Ann Pellegreno with her crew decided to retrace Amelia Earhart's round-the-world
flight route in a Lockheed Electra 10A. Her crew was made up of William L.
Polhemus (navigator), William "Bill" R. Payne (co-pilot), and Lee Koepke (owner and
restorer of the Electra). The Electra was originally registered in Canada as CF-TCA
and re-registered in the US as N79237 when Ann and her crew made their
round-the-world flight.
Ann proceeded from Willow Run, Detroit MI on June 7, 1967 to Oakland, CA to take
off from the same airport that Amelia departed 30 years before. It was wheels-up on
this commemorative round-the-world flight on June 9, 1967 when she took off from
Oakland flying east on their journey. They followed the same route Amelia and Fred
followed in 1937 but for better re-fueling connections, landed at differing
airports. They carried 2,000 sets of philatelic covers that would be canceled at
various cities on their path, to be sold to collectors to help finance their flight.
After a refueling stop at Nauru in the Pacific, Ann flew to Howland Island
making a tribute fly-over at approximately the same time, on the same day as Amelia
Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan would have arrived there 30 years before on
July 2, 1937. On that day, July 2, 1967 Ann personally drooped a wreath
commemorating the history-making round-the-world effort of Amelia and Fred. She
arrived back at Oakland, CA on July 7, 1967 having completed her commemorative
round-the-world flight. She then returned the Electra to Willow Run arriving there
on July 10, 1967.
Itinerary:
Departed Willow Run, Detroit, MI (Pre Flight) 06/07/67
South Bend, IN
Cedar Rapids, IA
Ogden, UT
Departed Oakland, CA (Start round-the-world) 06/09/67
Tucson, AZ
Fortworth, TX
New Orleans, LA
Miami, FL
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Caracas, Venezuela
Trinidad
Paramaribo, Suriname
Belem, Brazil
Natal, Brazil (Atlantic Ocean crossing) 06/15/67
Dakar, Senegal 06/17/67
Las Palmas, Canary Islands
Lisbon, Portugal
Rome, Italy
Ankara, Turkey
Tehran, Iran
Karachi, Pakistan 06/22/67
New Delhi, India
Calcutta, India
Bangkok, Thailand
Singapore 06/27/67
Djhkarta, Indonesia
Kupang, Timor
Darwin, Australia
Port Moresby, New Guinea
Lae, New Guinea (Pacific Ocean crossing) 06/30/67
Nauru Island
Howland Island (Fly-over) 07/02/67
Canton Island
Honolulu, HI
Arrived Oakland, CA (Finish round-the-world) 07/07/67
Denver, CO (Post flight)
Newton, KS
Oshkosh, WI
Arrived Willow Run, Detroit, MI 07/10/67