From 5 to 79: Number of Florida airports skyrockets as the new decade unfolds
The numbers tell the story. U.S. Dept. of Commerce Airway Bulletins published between 1927 and 1934 are proof of how rapidly aviation gained momentum in Florida as the 1920s gave way to the 1930s.
Over a period of only seven years, Florida went from having five listed airports/airfields in the Airway Bulletin to 79. The growth is all the more remarkable considering that the U.S. was in the grip of the Great Depression. Impossible not to conclude that municipalities around the state looked to aviation as a lifeline and considered the need for airports essential to growth and prosperity. Cities within the state vied with each other as to which had the most advanced facilities.
The first Dept. of Commerce Airway Bulletin, compiled for 1927, lists only five airports in Florida: Clearwater, Inverness, Jacksonville, Miami and Sebring. By 1934, Miami alone had eleven, as follows:
- All-American Airport (used to host the annual All-American Air Maneuvers),
- Biscayne Bay seaplane base, Coast Guard (Dinner Key)
- Chapman Field (Army)
- Curtiss-Wright seaplane base
- Fifty-Fourth Street Flying Field
- Miami Municipal Airport
- Miami Dirigible Municipal Airport
- Pan American Airport (N.W. 36th Street)
- Pan American International Seaplane Base (Dinner Key)
- United States Naval Reserve Aviation Station (Opa Locka)
- Viking Airport/Viking Seaplane base and landing field
Airway Bulletins not only provided a list of airports and airfields known to be operational in each state but also pictorial maps and details as to the facilities that could be found at each location. However, pictorial maps were dropped from the Bulletin after 1931 and by 1934, airports in each state were listed by text entries alone. No doubt the sheer growing number of airports and changes in facilities and surroundings made the pictorial maps no longer practicable. Those that do exist for 1927 through 1931, however, provide a wonderful snapshot for aviation enthusiasts and historians given the depth of the detail that is shown.
