Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart

The term “aviatrix” refers to a female pilot. While the term indicates gender, it also carries a sense of novelty. During Earhart’s time, it was used by newspapers and publicists to emphasize that women flying airplanes was still unusual enough to warrant special attention. Earhart herself understood the power of this label and often used her platform to encourage other women to enter aviation and other traditionally male fields.

Call letters are the unique combinations of letters assigned to a radio station or aircraft and are used for identification during radio transmissions. Earhart’s plane carried the call letters “KHAQQ,” which she repeated during her final distress calls as she searched for Howland Island. In the 1930s, when aviation radio technology was still developing, these call letters functioned much like a name or fingerprint, allowing ships, planes, and ground stations to recognize who was transmitting.

A directional finder is a device used to locate the source of a radio signal by rotating a loop antenna until the signal fades to its weakest point, which indicates the signal’s direction. In Earhart’s case, the Itasca broadcast signals that Earhart was supposed to detect using her own onboard directional finder, helping her navigate toward the island.