Solo Flights around the World

Joan Merriam Smith was the third woman pilot to fly solo around the world and the second to do it entirely by air. The Honorable Mrs. Bruce flew around the world in 1929-1930 in her Bluebird : a small biplane. However, this aircraft did not have the range to fly across oceans and these were crossed aboard ocean liners. The second woman to fly around the world was Geraldine Mock in her Cessna 180, Spirit of Colombus. Rivalry existed between Mock and Smith, whose flights took place simultaneously. Both women wanted to be the first woman to fly solo around the world.

Mrs. Bruce took off on her flight only six weeks after getting her pilot's licence, and Jerrie Mock took twelve months to be ready. However, for Smith the flight was the end of a life time dream which Joan Merriam had been planning since childhood. As a child, Smith's first flight was with an airline in a Costellation in which she was taken up to the flight deck and introduced to the pilot. From this experience, Smith fell in love with flying and decided she too would fly one day. After reading a book on Amelia Earhart given her by an aunt, Smith dreamed of the day that she could not only re-trace Amelia's flight, but also finish it. At 15 years of age, the minimum age, and long before she could drive a car, Joan Merriam learnt to fly, and solo'd after only nine hours. She obtained her license at 17 years of age, and her commercial license at 23, both being the minimum ages for each of these licenses. Smith became a flying instructor and flew commercially, doing charter flights and flying executive aircraft. In 1958, she married an officer of he US Navy, Lt Commander M.G. (Jack) Smith who was also a pilot and very receptive to Joan's will to re-enact A.E's flight. In 1963, Joan finally purchased an aircraft suitable for the long flight, a twin engine Piper Apache N3251P, which cost her eighteen thousand dollars. She named it :City of Long Beach', in honor of the sponsors from that city. Modifications were necessary and the seats were removed to make room for ferry tanks. The tanks and other modifications were to cost more than seven thousand dollars which Smith was forced to borrow from friends.

When Smith heard that Jerrie Mock had obtained a permit for her flight from the NAA ( the American representative in the States of the FAI), she was very disappointed, having dreamt of this flight for so many years. Smith decided to concentrate on the re en-actment of Amelia Earhart's flight, and not to worry about speed and records. The press, in order to add drama to their reports and articles, would have liked to make a race of the flights between the two women pilots. Jerrie Mock's husband Russell was also pushing for his wife to fly faster in order to finish before Smith, and although Smith said it was not a race, one is tempted to think, that at least in the beginning, Smith hoped to finish first. Unfortunately for Smith, she lost any such hope very early in the flight, when she had problems with her ferry tanks and struck bad weather in South America. Joan Smith followed Amelia Earhart's route, that is a route which almost followed the Equator (she crossed it four times), and one which was mostly within the Intertropical Convergence Zone. Although Smith was well prepared, with a good aircraft, a very good ADF as her only navigation aid, emergency rations, a sextant and astronomical tables, the bad weather within the Intertropical Convergence Zone was to be against her almost all the way, with thunderstorms and tropical fronts. Joan Smith took off from Oackland, near San Fransisco on March 17th, 1964 on the twenty-seventh anniversary of Amelia Earhart's flight in 1937 from a field located not far away. Geraldine Mock departed two days later from Colombus (Ohio). The leg to Tucson in Arizona was uneventful, Smith having flown that route many times. She expected to spend the night there, but with a front approaching, Smith took off immediately for New Orleans, and from there she flew on to Miami where she did her last minutes preparations.

On March 21st Smith left for San Juan in Puerto Rico, and then continued on to land at the Zandary airport near Paramaraibo in Surinam, formely Dutch Guyana. On March 24th, whilst refueling, Smith noticed a leak on one of the joints of her ferry tank. Removing the ferry tank to have it welded in Paramaribo, and later to have it re-fitted back in the aircraft, took a total of seven days.

Unfortunately for Smith, she met bad weather as soon as she left Paramaribo, on her way to Belem in North Basil. She was forced to fly very low above the Amazonian jungle to avoid thunderstorms. On March 31st, Smith landed at Agosto Severo Airport, close to Natal. In Brazil, after a long and difficult flight, Smith discovered that there was a political revolution, and all the aircraft of the Brazilian Air Force were there. Communications were cut and she could not get a weather forecast. After two days, and without any weather forecast or information, Smith decided to leave as the situation was becoming uncertain. As it turned out, Smith departed on the same day as President Goulard's government was overrun by the military. With her destination as Dakar in Africa, Smith went through a very dense zone of thunderstorms and heavy rain. The rain was so heavy that her windscreen started to leak. Smith was forced down to 2,000 feet and then as low as 500 feet, to fly under the worst of the thunder clouds. She finally flew out of the storm zone but had lost radio communications with Natal and as yet, was unable to make contact with Dakar. Although Smith was able to receive the ground stations calling her, her own transmissions went unheard. After 16 hours, and several hours after her flight plan expired, Smith landed in Dakar. Everywhere she went, Smith gave people felt pens with which to sign her aircraft. She was to collect some 800 names and signatures along the way. Dakar was an important milestone in Smith's flight, having crossed the Atlantic and landing on another continent. Joan went sightseeing around Dakar before resuming her flight on April 5th. She flew across the middle of Africa, via Niamey in Niger, and Fort Lamy in Tchad, to land in Khartoum in the Sudan. It was very hot and Smith suffered badly from the heat and became dehydrated. The high temperature of the air created turbulence, making the aircraft difficult to control.

Smith left Khartoum on April 8th for Karachi in Pakistan, via Aden, and from there to Ahmedabad in India, and on to Calcutta. She would only eat overcooked meals or her own biscuits for fear of catching some topical disease. Wherever Smith went, she made a point of meeting people who had known or remembered Amelia Earhart. Her flight took her to Rangoon in Burma, Bangkok in Thailand, Singapore, then Djakarta in Indonesia, and Darwin in Australia, via Kupang in Timor.

Smith left Darwin on April 18th, passing through Port Moresby on her way to Lae on the north coast of New Guinea. In Lae, which was the last departure point for Amelia Earhart on her flight, Smith became the object of intense curiosity and she met six people who had seen Amelia just prior to her departure.

On the 22nd April, Smith left Lae for Guam, where she hoped to meet up with her husband who was commanding a mine sweeper. Because of all her delays, Smith was late for their appointment, and her husband had returned to his ship long before her arrival. From Guam, where she had been well received by the American Navy, Smith made a short flight to Saipan. Rumor had it that Amelia could have been held here by the Japanese, and later died. It was during that short trip to Saipan that Smith had her first troubles with the landing gear of her Apache, troubles that were to be with her for the rest of her flight. The landing gear would not stay in the 'up' position and would slowly creep down, creating a lot of drag which she could ill afford on those long legs over water. Back in Guam, she had the aircraft inspected and the gear repaired, all of which took a full week.

Leaving for Wake Island on May 1st, and 300 miles from Guam, Smith lost all electrical power which included the ADF, and she was forced to turn back. Resuming her flight again on May 3rd, the winds which had previously been favorable, had since changed to become headwinds. Smith felt she and her aircraft were jinxed, especially when after less than an hour into the flight, the gear started to creep down again and Smith had to pump it up by hand from time to time. After eleven hours of flying and manually pumping the gear up, Smith finally landed on Wake Island.

Smith's problems continued, when after departing Wake Island on May 5th, and 200 miles into the flight, she had to turn back due to her left engine overheating. Although Wake Island had no aviation mechanic, it was discovered that dead insects blocked the oil cooler. Smith started again after a two day delay. Bad luck continued to plague Smith. Four hours into this leg, after having made an astronomical fix with her sextant, she discovered that the wind was much stronger than anticipated. This meant she did not have enough fuel on board to make it to Honolulu, and had to divert to Midway Island to refuel. Smith finally arrived in Honolulu on May 8th, where she was well received and made welcome.

The next leg was 4,500 km or 17 hours flying time. With only twenty hours of fuel on board, the flight could only take place in perfect wind conditions. Smith had to wait two days for the right wind, giving her time to bathe at Waikiki Beach, and to buy a new dress.

Smith flew out of Honolulu on May 10th, but had to turn back when the right engine overheated again. She departed Honolulu for good the day after, but just after reaching her point of no-return, she noticed her right engine was burning a lot more fuel than usual. Also, the landing gear continued to creep down all the time, but Smith had now acquired a routine to raise it at regular intervals without even thinking about it. However, the right engine soon had drained the fuel from its own tank, and Smith had to shut it down and fly on the left engine alone. Smith then had to do something she had never done before in her flying career. Call for help. A Coast Guard aircraft escorted her all the way to Oackland. A few minutes prior to landing, Smith restarted the right engine so as to have it during the landing. Despite all the stress Smith had endured on that long leg, with the landing gear creeping down, and the loss of use of one engine, she made a perfect landing. Smith had been flying for 18 hours. She was presented with a telegram from Amelia Earhart's sister. She was acclaimed. Smith had been away 56 days, and had flown170 hours to complete 34 legs which covered a distance of 44.680 km. Smith had achieved her goal; her dream of finishing Amelia Earhart's flight, and as she thought of Amelia, the flowers she was holding suddenly seemed to be a sort of tribute, not just to her, but to Amelia too, and her dream ended in joy.

Joan Merriam Smith did not make any official speed record in that famous flight, as Geraldine Mock had registered her intentions of setting a record with her flight, well before Smith. And anyway, although she had left 2 days before Mock, she arrived some 25 days after her. Mock had finished her flight on April 17th.

Smith did make a few 'firsts' :

First solo flight along the Equator
First woman to fly around the world in a twin engine aircraft
First woman to fly solo from Africa to Australia
First woman to fly from Wake Island to Midway Island
The longest flight at the time

She received the prestigious Trophée de la Ligue Internationale des Aviateurs, Trophée des Aviatrices.
She received the prestigious Harmon Trophy 1964. (Click here for the list of recipients.)

She died after an aircraft accident in Wrightwood in California on February 17, 1965.