Tag Archives: French Sudan

11 June 1937

Aviation, , , , , , , , ,
Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10E NR16020 in Africa. (Purdue University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections)

11 June 1937: Leg 13. Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan flew the Lockheed Electra 10E Special, NR16020, from Gao, French Sudan, to Fort-Lamy, French Equatorial Africa, a distance of 910 nautical miles (1,047 statute miles/1,685 kilometers), landing at 1:55 p.m. G.M.T.

“As usual, our arising at Gao was before dawn, a start made notable by a marvelous breakfast, whose chief d’oeuvre was a mushroom omelet supplemented with cups of fine French chocolate. Thence our revised route took us to Fort Lamy about a thousand miles away. On this day’s flying to Lamy and the next, we crossed stretches of country barren beyond words, a no-man’s land of eternal want, where the natives cling tenaciously to an existence almost incomprehensible to westerners. . . .”

—Amelia Earhart

Great Circle route from Gao, French Sudan, to Fort-Lamy, French Equatorial Africa, 910 nautical miles (1,047 statute miles/1,685 kilometers). Great Circle Mapper)

© 2019, Bryan R. Swopes

10 June 1937

Aviation, , , , , , , , ,
Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10E Special, NR16020, at Gao, French Sudan (Purdue University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections)

10 June 1937: Leg 12. Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan flew their Lockheed Electra 10E Special, NR16020, from Dakar, French West Africa, to Gao, French Sudan, a distance of 1,016 nautical miles (1,169 miles/1,882 kilometers), in 7 hours, 55 minutes. They landed at 14:50 GMT. They informed local officials that they would remain over night and continue on their Around-the-World flight the following day.

“Weather reports at the Dakar air field were not altogether encouraging. There were barometric lows threatening tornadoes, or their local equivalent, in the Sudanese region through which our route lay. So, instead of going to Niamey as at first planned, on the advice of Colonel Tabera, I decided to shift the course slightly to the north, making our objective Gao on the upper reaches of the River Niger. Just before six o’clock we were in the air and seven hours and fifty minutes later came down at Gao in the French Sudan. . . Our course from the coast inland over the Senegal and Niger districts lay almost exactly due east. Loafing along at a trifle under 150 miles an hour, the 1,140 mile journey ended pleasantly in the early afternoon.”

—Amelia Earhart

Great Circle route from Dakar, Senegal, to Gao, Mali, 1,016 nautical miles (1,169 statute miles/1,882 kilometers) (Great Circle Mapper)

© 2019, Bryan R. Swopes