Another Amelia Earhart is Flying Around the World

A woman named after Amelia Earhart is flying around the world, to recreate her namesake’s famous flight around the world.

On Thursday, Earhart departed from Oakland, California on the first leg of her 24,300 mile journey. Via the Huffington Post:

If she completes the 17-day journey, she will become the youngest woman to fly around the world in a single-engine plane….The ambitious pilot started flying lessons when she was 21 years old, she told The Huffington Post in January. Having faced the financial strain of paying for years of flight lessons, Earhart launched the Fly With Amelia Foundation, which provides scholarships for high school girls to attend flight school.

In 1932, Amelia Mary Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Earhart was named after the famous aviator, but is not related to her. “By recreating and symbolically completing [Earhart’s] flight around the world, I hope to develop an even deeper connection to my namesake and also encourage the world to pursue their own adventures,” Earhart said via a statement on her website. “Amelia believed that, ‘adventure is worthwhile in itself’ and it is that type of attitude that spurs us to seek the unknown, push our limits and fly outside the lines.”