Kendall Tutors Come To You

Who could ever imagine an area in Florida that was originally referred to as the wild, wild, West — but that is just what the area of Kendall, Kendall West, and Kendall Lakes was once called because it was located inland about 10 miles West/Southwest of Miami. It was where the Miami Executive Airport, previously called the Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport until 2014, when it was originally constructed somewhere between 1944 and 1947. In 1955, one of the first aviation schools, Kendall Flying School, was created at the airport. The location of Miami Executive Airport was moved in 1967 because of the growth in population and the increased risk of landing. Following the relocation, the land lay vacant until 1955 when the vision of Florida International University emerged, officially opening in 1972. Today, the only reminder of the school and the former location of the Miami Executive Airport is a control tower, now called the Ivory Tower.

Miami Executive Airport became one of the state’s busiest airports in Florida, and is now also home to “Wings Over Miami,” a popular aviation museum housed in one of the airport’s hangar. Kermit Weeks, an aviation enthusiast, avid collector of aircraft, and promoter of aviation, as well as the restoration of vintage aircraft, became interested in developing the museum. In 1986, he placed his large collection of aircraft in the hangar for viewing by the community and originally named it “Weeks Air Museum.” Tragically, Weeks lost all but a few of his planes during Hurricane Andrew. However, the museum was rebuilt, and Weeks continued to add planes to the museum. Later he relocated his collection to 1300 acres of land in Polk County, Florida and renamed it “Fantasy of Flight,” which today includes the “World’s Greatest Aircraft Collection,” a collection of the permanent planes on display in the museum.

Leaving a void for the aviation enthusiasts of Miami for many years, finally a group of flyers came together and put together what is known today as “Wings Over Miami Air Museum.” While acquiring several aircraft from the Cold War era, including jets, military trainers, and vintage era aircraft their mission was to develop a museum that housed mostly aircraft that remained in good enough condition to fly. They wanted to create an active “flying” museum, and enlisted the assistance of Kermit Weeks to complete the facility. Visitors to the museum may also be interested to view the active renovation and maintenance of the planes going on at the museum.