Finch, inspired by the deceased aviatrix Amelia Earhart – who had attempted in 1937 the first airplane flight around the world via the equator – began planning in 1991 to duplicate Earhart's doomed World Flight. With her flight navigator Frederick Noonan relying on the stars at night for navigation, Earhart was expected to land at the tiny Howland Island in the South Pacific on June 2, 1937. When they did not arrive, they were thought to have become lost.
