Just scrolling around Google Maps, as you do, and came across this curiosity. The airfield is miles from anywhere. Interesting reading about it. What if the 2707 SST wasn't stillborn?

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Florida,+USA/@25.8754164,-80.8948936,2347m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x88c1766591562abf:0xf72e13d35bc74ed0!8m2!3d27.6648274!4d-81.5157535

What I'd like to know is what is that building in the woods for??  Just visible at the top of the screen. EDIT found out it's for a microwave tower..

Edited September 24, 20178 yr by HighBypass

It is a really interesting airfield with, as far as I know, a unique purpose in all the USA airspace.  I believe there is an FSX/P3D scenery for it as well.

Nice catch on that little building. Maybe that's the local watering hole. Not much else around there.

 

Yes I have it in FSX. Nice long runway but not a lot else!

Bill

Interesting airport, wonder who maintains it? 

John

13 hours ago, Cactus521 said:

Interesting airport, wonder who maintains it? 

John

It is run by the Miami-Dade Aviation Department. More info here:

http://www.miami-airport.com/dade_collier.asp

Touch and go training was common there when I was a kid growing up in South Florida.  

From what I can read....I think it may be a case of "they built a new airport and no one came". I guess too far out in the swamps and boonies. I suspect that somewhere in there is a fight that was won by the environ mental folks over the developers. Down in that part of the world they are being over run with Pythons and yet it is against the law to kill them in a huge part of the preserves which make up more than 90% of the area. I am all about nature and taking care of it but Pythons are an invasive species yet, still protected. Please no fight about nature here just an example of maybe why we have a marooned airport there.

Yeah, it was supposed to be the SST airport for the US, since it would have been ideal for launching transatlantic flights where you can cheerfully go supersonic over the water, as Concorde used to do. If things had gone to plan that airport was supposed to eventually have up to six runways, and they all needed to be huge because many of the proposed SST designs were in need of a very long take off run, which accounts for it being built in what is the middle of nowhere.

That would have likely changed if the visions of SSTs becoming common had come to pass. In the end, as we know, SSTs were not economically viable for mass transport needs owing to the technology available at the time, Concorde did make money eventually (it cost BA about a billion Dollars to operate the things over their lifespan, but BA made about 1.8 billion Dollars form those operations, and Air France saw similar margins), but ultimately only as an elite form of travel for the most part, so there were never gonna be Ryanair Concordes with an aircraft which was designed with a capacity to compete with the 707 and DC-8, but got into service when the 747 could literally carry four times as many people and was cheaper to operate too.

As you say Sam, it was the environmentalists which spelled the end for all that, although you have to be honest and say they did kind of have a point as far as the damage to the environment which SSTs could do, but at the time of the anti-Concorde lobbying in the states, I seem to recall a lot of it was more about not liking 'those damn Brits and Frenchies' being ahead in the race to corner the market in building them. 

As it turns out, Florida may end up having the last laugh on the matter with that airport, presently there are a number of aerospace companies working on new SSTs. EADS is flirting with the idea once again, JAXA are actually working on one, LM are too, as are TsAGI. Moreover, there are several SST business aircraft under development as well, and those things have gotta take off and land somewhere. Most of those new ones are claimed to produce far less sonic booms and are more economical owing to engine advances and the use of composites in their construction.

I don't think the Pythons in the Everglades are a protected species. The state is actively  supporting hunting them.

They are African Pythons, I think, not a native species and from what I know they are causing havoc with the native critters.

15 hours ago, Stratocruiser1 said:

I don't think the Pythons in the Everglades are a protected species. The state is actively  supporting hunting them.

I thought they were too. I just saw a show a few weeks ago on the public TV network and from their report it seems that they only allow hunting and killing them outside the Everglades National Perserve which is another way of saying that very few are being killed. It appears that it is another one of those closely held little jokes that Washington DC and the enviornmentalist like to play on tax payers. You want likely hear much about it until they run out of dogs and wild pigs to eat. Once they expand their reach up north a bit to say Orlando and small kids start to disappear then you will hear more. I was surprised to hear that myself and I live in North West Florida.

12 hours ago, scianoir said:

They are African Pythons, I think, not a native species and from what I know they are causing havoc with the native critters.

I saw a Pic online where a python swallowed a large gator and it killed both of them. That is a mean snake that take on a full grown gator. LOL

I'm a second generation Miami native and lived there most of my life until the last 15 years. I remember the Jetport fight, and I don't recall anything about the SST. As I recall, it was purely an environmental issue that killed it. It's in the middle of  the frikkin' Everglades, at a time when the Big Cypress reserve was just being set up. It wasn't just about the airport, but the road, utilities and transit improvements that would have caused a heavy impact. There might have been native Indian issues too; the Miccosukee have some adjacent territory.

Before I moved away, I was in an astronomy club that used the Jetport site for dark sky observing. We'd haul our huge amateur telescopes out there on the access road just south of the airport around the artificial lakes used to build dry land for the airport. Dark skies for galaxy observing with the big Dobsonian scopes, and fewer mosquitoes than further south in the National Park. A few times, we'd get closed out when the site was used for military night maneuvers using the runway. Black helicopters, etc. Maybe it's still being used that way, it's been years since I've been out there.

 

Interesting stories guys. Thank you. 

The problem snakes are actually Burmese pythons. The National Park Service is actively trying to kill or capture these predators all throughout the Everglades National Park. The State of Florida also has periodic "kill programs". Here's an article that explains some of it:  http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/01/us/florida-burmese-python-hunt/index.html  .........Doug