Naval Air Station Miami

Air Station Miami
Unit Patch CGAS Miami
Active	June 1932-present
Country	United States
Branch	United States Coast Guard
Type	Air Station
Role	Search and rescue, maritime patrol
Aircraft flown
Helicopter	MH-65C Dolphin
Patrol	HU-25D Guardian HC-144 Ocean Sentry

Coast Guard Air Station Miami is an Air Station of the United States Coast Guard located at Opa-locka Executive Airport in Opa-locka, Florida. The station operates the HU-25D Guardian and HC-144 Ocean Sentry maritime patrol aircraft and the MH-65C Dolphin helicopter.

The history of Coast Guard Air Station Miami began in the late 1920s when the city leased land to the United States Navy. Glenn H. Curtiss had been lobbying for the establishment of the Naval Reserve Base in Miami since 1928. This property became a Naval Reserve Aviation Training Base (NRATB).

In 1932 the U.S. Navy leased from the city of Miami what is today the west half of Opa-locka airport. On this land the Navy erected a dirigible mooring mast. The dirigible USS Akron stopped at this mast on both legs of its 1933 trip to the Panama Canal Zone, and departed the station less than two weeks before its fatal crash in April 1933. The base was one of the stops on the triangular Germany-Brazil-United States-Germany route of the Graf Zeppelin.

Amelia Earhart made her second attempt to circumnavigate the globe in 1937. The unpublicized flight began in Oakland, California and from there, Earhart flew to Miami, Florida, landing there on 23 May 1937. But a miscalculation by navigator Fred Noonan had Earhart land her Lockheed Electra at the wrong airport. She first landed at Eastern Air Lines 36th Street Airport, which was closed with no one in the control tower. Earhart took off once again and six minutes later landed at the Miami Municipal Airport. She stayed in Miami for a week or so studying her flight path. Miami was the last place of the continental U.S. that she visited before heading on to the rest of her ill-fated journey. The pair departed Miami on 1 July headed to Puerto Rico, the next immediate stop after Miami.