Miami was probably the premier pioneer city, and Florida the premier pioneer state, in America when it came to commercial, civil and military aviation thanks to early aviation pioneers like Glenn Curtiss who built flying schools locally, developed Miami Springs and Opa-locka, and co-developed Hialeah. Curtiss built a large variety of aircraft over the years and all of the models can be viewed at http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/a_curtiss.html .

A large percentage of our population owed their livelihoods to aviation, mostly in commercial aviation working for Eastern Air Lines, National Air Lines and Pan American World Airways. It seemed like there were airline employees on every block when we were growing up. I had two Eastern mechanics on my block, two Pan Am mechanics on the next block, plus pilots in the neighborhood. Miami Springs was full of pilots and other airline employees due to the proximity to the airport.

These galleries are dedicated to everyone who worked in aviation in South Florida and to those who love aviation. There are thousands of other aviation photos on display on our stock photo site at http://www.AviationStockPhotos.com

Unfortunately, thanks to some quirks with the software regarding duplicate galleries, I lost all the historical photos that were in this gallery of Eastern, National and early seaplane service by other than Pan Am, along with the old photos of Miami International, Miami Municipal Airport/Amelia Earhart Field, etc. I'll attempt to reload them in the future.