Beschreibung:

[Earhart, Amelia] — Noonan, FredA collection of correspondence relating to the World Flight of 1937 and earlier flights, to Beverley Hunter.
Comprising:
Autograph letter signed, to “My Dear Beverly,” an incredibly rich and detailed account of the World Flight of 1937 up until Bandoeng, Java, with detailed information about flying conditions, stops in each destination, and filled with calm optimism for the rest of the journey, 18pp., pp. 1-14 on airmail paper, 15-17 on notepaper (ranging from 268 x 198 to 277 x 223 mm), both headed Grand Hotel Preanger, Bandoeng, Java, 23 June 1937, with envelope; old folds, envelope a little worn and soiled.
[with:] Autograph letter signed, to “My Dear Beverly,” discussing a first flight cover sent, trying to meet with her Uncle Fritz in both Guam and Honolulu, discussing a trip scheduled for Manilla, and a new service from Honolulu to New Zealand, sending regards to her mother, 2pp., Alameda, California, 31 October 1935[6?], with envelope; old folds, envelope a little soiled — Autograph letter signed, to “My Dear Beverly,” thanking her for a gift (presumably for Christmas), discussing a trip to Manila and negotiations for landing rights in Macao, which, if successful, would result in another first flight cover, 2pp., Alameda, California, 17 January 1936, with envelope; old folds, envelope a little soiled — Autograph postcard signed, to “Beverly,” sharing an annotated photograph of the pier at Akyab, Burma to verso, 1p., Akyab, Burma, postmarked 17 June 1937; a little soiled — [and:] Newspaper clipping with two photographs of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan with Paul Matz, Harry Manning, E.H. Dimity and Nellie G. Donohoe, showing the "round the world" mail cargo; toned, old folds.
A collection including an important letter: the last sent by Noonan before he and Amelia Earhart disappeared over the Pacific Ocean providing fresh information as to the circumstances of their final flight.
Fred Noonan (1893-1937) was a distinguished navigator who had already enjoyed a 22-year career at sea before moving to the air, working for Pan American World Airways as a navigation instructor and officer, repurposing his naval expertise for the skies. By 1936, Noonan had pioneered intercontinental commercial flights, mapping several routes across the Pacific over hundreds of trips. He left Pan Am that year with plans to start his own navigation school. 
Beverly Hunter was a teenager when she met Fred Noonan in the 1930s. Her uncle, Fred Balder, served in the Navy and met Noonan in Asia. The pair led similar lifestyles, with Balder sailing and Noonan flying constantly around the world, and they made sure to meet up whenever they were in the same location. Noonan paid Balder a visit in the Bay Area, and here he met Balder's sister in law, Agnus B. Hunter and her daughter Beverly. Thus commenced a close friendship as documented by these letters.
Noonan met Amelia Earhart in Los Angeles where his reputation as an expert navigator was firmly established. She asked him to navigate her World Flight; Noonan accepted. He had already flown (and probably navigated and mapped) most of the routes that she was planning to take, and the unprecedented publicity from the trip would serve to enhance the reputation of his flying school. They therefore took off together from Miami to San Juan on 1 June 1937, stage one of their now infamous final flight. 
The jewel of the present lot is a letter that was written in the latter stages of their World Flight, from Bandoeng, Java, that provides incredible detail into both the technical and more emotional aspects of the trip. Noonan starts by apologizing for not writing sooner, blaming the demands of the flight. He is able to write as they have been delayed for two days in a Javanese town “making minor instrument adjustments,” presumably referring to navigational instruments. The plane had to be continually tweaked to endure the significant distances. He goes on to summarize the trip so far in remarkable detail. From San Juan, they flew to Venezuela, then to Dutch Guiana. Of this Noonan shares: "One interesting feature of this flight was the necessity of resorting to celestial navigation — that is, the determination of our position by observations of the sun.” This was Noonan's special talent. A failure of Noonan’s celestial navigation skills has been theorized as a reason for the plane’s disappearance over the Pacific. The pair continued to Georgetown and Paramaribo, before heading to Brazil. They took a small break in Natal, "our jumping-off point for the African coast."
They then flew across the Atlantic, encountering heavy rain storms, dark conditions and an immensely dense haze, but Noonan reassures his reader, "we would need to be rather ingenious to miss a continent, we did not worry." However, navigation to the coast was far from perfect. He shares an incident in which Earhart incorrectly thought her navigator had brought them too far south. Ignoring his advice, she turned north, meaning they missed Dakar, their intended destination, and arrived instead at Saint-Louis, 163 miles away. Noonan places no blame upon Earhart in the letter, calling it "our error."
From the West Coast of Africa the pair flew eastwards, stopping at Gao, Khartoum and Massawa amongst other towns. The desert proved "extremely difficult to navigate across because of the absence of recognizable landmarks,” but Noonan remains unyieldingly positive: “we had a pleasant trip, and quite some fun because of the linguistic difficulties." Upon reaching Assab, Eritrea, they flew to Karachi, “where no plane had ever flown, or white man ever crossed, and across the Arabian Sea — a total distance of seventeen hundred miles — made in thirteen hours.” At Akyab (now Sittwe, Myanmar), they experienced the southwest monsoon; “our first real bad weather.” Noonan sent a postcard to Beverly from here which is included in the present lot.
The bad weather was to continue, ceaselessly hindering their flight from Akyab to Rangoon. Eventually they resorted to flying 8,000 feet up and into the storm clouds directly, which worked, “but I trust I do not have a similar experience for a considerable time to come. The air currents in the storm clouds were terrific, and the rain seemed to be driven in solid sheets of water — it actually stripped the paint off the leading edge of both wings of the plane! And we were tossed about like a feather in a gale.” Following this the duo’s luck appeared to turn; they experienced excellent weather and hospitality on their travels to Bangkok, Singapore and Bandoeng, where the present letter was written. However, Noonan appeared to have an ominous feeling about the next stages of the trip; “everything seems blended into a harmonious whole which causes one to wish to remain in such peaceful surroundings. But alas — tomorrow at about four am we will take-off for Port Darwin, Australia.”
Noonan then shares the next steps of the journey — Sourabaya, Java, Kupang, Timor, then Sae, New Guinea, and then “the next day a twenty six hundred mile jump to Howland Island — a tiny spot nine by three thousand feet in mid Pacific - the next day eighteen hundred miles to Honolulu — and then twenty four hundred to Oakland and home.” However, they were never to reach home. It was during this "twenty six hundred mile jump" that Noonan and Earhart disappeared over the Pacific without a trace. This has become one of the greatest mysteries of the twentieth century, and one that continues to evade conclusion. This haunting letter provides unpublished evidence on navigational errors, trouble with weather and issues with communication between Earhart and Noonan that may illuminate further the circumstances of their mystifying disappearance.
This is the last and most extensive recorded letter sent by Noonan before they went missing (other letters to his wife and Helen Day were sent the day before, 22 June).
REFERENCES:Earhart, Amelia. Last Flight. New York: Crown Trade Paperbacks, 1937; Lovell, Mary S. The Sound of Wings: The Life of Amelia Earhart. New York: St Martin's Press, 1989
PROVENANCE:Beverly Hunter (addressee), thence by descent