A woman who shares the name of famous pilot Amelia Earhart will fly around in the world in a Pilatus PC-12 NG.

As this genaration's Earhart told KPHO CBS 5 News, she hopes that by successfully completing the 1937 journey, she will be able to get women excited about aviation.

In 1937, 39-year-old Amelia Earhart was a well-known and record-breaking pilot who sought, as her website puts it, a "monumental and, final challenge." Earhart was going to fly around the world. After completing over 20,000 miles of the journey, Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, ran into bad weather on July 2 over the Pacific Ocean. Earhart and Noonan tried making radio contact with the nearby US Coast Guard cutter Itasca, but after intermittent messages, went silent.

An immediate and extensive rescue mission, one that wound up costing around $4 million, sadly proved fruitless and the mystery as to what exactly happened remains a mystery today.

This flight hopes to get young women interested in aviation. As Earhart told KPHO, "There are so few women in flight. Six percent of pilots are female. So, we'd like to boost that number up and show that you don't have to be a tomboy to go out to the airport,"

"All kinds of women are in aviation. I'm one of them, and luckily, I have the perfect name to hopefully get girls excited," Earhart added.

yahoo.com