Aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo non-stop across the United States on August 24, 1932.

Earhart flew her Lockheed Vega 5B from Los Angeles to Newark in a record time of 19 hours and 5 minutes.

According to the National Air and Space Museum, the 3,986-kilometer (2,477-mile) flight set an official U.S. record for the fastest distance and time for a woman.

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The average speed of Earhart’s non-stop solo flight was 206.42 kilometers per hour (128.27 miles per hour), and she flew most of the way at an altitude of 3,048 meters (10,000 feet), according to the same source.

Less than a year later, Earhart would set a new transcontinental speed record by completing the same flight in a record time of 17 hours and 7 minutes, the same source indicated.

Amelia Earhart at Oakland Airport, March 12, 1937. Just four months later, the pilot disappeared over the Pacific Ocean. (MediaNews Group/Carl Bigelow, Oakland Tribune via Getty Images)

On January 11, 1935, she became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean, 2,400 miles (3,875 km), between Honolulu, Hawaii, and Oakland, California.

According to the official website of The Amelia Earhart, it was also the first flight in which a civilian aircraft carried a walkie-talkie.

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Earhart was born on July 24, 1897, in Atchison, Kansas. Her father was a lawyer for a railroad company and her mother came from a wealthy family.

As a child, she showed an adventurous and independent nature, for which she would later become known, according to Biography.com.

The Earhart family moved frequently. While visiting her sister in Canada, Earhart developed an interest in caring for soldiers wounded in World War I.

Her first flight in 1920 was an experience that prompted her to take flying lessons.

In 1918, she left junior college to become a nurse’s aide in Toronto, the same source noted. When the war ended, Earhart entered a pre-med program at Columbia University in New York City, but left in 1920 after her parents insisted she live with them in California.

“There she made her first flight in 1920, an experience that prompted her to take flying lessons,” according to Biography.com.

In 1921 she bought her first airplane, a Kinner Airster, and two years later she obtained her pilot’s license, according to the same source.

Earhart moved to Massachusetts, where she continued to develop her interest in aviation.

Amelia Earhart after the first flight from Hawaii to California, January 12, 1935. She was the first pilot to successfully fly this route. (Photo by ©CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Earhart continued to reach new heights in aviation.

On June 17, 1928, she departed Trepassey, Newfoundland, Canada, as a passenger aboard a seaplane piloted by Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon, according to Britannica.com.

Much of the publicity was provided by publisher George Palmer Putnam, who had helped organize the historic flight. The couple married in 1931, but Earhart continued her career under her birth name.

That year she also flew an autogyro to a record altitude of 18,415 feet, according to the same source.

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In 1930, Earhart purchased the plane that would go down in history, the iconic red Lockheed 5B Vega that she named “Old Bessie.” According to Popular Mechanics, the plane has been on display at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum since it opened in 1976.

In 1930, Earhart purchased the plane that would make history: the iconic red Lockheed 5B Vega, which she named “Old Bessie.”

Then, on May 20, 1932, exactly five years to the date of Lindberg’s voyage, she made her own indelible mark, becoming only the second person to fly a plane solo across the Atlantic Ocean, and the first woman, the same source said.

This flight in her 5B Vega from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, to Londonderry, Northern Ireland was completed in a record time of 14 hours and 56 minutes, despite a number of challenges.

Earhart encountered bad weather and some mechanical problems and was unable to land at her planned destination of Paris, Brittancia.com reported.

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Earhart’s fate then turned to tragedy.

On the morning of July 2, 1937, she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, set sail from Lae, New Guinea on one of the final legs of their historic attempt to sail around the world, History.com reported.

A close-up of Amelia Earhart. Although her plane disappeared on July 2, 1937, she was officially declared dead on January 5, 1939. (AP)

Their next destination was Howland Island in the central Pacific Ocean, some 4,000 kilometers away.

But Earhart never landed on Howland Island.

She and Noonan lost contact with a spot over the Pacific Ocean, the same source said, as they struggled with overcast skies, spotty radio communications and rapidly dwindling fuel supplies in her twin-engine Lockheed Electra plane.

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“Despite an unprecedented search and rescue mission involving U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships and aircraft scouring some 250,000 square miles of ocean, they were never found,” History.com reported.

Her achievements and her legacy are an inspiration to thousands of people.

The Navy concluded at the time that Earhart and Noonan had run out of fuel, crashed into the Pacific Ocean and drowned, multiple sources said. The mystery of her disappearance remains a fixture of popular culture, and her fate has been the subject of numerous books and films.

Although her plane disappeared on July 2, 1937, she was officially declared dead on January 5, 1939.

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Earhart received numerous posthumous honors. She was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1968 and the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1973, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal.

Her image graces a 1963 airmail stamp. She is also the namesake of the USNS Amelia Earhart, a Navy cargo ship launched in 2007, the same source said.

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Despite the tragic end of Earhart’s life, her accomplishments and legacy continue to serve as an inspiration to thousands of aspiring young pilots around the world, according to Britannica.com.