Attended an aerial meet in Long Beach and booked a 10-minute flight with pilot Frank Hawks that ignited her passion for flying.
On December 28, 1920, Amelia Earhart accompanied her father to an aerial exhibition at Daugherty Field in Long Beach, California. Fascinated by the airplanes on display, she arranged to take a short passenger flight the very next day with pilot Frank Hawks.
That brief ten-minute flight proved transformative. As she later recalled, 'By the time I had got two or three hundred feet off the ground, I knew I had to fly.' The experience crystallized a passion that had been building since her childhood fascination with mechanics and speed.
This moment marks the true beginning of Earhart's aviation career — within weeks she began saving money for flying lessons, taking on odd jobs including photography, truck driving, and stenography to afford them. It represents the pivotal turning point that redirected her life from a young woman with vague ambitions in medicine and social work toward the skies, ultimately reshaping the history of aviation and women's achievement.