Tamiami Airport
The original Tamiami Airport evidently was established at some point between 1944 and 1947, like hundreds of other airports across the U.S. The earliest depiction of the original Tamiami Airport was on the August 1947 Miami Sectional Chart. It depicted the field as having a 3,500' hard-surface runway. The Tamiami Airport was damaged by a hurricane in 1947, which flooded the runways and caused training operations to be shifted to Opa-Locka. A Navy Panther jet had to make an emergency landing there in the 1950s. The runways were so short for the underpowered fighter that they had to truck it out. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, a surplus control tower from Miami International Airport, Old Tower #5, was reassembled at the original Tamiami Airport, presumably to handle an influx of deployed military aircraft. The Tamiami Airport was listed in the 1962 AOPA Airport Directory with 3 asphalt runways: RWY 14/32: 3,800' long, RWY 9/27: 3,700' long, and RWY 1/19: 2,400' long. The operators at the airport were listed as Avex Inc., American Aviation, Embry Riddle Aviation, Howe Aviation, Kendall Flying School, Miami Executive Aircraft, Mike's Flying Service, Great Southern Aircraft Corp., and Tursair Inc. While the field was open, Miami Tower provided personnel on a rotation basis to run the Control Tower and in later years, the tower at Dade Collier Training and Transition Airport, (TNT). The reason the field closed was because the air traffic at Tamiami Airport conflicted with the traffic pattern at Miami International Airport and housing developments around the airport which were encroaching. By the mid-1960s most of the tenants at Tamiami had relocated to Opa-Locka Airport The original Tamiami Airport was replaced by the new Tamiami Airport, now called Miami Executive Airport, which opened in 1967. There was still a Fixed Base Operator that was grandfathered and allowed to finish repairing some aircraft to make them airworthy. The space lay abandoned until 1969, when former FIU president Chuck Perry and three other individuals began holding meetings in the control tower, creating the vision for a new school. That control tower is now known as the Ivory Tower and is the only reminder of the airport’s former home. Miami Executive Airport,(TMB), is one of the busiest airports in the state and even houses an aviation museum, Wings Over Miami.
Fun fact: One of Miami’s early aviation schools, the Kendall Flying School, started out at Brown’s Field (Kendall, Florida; now known as The Village of Pinecrest, Florida),and moved to Tamiami Airport airport in 1955. Even cooler, it was owned and operated by Mary Gaffaney, a well-known aerobatics champion.
The site of the original Tamiami Airport was redeveloped as the Tamiami Campus of Florida International University which opened in 1972. By the time of the printing of the 1978 Miami Sectional Chart the site of the Tamiami Airport was depicted as an abandoned airfield. The original Tamiami Airport was not depicted at all (even as an abandoned airfield) on the 1979 USGS topo map. The only vestige that remains of the original airport is the tower building, which houses the Veterans Affairs Offices. There are still remnants of the original runways on the property but very few, toward the south side.