Wings Over Miami is a flying

aviation museum An aviation museum, air museum, or air and space museum is a museum exhibiting the history and cultural artifacts, artifacts of aviation. In addition to actual, replica or accurate reproduction aircraft, exhibits can include photographs, maps, P ...

of historically significant aircraft, located at

Miami Executive Airport Miami Executive Airport, formerly known until 2014 as Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport, is a public airport in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, southwest of Downtown Miami. It is operated by the Miami-Dade Aviation Department. The ...

Miami-Dade County Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. The county had a population of 2,701,767 as of the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most populous county in ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, United States, southwest of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

History

The museum was conceived as a replacement for the Weeks Air Museum which had been located at the airport, but which was moved to

Polk County, Florida Polk County is located in the central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. The county population was 725,046, as of the 2020 census. Its county seat is Bartow, and its largest city is Lakeland. Polk County comprises the Lakeland–Winter Ha ...

after having its facility and almost all of its aircraft damaged by

Hurricane Andrew Hurricane Andrew was a very powerful and destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that struck the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana in August 1992. It is the most destructive hurricane to ever hit Florida in terms of structures damaged ...

in 1992. The departure of the Weeks collection left an aviation historical deficit in the Miami area. In 2001 four military and classic plane enthusiasts decided to create a new museum to use the facility. The new museum's board was made up of its founders: Walter Orth, Larry Ploucha, Vincent Tirado and Tom Righetti. They agreed from the start that Wings Over Miami would be a flying museum, meaning that aircraft from the collection would be airworthy and would be flown regularly. The aircraft collection that was assembled included representation from a broad range of aviation history, including vintage aircraft,

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

Aircraft

Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina N287 Tamiami FL 26

The museum collection includes: * Aero L29-R Delfín * Aero L-39C Albatros *

Brown B-1 Racer The Brown B-1 Racer was an American-built small monoplane racing aircraft of the 1930s. Design and development The B-1 Racer was built in 1933 by the Brown Aircraft Co. of Montebello, California, which had been founded by Lawrence W. Brown, previ ...

Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina The Consolidated PBY Catalina is a flying boat and amphibious aircraft that was produced in the 1930s and 1940s. In Canadian service it was known as the Canso. It was one of the most widely used seaplanes of World War II. Catalinas served w ...

Douglas A-26C Invader The Douglas A-26 Invader (designated B-26 between 1948 and 1965) is an American twin-engined light bomber and ground attack aircraft. Built by Douglas Aircraft Company during World War II, the Invader also saw service during several major ...

* Douglas C-117D * Grumman F-14D Tomcat * Ikarus Aero 3-A *

Ryan PT-22 The Ryan PT-22 Recruit, the main military version of the Ryan ST, is a military trainer aircraft used by the United States Army Air Corps during WWII for primary pilot training. Design and development The PT-22's fuselage is a simple monocoque ...

* Nanchang CJ-6A *

North American AT-6D Texan The North American Aviation T-6 Texan is an American single-engined advanced trainer aircraft used to train pilots of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), United States Navy, Royal Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force and other air forces ...

North American T-28 Trojan The North American Aviation T-28 Trojan is a radial-engine military trainer aircraft manufactured by North American Aviation and used by the United States Air Force and United States Navy beginning in the 1950s. Besides its use as a trainer, ...

* North American SNJ-6 *

Schweizer SGS 1-26 The Schweizer SGS 1-26 is a United States One-Design, single-seat, mid-wing glider built by Schweizer Aircraft of Elmira, New York.Schweizer Aircraft Corp: The 1-26 Sailplane Flight - Erection - Maintenance Manual, Models A thru E'' page 1. Schw ...

Yakovlev Yak-52 The Yakovlev Yak-52 (russian: Яковлев Як-52) is a Soviet primary trainer aircraft which first flew in 1976. It was produced in Romania from 1977 to 1998 by Aerostar, as ''Iak-52'', which gained manufacturing rights under agreement wit ...

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control Aerospace museums in Florida Museums in Miami-Dade County, Florida Military and war museums in Florida Museums established in 2001 2001 establishments in Florida