Summary

Chapter 5 is titled The Fairest of the Brave and the Bravest of the Fair.” This chapter begins with descriptions of where McPhetridge, Nichols, and Earhart were in their lives when Lindbergh completed his flight – in California selling planes, living with parents while working in a bank, and stuck in Boston, respectively. At around this time, the narration then suggests, another female pilot named Ruth Elder arrived in New York in her bright orange plane and with her co-pilot, George Haldeman, telling the press of her determination to repeat Lindbergh’s flight. The narration describes how Elder was as much a product of a busy publicity machine and a scheme by wealthy Floridians to make money off her beauty and charisma while positioning the crusty Haldeman, who hated flying with women, as the real pilot. She was described in publicity as “the fairest of...