North Texas woman who recreated Amelia Earhart's flight looks back on historic flight

A North Texas woman is reliving her accomplishment of flying around the world in 1967.

Her name is Ann Pellegreno. She and her team completed the flight that Amelia Earhart could not just 30 years prior. 

In 1967, Ann Pellegreno made history. She led a crew on a global flight mirroring the path taken by Amelia Earhart in 1937. 

Earhart disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while trying to become the first pilot to circle the globe at the equator. No trace of her or her navigator has ever been found.

Pellegreno and a crew of three others became the first to use a similar plane to fly that path.

"When you’re up high, you don’t see all the damage to the Earth," she said. "You see the natural rivers and the lakes and the mountains and stuff, and it’s beautiful. Everybody should fly around the world if they could."

These days, Pellegreno writes books from her rural home in Wise County after spending most of her life in the Midwest.

"I really felt privileged," she said.

Pellegreno first flew in 1960.

In 1966 after Pellegreno received her flight instructor rating, she quit teaching seventh-grade English to teach students to fly in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

In 1967, she was 30 years old. Pellegreno had less than 1,000 hours of flying experience, but she accepted her mechanic’s challenge from years earlier to trace Earhart’s flight path in the same type of plane that her mechanic owned. 

"Being at the right place at the right time with the right qualifications, that has a lot to do with it," she said.

Technology had significantly improved since Earhart’s unsuccessful world flight.

"Their flight was far more difficult than ours," Pellegreno said.

Still, it was not easy. The flight took about a month. 

"We flew virtually every day except about two stops. We had a day off. But your energy kept you going, your enthusiasm," Pellegreno said. "The most interesting, challenging thing I had really ever started to do and was able to finish."

There was plenty of time to think of Earhart. Pellegreno believes Earhart’s spirit was with her during her trip. 

"I would say I truly believe you were there when I made my flight, and that’s all I’ll say," she said.

Pellegreno was celebrated in her hometown of Saline, Michigan.

The Michigan Legislature declared it Ann Pellegreno Day.

Pellegreno’s home is decorated with all sorts of world flight memorabilia. She hopes she’ll always be remembered as someone who took a risk to honor Earhart who she says took a greater risk.

"We’re working on what we feel happened, and we’re gonna fly that lead as much as we feel she flew it."