheed Electra 10-E still exists.

It is named "Muriel," after Earhart's sister, Grace Muriel Earhart Morrissey, who died in 1998 at age 98.

That plane will become the centerpiece of the soon-to-be-created Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum at Atchison, Earhart's birthplace.

Museum founder and president Karen Seaberg announced April 13 that supporters had already donated $10 million of the estimated $15 million needed to create the museum.

Those donors include corporate powerhouses FedEx, Garmin and Lockheed Martin.

The museum is expected to open next year, according to its website.

It will celebrate the legacy of Earhart, who was born in 1897 in Atchison.

Earhart was a social worker in Boston in 1923 when she became the 16th woman in the U.S. to be issued a pilot's license.

More: Muriel, restored airplane identical to one Amelia Earhart flew, finds new home in Atchison

Who was Amelia Earhart?

Earhart subsequently became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland.

She was also the first woman to fly non-stop across the U.S.

Earhart became a celebrity and drew attention by rejecting the traditional role set aside for women and speaking in support of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment.

She created her own line of women's clothing, featuring comfortable outfits designed for "active living."

Earhart in 1931 married newspaper publisher George Putnam, who promoted her career and encouraged her to try to become the first pilot to circle the earth at the equator.

Aviator Wiley Post had already circled the globe twice, but over a shorter and less challenging northern route that included passing over Canada, Alaska and the USSR.

A plane crash ended Earhart's first attempt to fly around the world in March 1937. She tried again beginning June 1, 1937, when she and Noonan took off from Oakland, Calif.

They flew across the U.S. to Miami, then went south to Brazil and east over the Atlantic Ocean.

Earhart and Noonan then passed through Africa, India, Burma and Singapore before reaching New Guinea. At that point, their journey was more than three-quarters complete.

What happened on her last flight?

Earhart took off from New Guinea on July 2, 1937, 22 days short of her 40th birthday, on what she considered the trip's most dangerous leg, to Howland Island. Her plane carried a life raft and survival equipment.

The route involved flying more than 2,200 miles across the Pacific while crossing two time zones and the International Date Line. That meant Earhart would both take off and land that same day.

The U.S. government had built an airstrip on Howland Island, which was small and U.S. owned. It stationed the Coast Guard cutter Itasca just off the island to help Earhart navigate by radio.

The Itasca was in sporadic radio contact on the night of her final flight with Earhart, who suggested she was flying in overcast skies and acknowledged she was lost and running low on fuel.

The Itasca received Earhart's final message at 8:44 a.m. on July 2, 1937, about 20 hours after Earhart and Noonan became airborne.

It never heard from her again, though amateur radio operators claimed that in the days that followed they picked up messages from Earhart suggesting she crash-landed.

A massive search conducted by the U.S. Navy lasted more than two weeks but failed to find any trace of Earhart, Noonan or their plane.

How did Earhart's last flight end?

The most commonly held theory is that Earhart, being unable to see Howland Island, ran out of gas and ditched her plane at sea, where she and Noonan died soon afterward.

Another is that Earhart landed the plane on a tiny, remote, uninhabited island, where she and Noonan died of thirst.

Still another holds that Earhart landed on an island where she and Noonan were captured by the Japanese and died as prisoners.

More: Amelia Earhart report discredits photo used as evidence she was taken prisoner

How is Earhart being remembered?

Earhart was declared deceased by the U.S. government in 1939.

She received numerous posthumous honors, including being enshrined in 1968 in the National Aviation Hall of Fame and in 1973 in the National Women's Hall of Fame.

One of her planes is on display at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., while an image of her adorns a 1963 air mail stamp.

She's also the namesake of the USNS Amelia Earhart, a Navy cargo ship launched in 2007.

Earhart's birthplace and childhood home at 223 N. Terrace in Atchison is the site of a tourist attraction, the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum.

Tickets cost $8 for adults ages 13 to 49; $6 for adults 50 and older, members of groups of 10 or more and members of the Ninety-Nines organization for female pilots; and $4 for children ages five to 12 and active and retired members of the military.

Earhart was the first president of the Ninety-Nines, which was organized with 99 charter members in 1931.

The museum will also take part in Sunflower Summer, a Kansas State Department of Education initiative that will allow Kansas children and accompanying adults free admission to attractions around the state.

What will the new museum be like?

The Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum will blend historical storytelling and education regarding science, technology, engineering and math to offer an adventure intended to "transcend the typical museum experience," it announced last week.

The museum will be located at Atchison's Amelia Earhart Memorial Airport.

Its centerpiece, the airplane Muriel, is to be surrounded by 13 exhibits designed to take visitors on an engaging and educational journey through Earhart’s life.

“Each experience will immerse museum-goers by exemplifying Amelia’s adventurous spirit and showcasing the many generations she positively influenced," said Tucker Trotter, CEO of Overland Park-based Dimensional Innovations, which is involved.

Each exhibit and STEM activity is being carefully outfitted to meet national curriculum standards, as well as standards in Kansas and Missouri, the museum said in last week's announcement.

The museum will apply to become an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institute, it added.

Tim Hrenchir can be reached at [email protected] or 785-213-5934.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: What happened to Amelia Earhart? A look at pilot's life, disappearance