South Florida Aviation History

Miami History Podcast

This podcast episode shares Miami’s history of being an aviation hub in America. What was deemed as an ideal location for flight exhibitions and training due to the region’s ideal climate and flat surface, Miami became an early test ground for aviation. The city celebrated its 15th birthday with a bi-plane show piloted by stunt pilot Howard Gill.

The following decades of flight history were influenced by aviation pioneers Glenn Curtis, Juan Trippe, and Eddie Rickenbacker, just to name a few. Based in South Florida, Pan American Airlines, founded by Trippe, and Eastern Airlines, headed by Rickenbacker, made Miami one of the largest aviation centers in the world during the middle decades of the Twentieth Century.