Drawing on a recently discovered long-lost radio message, Elgin and Maria Long re-create the events inside the cockpit of the doomed Electra flown by Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan. The authors debunk the myths that Earhart and Noonan were captured by Japanese soldiers or cannibalistic island tribespeople. Instead, they offer overwhelming evidence that the plane ran out of fuel short of its Howland Island destination. Letting the facts speak for themselves, the authors go well beyond simply solving the long-standing mystery of Earhart's disappearance and vividly brings to life the primitive conditions under which Earhart flew, in an era before radar, with unreliable communication, grass landing strips, and poorly mapped islands. In AMELIA EARHART, the authors remind us how daring early aviators were as they pushed the technology of the day to its limits, and beyond, to the point of risking their lives.