What Kind Of Plane Was Amelia Earhart Flying When She Disappeared (And Has It Been Found?)

The disappearance of aviator Amelia Earhart in July of 1937 remains one of the biggest mysteries pertaining to aviation and maybe disappearances in general. Nearly 90 years have passed since Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, completely vanished off the face of the earth during an attempted flight around the world. In that time, a few objects potentially related to Earhart have been found, including a shoe and possibly her bones, according to the Purdue Research Foundation. 

However, the largest object related to the mystery has never been conclusively recovered: her plane. Earhart's famed plane was a Lockheed Electra 10-E that was modified for scientific observation and long-haul flights. It's worth noting that the Electra was not the first aircraft from Lockheed that Earhart would make history with. She also flew a Lockheed Vega on a number of record-breaking flights. 

The Electra itself was a striking twin-engine twin-tail plane used for transporting passengers and supplies. It was powered by two Pratt & Whitney Wasp radial engines that gave it a top speed of 202 miles per hour.

According to the Museum of Flight in Washington, which has an Electra in its collection, the Electra 10-E was 39 feet long, possessed a 55-foot wingspan, and could travel up to 713 miles without refueling. In addition to flying into history with Earhart, the Electra and all of its variations saw service as an airliner from the late 1930s to the 1950s, and served as a cargo plane for Allied air power in World War II.

As for the state of existence of Earhart's specific plane, there is a small glimmer of hope. There is a peculiar object in the lagoon of a Pacific island known as the "Taraia Object." It's visible from satellite imagery and researchers believe it could be the Electra. The Purdue Research Foundation, part of Purdue University, plans to send an expedition to Nikumaroro Island in November 2025 to investigate the submerged object.

Further providing hope for the hypothesis is the fact that chunks of aluminum, like you would find on a plane, have been recovered on the island itself. Is the object Amelia Earhart's famed missing plane? Maybe. There's a theory that suggests Earhart and Noonan could have landed on an island in the Pacific, so this object fits the bill.