Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport is a public

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

located within the

Florida Everglades The Everglades is a natural region of tropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm. The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimm ...

, 36 miles (58 km) west of the central business district of

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

, in

Collier County Collier County is a county in the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 375,752; an increase of 16.9% since the 2010 United States Census. Its county seat is East Naples, where the county offices were moved from Ev ...

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 The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It is owned by Miami-Dade County and operated by the

Miami-Dade Aviation Department The Miami-Dade Aviation Department (MDAD) is an agency of the Miami-Dade County government that manages airports. As of 2021 Ralph Cutié is the interim director of the agency. The Arts and Cultural Affairs division was created, and is managed by, ...

. The airport is on the

Tamiami Trail The Tamiami Trail () is the southernmost of U.S. Highway 41 (US 41) from State Road 60 (SR 60) in Tampa to US 1 in Miami. A portion of the road also has the hidden designation of State Road 90 (SR 90). The north� ...

near the border between Dade and Collier counties in central South Florida.

History

Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport US NAIP image

Begun in 1968 as the Everglades Jetport (also known as Big Cypress Jetport), the airport was planned to be the largest airport in the world, covering 39 square miles with six runways, and connected to both central Miami and the Gulf of Mexico by an expressway and monorail line. The airport would have been five times the size of

JFK Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport (colloquially referred to as JFK Airport, Kennedy Airport, New York-JFK, or simply JFK) is the main international airport serving New York City. The airport is the busiest of the seven airports in the New ...

in New York. At the time, the

Boeing 2707 The Boeing 2707 was an American supersonic passenger airliner project during the 1960s. After winning a competition for a government-funded contract to build an American supersonic airliner, Boeing began development at its facilities in Seattl ...

was under development and it was anticipated that supersonic aircraft would dominate long-haul air transportation. South Florida was viewed as an ideal location for an intercontinental SST hub due to the limitation that such aircraft would have to fly over water. Because of

environmental concerns Environmental issues are effects of human activity on the biophysical environment, most often of which are harmful effects that cause environmental degradation. Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment on t ...

and the cancellation of the 2707 program, construction was halted in 1970 after the completion of just one 10,500' runway. Although the airport was left abandoned and unfinished, it was still retained by the local government as a general aviation airport and (to a greater extent) training airport. It was originally heavily used by

Pan Am Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States ...

and

Eastern Airlines Eastern Air Lines, also colloquially known as Eastern, was a major United States airline from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution, it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade County, Florida. Ea ...

as a training airport, as the long runway at Dade-Collier could accommodate aircraft as large as Boeing 747s, and was equipped with a relatively new

instrument landing system In aviation, the instrument landing system (ILS) is a precision radio navigation system that provides short-range guidance to aircraft to allow them to approach a runway at night or in bad weather. In its original form, it allows an aircraft to ...

, which allowed pilots to train for landing with low cloud ceilings and/or poor visibility. The isolation of the airport meant that it could be used for training flights 24/7 all days of the year without interfering with the traffic at Miami International. In more recent years, the advent of

flight simulator A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and the environment in which it flies, for pilot training, design, or other purposes. It includes replicating the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they rea ...

s has made such training flights less economical, and the airport is now used much less frequently, although it remains open to

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

Facilities and aircraft

Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport covers an area of , which contains one

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paved

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concre ...

(9/27) measuring 10,499 × 150 ft (3,200 × 46 m). For 2001, the airport had 14,468

aircraft operations, an average of 39 per day. As of 2015 the airport had an average of 12 landings and take-offs per day.

Other uses

High-speed automobile events have been held here because the runway is two miles long. This allows

exotic car A supercar – also called exotic car – is a loosely defined description of street-legal, high-performance sports cars. Since the 2010s, the term hypercar has come into use for the highest performing supercars. Supercars commonly serve as t ...

s to break the barrier, a pinnacle for street vehicles. Such events were held in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Oil exploration on the site was considered in 2009, but not pursued due to resistance from conservation groups. The Carlos Gimenez administration proposed holding a regular "Miami International Air Show" at Dade-Collier, similar in concept to the

Paris Air Show The Paris Air Show (french: Salon international de l'aéronautique et de l'espace de Paris-Le Bourget, Salon du Bourget) is a trade fair and air show held in odd years at Paris–Le Bourget Airport in north Paris, France. Organized by the French ...

Homestead Air Reserve Base Homestead Air Reserve Base (Homestead ARB), previously known as Homestead Air Force Base (Homestead AFB) is located in Miami–Dade County, Florida to the northeast of the city of Homestead. It is home to the 482nd Fighter Wing (482 FW) of th ...

had previously been considered, but the idea had been rejected by the US military.

References

External links

* brochure fro
CFASPP
*
Exotic Car Runway Event

Photo gallery of runway racing by Exotics Rally

240mph breaks speed record video
{{authority control Airports in Miami-Dade County, Florida Big Cypress National Preserve 1968 establishments in Florida