Ann Pellegreno
Encyclopedia
Ann Dearing Holtgren Pellegreno (born 1937 in Chicago, Illinois
) has been a professional musician, teacher, author, lecturer, and farmer. In 1967, Pellegreno and a crew of three successfully flew a similar aircraft (a Lockheed 10A Electra
) to complete a world flight that closely mirrored Amelia Earhart
's flight plan in 1937. On the 30th anniversary of Earhart's disappearance, Pellegreno dropped a wreath in her honor over tiny Howland Island
and returned to Oakland
, California
, completing the 28,000-mile (45,000 km) commemorative flight on July 7, 1967.
, Kansas
. On June 9, she and her crew of three took off from Oakland
, California
in the plane. Her crew was made up of William L. Polhemus (navigator), William "Bill" R. Payne (co-pilot) and Lee Koepke (owner and restorer of the Electra). The Electra was originally registered in Canada as CF-TCA and re-registered in the U.S. as N79237 when Pellegreno and her crew made their round-the-world flight.
Pellegreno proceeded from Willow Run, Detroit
, Michigan
on June 7, 1967 to Oakland, to take off from the same airport from which Earhart departed 30 years before. It was wheels-up on this commemorative round-the-world flight on June 9 when she took off from Oakland flying east on their journey. Pellegreno and her team followed the same route Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan
followed in 1937, but for better re-fueling connections landed at differing airports. They carried 2,000 sets of philatelic covers that would be canceled at various cities on their path, to be sold to collectors to help finance their flight. Unlike the 1937 flight, Pellegreno's Electra was equipped with state-of-the-art radio and navigation equipment.
After a refueling stop at Nauru
in the Pacific, Pellegreno flew to Howland Island, making a tribute fly-over at approximately the same time and on the same day as Earhart and Noonan would have arrived there 30 years before on July 2, 1937. On that day, July 2, 1967, Pellegreno personally dropped a wreath commemorating the history-making round-the-world effort of Earhart and Noonan. Exactly 30 years later, Pellegreno found Earhart's flight-planned destination – tiny Howland Island – dropped a wreath, and returned to Oakland on July 7.
She arrived back at Oakland having completed the 28,000-mile commemorative flight. She then returned the Electra to Willow Run arriving there on July 10. On July 15, the Michigan Legislature declared it "Ann Pellegreno Day" and had a parade in her home town of Saline
, Michigan
.
Departed Oakland, CA (Start round-the-world), June 9, 1967
Arrived Oakland, CA (Finish round-the-world), July 7, 1967
Arrived Willow Run, Detroit, MI, October 7, 1967
, and also to the Iowa Department of Transportation Commission, the first woman in the nation to serve in that capacity. Pellegreno was inducted into the Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame (1990), the Michigan Aviation Hall of Fame (1991), and the Experimental Aircraft Association – Vintage Aircraft Association Hall of Fame (1997). Her first book, World Flight, the Earhart Trail, was published in 1971. The first two volumes of her trilogy Iowa Takes to the Air were published in 1980 and 1986. Pellegreno was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 2001.
The Lockheed Electra owned by Lee Koepke was, in a previous existence, one of the three Trans-Canada Airlines Electras that were used to initiate transcontinental air service in Canada in 1937. After Pellegreno's flight, the Canada Aviation Museum acquired the aircraft from Koepke. Volunteers from Air Canada (the new name of Trans-Canada Airlines) overhauled the aircraft in 1968 and donated it to the museum. Today, Lockheed Electra (S/N 1112) is part of the National Aeronautical Collection and is displayed in its original CF-TCA configuration.
Dedication of her World Flight at the end of her book:
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
) has been a professional musician, teacher, author, lecturer, and farmer. In 1967, Pellegreno and a crew of three successfully flew a similar aircraft (a Lockheed 10A Electra
Lockheed Model 10 Electra
The Lockheed Model 10 Electra was a twin-engine, all-metal monoplane airliner developed by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in the 1930s to compete with the Boeing 247 and Douglas DC-2...
) to complete a world flight that closely mirrored Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean...
's flight plan in 1937. On the 30th anniversary of Earhart's disappearance, Pellegreno dropped a wreath in her honor over tiny Howland Island
Howland Island
Howland Island is an uninhabited coral island located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean, about southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia and is an unincorporated, unorganized territory of the United States. Geographically, it is part...
and returned to Oakland
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, completing the 28,000-mile (45,000 km) commemorative flight on July 7, 1967.
Early years
In 1960, on the day she obtained her private pilot's license, Pellegreno took her mother up for a surprise flight as her first passenger; Mrs. Holtgren was not aware that her daughter had learned to fly. Within five years, Pellegreno obtained a commercial pilot's license, to which she added ratings for instrument, multi-engine, and flight instructor for airplanes and instruments.Round-the-world flight 1967
Ann Pellegreno's decision to retrace Earhart's round-the-world flight route in a Lockheed Electra can be traced to the encouragement of her airplane mechanic, Lee Koepke, in 1962. Koepke owned a twin-engine Lockheed Electra 10A that he was restoring at the time, a sistership to that flown by Amelia Earhart on her fateful world flight in 1937. The first article of the historic commemorative event appeared in a Detroit newspaper on March 6, 1967. In April and May of that year the Electra was retrofitted with final fuel equipment for the flight at Javelin Aircraft in WichitaWichita, Kansas
Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...
, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
. On June 9, she and her crew of three took off from Oakland
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in the plane. Her crew was made up of William L. Polhemus (navigator), William "Bill" R. Payne (co-pilot) and Lee Koepke (owner and restorer of the Electra). The Electra was originally registered in Canada as CF-TCA and re-registered in the U.S. as N79237 when Pellegreno and her crew made their round-the-world flight.
Pellegreno proceeded from Willow Run, Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
on June 7, 1967 to Oakland, to take off from the same airport from which Earhart departed 30 years before. It was wheels-up on this commemorative round-the-world flight on June 9 when she took off from Oakland flying east on their journey. Pellegreno and her team followed the same route Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan
Fred Noonan
Frederick Joseph "Fred" Noonan was an American flight navigator, sea captain and aviation pioneer who first charted many commercial airline routes across the Pacific Ocean during the 1930s...
followed in 1937, but for better re-fueling connections landed at differing airports. They carried 2,000 sets of philatelic covers that would be canceled at various cities on their path, to be sold to collectors to help finance their flight. Unlike the 1937 flight, Pellegreno's Electra was equipped with state-of-the-art radio and navigation equipment.
After a refueling stop at Nauru
Nauru
Nauru , officially the Republic of Nauru and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country in Micronesia in the South Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in Kiribati, to the east. Nauru is the world's smallest republic, covering just...
in the Pacific, Pellegreno flew to Howland Island, making a tribute fly-over at approximately the same time and on the same day as Earhart and Noonan would have arrived there 30 years before on July 2, 1937. On that day, July 2, 1967, Pellegreno personally dropped a wreath commemorating the history-making round-the-world effort of Earhart and Noonan. Exactly 30 years later, Pellegreno found Earhart's flight-planned destination – tiny Howland Island – dropped a wreath, and returned to Oakland on July 7.
She arrived back at Oakland having completed the 28,000-mile commemorative flight. She then returned the Electra to Willow Run arriving there on July 10. On July 15, the Michigan Legislature declared it "Ann Pellegreno Day" and had a parade in her home town of Saline
Saline, Michigan
Saline is a city in Washtenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 8,810.The city is popular for its annual Celtic Festival, which attracts people from all over the United States and its sister cities Brecon, Wales and Lindenberg, Germany...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
.
Itinerary
Departed Willow Run, Detroit, MI (Pre-Flight), June 7, 1967- South Bend, IN
- Cedar Rapids, IA
- Ogden, UT
Departed Oakland, CA (Start round-the-world), June 9, 1967
- Tucson, AZ
- Fort Worth, TX
- New Orleans, LA
- Miami, FL
- San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Caracas, Venezuela
- Trinidad
- Paramaribo, Suriname
- Belem, Brazil
- Natal, Brazil (Atlantic Ocean crossing) June 15, 1967
- Dakar, Senegal, June 17, 1967
- Las Palmas, Canary Islands
- Lisbon, Portugal
- Rome, Italy
- Ankara, Turkey
- Tehran, Iran
- Karachi, Pakistan, June 22, 1967
- New Delhi, India
- Calcutta, India
- Bangkok, Thailand
- Singapore, June 27, 1967
- Djakarta, Indonesia
- Kupang, Timor
- Darwin, Australia
- Port Moresby, New Guinea
- Lae, New Guinea (Pacific Ocean crossing), June 30, 1967
- Nauru Island
- Howland Island (Fly-over), July 2, 1967
- Canton Island
- Honolulu, HI
Arrived Oakland, CA (Finish round-the-world), July 7, 1967
- Denver, CO (Post-flight)
- Newton, KS
- Oshkosh, WI
Arrived Willow Run, Detroit, MI, October 7, 1967
Later years
In 1974 Pellegreno was appointed to the Aeronautics Commission, the first woman thus serving in IowaIowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
, and also to the Iowa Department of Transportation Commission, the first woman in the nation to serve in that capacity. Pellegreno was inducted into the Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame (1990), the Michigan Aviation Hall of Fame (1991), and the Experimental Aircraft Association – Vintage Aircraft Association Hall of Fame (1997). Her first book, World Flight, the Earhart Trail, was published in 1971. The first two volumes of her trilogy Iowa Takes to the Air were published in 1980 and 1986. Pellegreno was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 2001.
The Lockheed Electra owned by Lee Koepke was, in a previous existence, one of the three Trans-Canada Airlines Electras that were used to initiate transcontinental air service in Canada in 1937. After Pellegreno's flight, the Canada Aviation Museum acquired the aircraft from Koepke. Volunteers from Air Canada (the new name of Trans-Canada Airlines) overhauled the aircraft in 1968 and donated it to the museum. Today, Lockheed Electra (S/N 1112) is part of the National Aeronautical Collection and is displayed in its original CF-TCA configuration.
Dedications
Dedication of her World Flight at the beginning of her book:Dedication of her World Flight at the end of her book: