Amelia earhart: Who was she? By

LAST FLIGHT

However, through contacts in the Los Angeles aviation community, Frederick Noonan, a renowned navigator for Pan American Airways, was subsequently chosen as a back-up navigator. This was because although Manning was a superb nautical navigator, Earhart recognized the need to have a competent aerial navigator on the flight. Noonan had vast experience in both aerial and marine navigation, as he was a licensed ship’s captain and flight navigator, as well. Noonan had recently left Pan American, where he had blazed trails, establishing most of the company’s China Clipper seaplane routes across the Pacific. Noonan had also been responsible for training Pan America’s navigators for the route between San Francisco and Manila. He had unfortunately been terminated by Pan American for a drinking problem, which caused some consternation on Earhart’s part, although Earhart agreed to hire Noonan as act-up navigator on the advice of Paul Mantz and her husband. The original plan was for Noonan to navigate from Hawaii to Howland Island, a particularly difficult portion of the flight, then Manning would continue with Earhart to Australia and she would proceed on her own for the remainder of the flight.

Frederick J. Noonan was a figure more enigmatic than Amelia Earhart. Oddly, his birth certificate is reportedly not on file, and Noonan was also an eerie lookalike for aviation colleague William VanDusen, which confused coworkers at Pan American and later provided some confusion for researchers. Moreover, Noonan was reported to be a naval reserve officer with some connection to intelligence. An exceptionally intelligent man, Noonan was, by the mid 1930s, one of the only, and also one of the greatest aerial navigators on earth, which is what caught the interest of G.P. Putnam and Paul Mantz. Noonan is reported to have almost invented the field during the time he mapped aerial routes over the Pacific for Pan American Airlines.

Noonan was born in Chicago, Illinois on April 4, 1893 to Joseph T. Noonan and Catherine Egan who was English. His father died when Noonan was four, and in the summer of 1905 Noonan went to Seattle, Washington, eventually finding work as a seaman.

When he was seventeen, Noonan shipped out of Seattle as an ordinary seaman on a British sailing bark, the Crompton. Between 1910 and 1915, he worked on over a dozen ships, rising to the ratings of quartermaster and bosun’s mate. He continued working on merchant marine ships throughout WWI, serving as an officer on ammunition ships. His wartime service included the terrifying experience of having three different vessels torpedoed from under him by German U-Boats. After the war, Noonan continued to work in the Merchant Marine, achieving a good reputation as a ship's officer. Noonan’s maritime career during the 1920s flourished, as his ratings increased to usually the highest marks in his work performance reviews. In 1927, Noonan married Josephine Sullivan at Jackson, Mississippi. The two remained married until the spring of 1937, when Noonan divorced his wife to marry Beatrice Martinelli.