A multi-engine, instrument rated pilot, James Wynbrandt has been an AIN and Business Jet Traveler contributor since 2003. His in-depth reporting and insightful features have won more than a dozen editorial honors, including two National Business Aviation Association Gold Wing Awards (2019; 2021), and his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Barron’s, Fortune, Forbes, and Smithsonian Air &amp; Space. He has flown his Mooney M20K 252 on assignments throughout North and Central America and the Caribbean. Wynbrandt is also the author of Flying High (Wiley &amp; Sons), a biography of Jet Blue founder David Neeleman, as well as histories, references works, and books on a variety of other topics from major publishers. He lives in New York City.

Contributor - Business Aviation

James Wynbrandt

Contemporary aviatrix Amelia Rose Earhart made a stop at EBACE last week, one month before she takes off from Oakland, Calif., for The Amelia Project, attempting a circumnavigation flight that her unrelated namesake never completed in a Lockheed 10 Electra in 1937. She will be flying a much more reliable Pilatus PC-12 NG equipped with an Inmarsat-based Satcom1 satcom system that will enable her to stream the entire flight to followers around the globe.


Planning for the project started a year-and-a-half ago, the Denver TV newscaster said, and it <a href="http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/ain-news-live/eaa-airventure/2013-08-01/amelia-earhart-redux">was officially announced at EAA AirVenture</a> last year. The east-to-west journey will begin June 23, weather permitting, and make 17 stops along the 24,000-mile route. No stop is planned at Howland Island, Amelia Mary Earhart’s destination when she disappeared on her 1937 attempted circumnavigation. However, Earhart intends to overfly the point from which the last transmission from her namesake was heard, and announce there via satcom the names of 10 aspiring female pilots awarded scholarships by a foundation she established.


Shane Jordan, also from Denver, will accompany Earhart and share piloting duties. If successful, the 31-year-old Earhart will become the youngest woman to circumnavigate the earth in a single-engine aircraft.


Sponsors include Pilatus, Honeywell, Inmarsat and Satcom1, as well as BBA Aviation companies Signature Flight Support and Dallas Airmotive.

Amelia Project Flight Set for June 23 Launch

Amelia Rose Earhart will fly a Pilatus PC-12 NG equipped with an Inmarsat-based Satcom1 system on circumnavigation flight.

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