Wheeler Army Airfield the first transpacific flight from California in 1927; the great Dole Air Race from California to Hawaii; the first transpacific flight from the U.S. to Australia in 1928, and the first Hawaii-to-Mainland solo flight in 1935 by Amelia Earhart. Ms. Earhart visited Wheeler Field in 1935 in her Lockheed Vega and in 1937 in her Lockheed Model 10 Electra. Kingsford Smith, in his plane, the "Southern Cross", also used the airfield on his historic flights across the Pacific. By 1940, Wheeler Field had evolved into a primary base for Army Air Corps pursuit (i.e., "fighter") aircraft such as the P-40
Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence Electra was at least close to Howland Island, 800 miles away from the Marshall Islands. Author Fukiko Aoki, who researched and wrote a 1982 book, "Looking for Amelia", was similarly critical before the revelations from Yamano. Aoki located an elderly officer, part of the 1937 crew of the "Kōshū Maru", who denied the ship's involvement. Aoki subsequently researched the "Kōshū Maru" ship log, which showed that it was 1,500 miles away at the time of Earhart's disappearance. It was also argued that to reach and somehow land on the remote atoll where she purportedly crashed would have required Earhart, though