Amelia Earhart Plans Transcontinental Flight — Really

The expression "spitting image" doesn't do her justice. Amelia Rose Earhart shares the same name and passion as one of the most revered names in early aviation, and it's that same love for soaring the skies that's pushing the NBC news anchor to recreate her namesake's 1937 transcontinental journey.

The main difference between then and now is preparation and technology — and just a bit of coincidence. As it turns out, Earhart is not a blood relative, but her family did live next door to the famed aviatrix back in the early 1900s.

See also: Did a Robot Find Amelia Earhart's Plane?

Today's Earhart is planning a 100-hour flight scheduled for June 2014 that will be live-streamed and shared via social media. Earhart and co-pilot Patrick Carter will host real-time in-air Facebook and Twitter chats and, thanks to cameras mounted along the aircraft, from wing tip to fuselage, curious viewers will be able to watch their progress.

Honeywell Aerospace outfitted the plane with custom satellite communication equipment, as well as the live-tracking cameras that viewers can use to toggle between multiple vantage points on their Pilatus PC-12 NG aircraft.

"I want people to really engage with this flight," Earhart told Mashable. "Feel what it's like to get that little itch of spark and passion."

The flight will span 14 days and include 14 stops, starting and ending in Oakland, California.

With heavy monitoring and social interaction, it's a far cry from the original Earhart's flight of more than 76 years ago, but that doesn't mean that it will be easy. Aside from the dangerous turbulence she'll encounter, Earhart will be flying over vast stretches of ocean, far from any islands or major seashores.

But if this Earhart can pull it off, she will become the youngest woman to circumnavigate the globe in a single-engine aircraft.

See also: Archival Images Combed for Signs of Amelia Earhart

Since the original Earhart was lost over the South Pacific, today's Earhart spent two days undergoing water survival training with her co-pilot, instructed by a team with experience training the U.S. Air Force and Army.

They were battered with a series of training tests including simulated ditch and rescue situations (in a pool and in the ocean), evacuation and escape training, hypothermia mitigation and sea survival. It was rough, but they passed, and Earhart's confidence soared.

"I went from having a legitimate fear of the ocean to feeling like I could survive an extreme emergency on the flight around the world," she says.

Earhart tells Mashable that the goal of the project is to inspire a new generation of female aviators. To that end, she has created the Fly with Amelia Foundation, a 501(c) 3 organization providing flight scholarships to young women who want to become pilots.

The first recipient is a 17-year-old high school senior from Denver, Colorado. Earhart supports more than 75 local charities in the Mile High City, where she also works as a traffic and weather reporter for a local NBC affiliate. She says she wants to empower adventurous young women who are passionate about exploration and flight.

The preparation, training and time invested in the project was "the most difficult thing I have ever tried to pull off," she says. "[But] seeing the moon and stars over a seemingly endless ocean from the cockpit of an airplane will make it come full circle. I want people to say 'hell yes, if she can pull this type of adventure off, so can I.'"

Image: Hales Photography