History
Opened in 1928 as the Orlando Municipal Airport, the airport was the first commercial airport in central Florida. The United States Postal Service started airmail service to Orlando the following year.
The United States Army Air Corps took control of the airport in 1940 for use as a training facility and renamed it the Orlando Army Air Base. For the next six years, the airport remained under military control. In June 1941, the Army Air Corps became the United States Army Air Forces and beginning in late 1941 through mid-1943, Orlando Army Air Base was used by I Bomber Command and later by units of the Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command (AAFAC) to fly antisubmarine patrols along both the east coast as well as over the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Straits.
With the lessening of the U-Boat threat, Orlando AAB became the home of the Army Air Force School of Applied Tactics (AAFSAT) and subsequently as the Army Air Forces Tactical Center (AAFTC).
In 1943, the AAFSAT began training units in Night Fighter operations. the 481st Night Fighter Group was established, equipped with the Douglas P-70, a variation of the A-20 Havoc attack aircraft used for training. Squadrons attached to the group in 1943 and 1944 were the 348th, 349th, 420th, 423d, 425th, 426th and 427th Night Fighter Squadrons, which, after completion of training were sent overseas to either the Pacific or European Theaters for combat.
In 1946, the airfield was released back to the city of Orlando, while the military support facilities to the north and northeast of the airport remained under US Army Air Forces control as a non-flying administrative and technical training installation. With the establishment of the United States Air Force as a separate service in 1947, this installation was renamed Orlando Air Force Base, serving as a technical training facility for the Air Training Command and Tactical Air Command, and as a headquarters installation for the Military Air Transport Service (later Military Airlift Command) and the Air Rescue Service. In 1968, the installation was transferred to the United States Navy and renamed Naval Training Center Orlando. The installation served as one of three Navy enlisted recruit training centers (boot camps) and as home to various technical training schools, to include the Navy Nuclear Power School for officer and enlisted personnel. The 1993 Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC 1993) directed that NTC Orlando be closed no later than 1 October 1999. The base property was sold to the City of Orlando, which in turn sold it to private developers. Most of the installation was demolished and residential and commercial properties developed on the site, renamed Baldwin Park.
In 1946, commercial service with National Airlines and Eastern Air Lines began at the now civilian Orlando Municipal Airport. Just five years later, the airport built its main terminal, a two-story structure with a built-in control tower; this terminal building stood until late 1999. The April 1957 OAG shows 20 scheduled weekday departures: 14 Eastern and 6 National. Eastern had a nonstop to Atlanta; no other nonstop flights left the state.
By the early 1960s it became apparent that development around the airport made airport expansion unlikely. The airport's 6000 foot main runway wasn't long enough for the first generation of commercial jet airliners such as the Boeing 707, Douglas DC-8 and Convair 880, so the city and county lobbied the U.S. Air Force to investigate converting McCoy Air Force Base, a Strategic Air Command (SAC) bomber base about eight miles to the south, to a joint civil-military airport with commercial jet operations on undeveloped land on the east side of the base and military operations on the west side.
In 1961 the airport was renamed again, this time called the Herndon Airport after former Orlando city engineer "Pat" Herndon, the name change being in preparation for moving commercial air service to the new Orlando Jetport at McCoy that was to be collocated at McCoy AFB, the facility which is known today as the Orlando International Airport. By 1968 commercial airlines no longer served Herndon and it became a general aviation and corporate flight facility.
In 1976 the City of Orlando ceded control of the airport and transferred the property, its former City of Orlando Aviation Department, and all operational responsibilities to the newly-established Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA), chartered by the Florida State Legislature to operate and manage all publicly-owned airports in Orange County, Florida. GOAA renamed the airport as Orlando Executive Airport in 1982 and in 1998 renamed it again to its present name of Executive Airport.
Read more about this topic: Orlando Executive Airport
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