Question: Why didn't Amelia and Fred turn around and go back to Lae after that almost botched take-off?
Answer: Premium gas.
It was written about briefly in Amelia Earhart's Shoes, and then I remembered something else I read about it in With Our Own Eyes. The Engines on the Electra were designed to run on premium gas: 95 octane or so. The Electra could cruise at altitude on 85 octane, but only the premium stuff had enough energy in it to get the Electra moving with enough ground speed to create lift. In other words: the Electra needed premium to get off the ground.
Premium fuel was hard to come by in the more-remote parts of the world. She landed at Lae with half a tank of premium. Her other tanks were all refilled with regular. There was no premium fuel available on Lae at that time. She used the half-tank on the take-off, and thought that as long as she got to Howell (or some other military base) that she could get more premium.
So she didn't turn around because going back meant she was stuck there until somebody shipped in at least 50 gallons of premium gas just for her. Since she did get the Electra airborne she figured her best chance of finishing the flight was finding Howell. Too bad she got lost trying.
1 comment:
Very interesting! I'm still of the mind that if her navigator was actually injured that she should have hunkered down and waited for the premium fuel... I guess she made the decision she thought was best at the time. Very sad how it turned out.
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