One More Good Flight

Shortly before embarking on her attempt to circumnavigate the globe, Amelia Earhart confided to a friend, “I have a feeling there is just about one more good flight left in my system and I hope this trip around the world is it.” This book is the product of The Earhart Project, a thirty-four-year investigation of the Earhart tragedy by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery. TIGHAR investigators had no agenda. They were not out to advocate, excuse, honor, or impugn. They saw the Earhart disappearance as an aviation accident and reasoned the answer to its cause and outcome should be discoverable if they could find, assemble, and analyze the relevant data. To understand why she died it was necessary to strip away the myths and sentimentality that have grown up over the years and examine the hard truths behind how Earhart's trip around the world came about and why it went so terribly wrong. The U.S. Navy and Coast Guard were major players in the 1937 flight, disappearance, and search for Amelia Earhart, and in the aftermath. The story of the pressures and frustrations the services faced and the mistakes they made contain valuable lessons for today's commanders. My first book, Finding Amelia – The True Story of the Earhart Disappearance (NIP, 2006) chronicled what we knew at that time. This book updates the story with important new information from historical documents discovered since then and also provides extensive prequel and sequel narratives that complete the saga and give new perspective to the life and death of an American icon.

"Readers interested in Amelia Earhart's disappearance need look no further than Ric Gillespie's book. Combining intensive research in primary sources, remote underwater vehicles, forensic archaeology, and rigorous deductive reasoning, Gillespie and his team have provided convincing evidence that Earhart's last flight ended not in a ditching at sea, but in a forced landing on an atoll in the South Pacific. Although this book may not satisfy every skeptic, it will stand for some time as the definitive explanation for what may be the mystery of the 20th century."--William F. Trimble, Professor Emeritus at Auburn University, author of Admiral John S. McCain and the Triumph of Naval Air Power "In a tour de force of patient research and skillfully constructed narrative, Ric Gillespie has brought back to life an era, a cast of characters, and a tangle of circumstances and events that popular memory had melted down into a simple myth. This is history told with the emotive energy and fine-grained texture of a novel that you can't put down."--Peter Garrison, pilot, airplane builder, author, and columnist for Flying Magazine "There is no shortage of books about Amelia Earhart, but One More Good Flight is the only one based exclusively on hard evidence. Ric Gillespie is an engaging writer able to take the reader through the bewildering array of events leading up to the 1937 attempt to encircle the globe. He uses advances in science to test the hypothesis that Earhart landed on Nikumaroro Island, where she and Noonan perished. Those who seek definitive answers about the fate of Amelia Earhart need look no further."--Richard L Jantz, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Director Emeritus, Forensic Anthropology Center, University of Tennessee Knoxville , "Readers interested in Amelia Earhart's disappearance need look no further than Ric Gillespie's book. Combining intensive research in primary sources, remote underwater vehicles, forensic archaeology, and rigorous deductive reasoning, Gillespie and his team have provided convincing evidence that Earhart's last flight ended not in a ditching at sea, but in a forced landing on an atoll in the South Pacific. Although this book may not satisfy every skeptic, it will stand for some time as the definitive explanation for what may be the mystery of the 20th century."--William F. Trimble, Professor Emeritus at Auburn University, author of Admiral John S. McCain and the Triumph of Naval Air Power "In a tour de force of patient research and skillfully constructed narrative, Ric Gillespie has brought back to life an era, a cast of characters, and a tangle of circumstances and events that popular memory had melted down into a simple myth. This is history told with the emotive energy and fine-grained texture of a novel that you can't put down."--Peter Garrison, pilot, airplane builder, author, and columnist for Flying Magazine "There is no shortage of books about Amelia Earhart, but One More Good Flight is the only one based exclusively on hard evidence. Ric Gillespie is an engaging writer able to take the reader through the bewildering array of events leading up to the 1937 attempt to encircle the globe. He uses advances in science to test the hypothesis that Earhart landed on Nikumaroro Island, where she and Noonan perished. Those who seek definitive answers about the fate of Amelia Earhart need look no further."--Richard L Jantz, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Director Emeritus, Forensic Anthropology Center, University of Tennessee Knoxville

Ric Gillespie is widely recognized as a leading authority on the 1937 disappearance of Amelia Earhart. As director of TIGHAR’s thirty-four year investigation, Ric is regularly quoted in publications, interviewed on broadcast media, and has been featured in television documentaries by NBC News, ABC News, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic.