Tag Archives: Lockheed Electra 10E

3 June 1937

Amelia Earhart supervises refueling her Lockheed Electra 10E, NR16020, at Caripito, Venezuela. (Unattributed)

3 June 1937: Leg 7. Amelia flew her Electra from Caripito, Venezuela, to Paramaribo, Nederlands Guiana, a distance of 615 miles (990 kilometers). She arrived at 12:50 p.m., local time.

Amelia Earhart boards her Lockheed Electra 10E NR16020 at Caripito, Venezuela, 3 June 1937.
Amelia Earhart boards her Lockheed Electra 10E NR16020 at Caripito, Venezuela, 3 June 1937. (Unattributed)

Rain clouds hung thick about Caripito as we left on the morning of June third. We flew over jungles to the coast, and then played hide-and-seek with showers until I decided I had better forgo the scenery, such as it was, and climb up through the clouds into fair weather. An altitude of 5,000 feet topped all but the highest woolly pinnacles. . . Soon we saw the river Surinam, a silver streak meandering to the coast, a wide tidal stream full of floating green islands of small trees and water plants, and bordered with vast stretches of mud. Twelve miles from its mouth is Paramaribo, capital of Dutch Guiana, and twenty-five miles further inland the airport. . . No make-shift airport this, but one of the best natural landing areas I have ever seen. . . .

Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10E, NR16020, departs Caripito for Paramaribo, 3 June 1937. (Purdue University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections)
Amelia Earhart arrives at Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana, 3 June 1937.
Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan arrive at Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana, 3 June 1937. (Stichting Surinaams Museum)
Great Circle route from Maturin, Venezuela, the closest existing airport to Caripito, to Paramaribo, Suriname: 539 nautical miles (621 statute miles/999 kilometers). (Great Circle Mapper)

© 2019, Bryan R. Swopes