Wings Over Miami is a flying aviation museum 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 ...

in Miami-Dade County,

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 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 ...

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 after having its facility and almost all of its aircraft damaged by Hurricane Andrew 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 opposing ...

and the Cold War.

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 * Douglas A-26C Invader * 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 *

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