I've lived here in Fla for 50 years, and never knew all the details on this history. Cool history.
https://cbs12.com/news/instagram/hidden-history-jetsetting-from-the-evergladesThe Everglades — CBS12 News is unveiling a new series of reports exploring Florida’s colorful past: Stories highlighting the amazing, the unusual, perhaps over-looked people and places from our state’s "hidden history."
Anytime you travel, people want to know, "What airport are you flying out of?"
West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Miami – they are the popular options that we all know, but what if there were a fourth?
And what if that fourth was also the biggest and most glamorous airport in the entire world? One catch though, you’ve got to go way out into the Everglades to make your flight.
“The Everglades Jetport” would have been five times the size of New York’s JFK.
"Well it started to happen, in 1968 they started to build one runway and one taxiway... that we have today... it was a dream that they’d have a minimum of four runways." Craven said.
But long before anybody could pick up their suitcases, a bunch of people picked up some signs to protest the environmental impact of the construction.
And super-sonic travel wasn’t cheap. Only wealthy passengers were flying on the Concorde. So the luxurious airport plan was grounded.
"This airport was used mainly for pilot certification," Craven said.
Once the jetport dream died, airlines like Pan-Am and Eastern began to use the runway for pilot training.
That went on for a few decades, until sophisticated flight simulators made the runway practice obsolete.
And the airport slipped further into obscurity.