Link Trainer Building | |
![]() | |
Location | Fort Lauderdale, Florida |
---|---|
Coordinates | 26°4′16″N80°9′34″W / 26.07111°N 80.15944°W Coordinates: 26°4′16″N80°9′34″W / 26.07111°N 80.15944°W |
NRHP reference No. | 98000454 [1] |
Added to NRHP | 20 May 1998 |
The Link Trainer Building (also known as the Fort Lauderdale USNAS Building #8 and currently the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum) is an historic structure in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. On May 20, 1998, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. [1]
The wood frame vernacular building was part of the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale (NAS Ft Lauderdale). It was used to train torpedo bomber pilots during World War II using Link Trainer flight simulators. As of 2018 [update] the building serves as the Naval Station Fort Lauderdale Museum.
It was built in 1942. It is a one-story, split-level, wood-frame vernacular building with wood walls and a tar and gravel roof that sat about 30 inches (76 cm) above the ground on a foundation of concrete piers. The exterior is composition siding. The flat roof is built up on top of wood tongue and groove decking supported by wood joists. It is covered with tar and gravel. The 3 foot (0.91 m) roof overhang has a large fascia and a metal drip edge. [2]
It is 114 feet (35 m) long and 41 feet (490 in) feet wide and is composed of two wings. The building has approximately 4,674 square feet (434.2 m2) of floor space. The entrance, between the two wings has a small equipment room above it. This "penthouse" rises above and separates the taller left wing from the right. The front and back have grouped 1/1 light sashes as does the side of the tall wing. The side of the shorter wing has a pair of fixed windows with a center pane and two three pane side lights. The main entrance has double doors with a diamond shaped light in each. The building has three entrances with wood steps. The wood floor is tongue and groove decking on wood joists. In 1998 the original surfaces and materials had been obscured by alterations and the building was disused. [2]
The building was located at 4050 Southwest 14th Avenue in the former NAS Ft Lauderdale where it had been designated, "Building #8. [2] At the end of 1999, the building, which weighs 300 short tons (270 metric tons), was cut from the old foundation and jacked up hydraulically to be moved out of the airport and to its current location at 4000 West Perimeter Road in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It remains on the grounds of the Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport. [3]
Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale was established on a civilian airport in 1942 to train torpedo bomber pilots for the Pacific theater in World War II. Training in the Link Trainer Building began on December 28, 1942. The air station made a significant contribution to the war effort with up to 3,600 personnel stationed there. The Link Trainers were early flight simulators used to teach "flying blind" or by instrument only. The student was in a dark compartment with instruments, gauges and controls. A linked map displayed the simulated results using a "bug". [2]
The building housed up to 6 Link Trainers which each student was trained on for four hours. Another four hours of video instruction was provided in Building #8. The aircraft they were training to fly was the Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bomber. Most airmen trained as NAS Fort Lauderdale were subsequently assigned to squadrons which flew the planes from aircraft carriers in the Pacific. Among them was the then 19 year–old Ensign George H. W. Bush, future United States President. [2]
The air station remained active for some time after the war until in 1948 it was declared surplus by the United States Navy. In stages the air station reverted to civilian control and ownership and Building #8 the Link Trainer Building became the property of Broward County. [2] From a peak of 110 naval buildings during the war the remaining structures dwindled through the years. In 1978 about ten remained, in 1989 there were five. By 1998 the Naval Surface Weapons Center building had been demolished leaving only the Link Trainer Building. [4] The NAS Fort Lauderdale had become the Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport. [2]
Vacant from 1945 to 1955 from then until 1980 it was leased for private offices. From 1981 to 1987 it was used as office space by consults involved in planning the expansion of the Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport. The Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Historical Association was active in fostering interest in the historic building and having it nominated to be added to the National Register of Historic Places. [2]
Founded in 1979 by WW II sailor Allan McElhiney the association first obtained a $10,000 grant from the City of Fort Lauderdale to restore the interior of the building. [4] In 1995 the Broward County Avaiation Department applied for a federal grant to restore and move the building. The grant became contingent on the building being listed as on the National Register of Historic Places. [5] Eventually a $200,000 grant from the United States Department of Transportation funding moving and refurbishing the building. [3]
Since being moved to its current location it has been operated as the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum. The museum now has one Link Trainer on display. It was obtained by the museum in 2007 and restored the following year. [6] The museum's displays include "The George Bush Room" a recreated soldier's barracks, "Broward Goes to War" and a memorial to Flight 19 a group Grumann Avengers flying out of NAS Fort Lauderdale whose disappearance is unexplained. [3]
Fort Lauderdale is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, 25 miles (40 km) north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and largest city in Broward County with a population of 182,760 as of the 2020 Census making it the tenth largest city in Florida. Fort Lauderdale is the second largest and one of three principal cities comprising the Miami metropolitan area with a population of 6,166,488.
Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport is a major public airport in Broward County, Florida, United States, and is one of three airports serving the Miami metropolitan area. The airport is off Interstate 595, Interstate 95, U.S. Route 1, Florida State Road A1A, and Florida State Road 5 bounded by the cities Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, and Dania Beach, 3 miles (5 km) southwest of downtown Fort Lauderdale and 21 miles (34 km) north of Miami.
Naval Air Station Glenview or NAS Glenview was an operational U.S. Naval Air Station from 1923 to 1995. Located in Glenview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, the air base primarily operated training aircraft as well as seaplanes on nearby Lake Michigan during World War II. Reconfigured as a Naval Air Reserve base following World War II, NAS Glenview supported Naval Air Reserve, Marine Air Reserve/4th Marine Aircraft Wing, and U.S. Army Reserve 244th Aviation Group as well as an active duty Coast Guard Air Station.
Flight 19 was the designation of a group of five General Motors TBM Avenger torpedo bombers that disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle on December 5, 1945, after losing contact during a United States Navy overwater navigation training flight from Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, Florida. All 14 airmen on the flight were lost, as were all 13 crew members of a Martin PBM Mariner flying boat that subsequently launched from Naval Air Station Banana River to search for Flight 19.
The term Link Trainer, also known as the "Blue box" and "Pilot Trainer" is commonly used to refer to a series of flight simulators produced between the early 1930s and early 1950s by Link Aviation Devices, founded and headed by Ed Link, based on technology he pioneered in 1929 at his family's business in Binghamton, New York. During World War II, they were used as a key pilot training aid by almost every combatant nation.
Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, formerly Naval Auxiliary Air Station (NAAS) Miramar and Naval Air Station (NAS) Miramar, is a United States Marine Corps installation that is home to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, which is the aviation element of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. It is located in Miramar, San Diego, California, about 14 miles (23 km) north of Downtown San Diego.
Naval Air Station Pensacola or NAS Pensacola, "The Cradle of Naval Aviation", is a United States Navy base located next to Warrington, Florida, a community southwest of the Pensacola city limits. It is best known as the initial primary training base for all U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard officers pursuing designation as naval aviators and naval flight officers, the advanced training base for most naval flight officers, and as the home base for the United States Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the precision-flying team known as the Blue Angels.
Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport is a joint civil-military airport located in Miami-Dade County, Florida 11 mi (18 km) north of downtown Miami. Part of the airport is in the city limits of Opa-locka. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 called it a general aviation reliever airport.
Naval Air Station Key West, is a naval air station and military airport located on Boca Chica Key, four miles (6 km) east of the central business district of Key West, Florida, United States.
Sanford Seacoast Regional Airport is a public airport located four miles (6 km) southeast of the central business district of Sanford, a town in York County, Maine, United States. The airport operated as Naval Auxiliary Air Facility Sanford supporting operations of Naval Air Station Brunswick from 15 April 1943 until 1 February 1946. This airport is now publicly owned by the City of Sanford.
The history of Fort Lauderdale, Florida began more than 4,000 years ago with the arrival of the first aboriginal natives, and later with the Tequesta Indians, who inhabited the area for more than a thousand years. Though control of the area changed among Spain, England, the United States, and the Confederate States of America, it remained largely undeveloped until the 20th century. The first settlement in the area was the site of a massacre at the beginning of the Second Seminole War, an event which precipitated the abandonment of the settlement and set back development in the area by over 50 years. The first United States stockade named Fort Lauderdale was built in 1838, and subsequently was a site of fighting during the Second Seminole War. The fort was abandoned in 1842, after the end of the war, and the area remained virtually unpopulated until the 1890s.
Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale was an airfield of the United States Navy just outside Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
DeLand Municipal Airport, also known as Sidney H. Taylor Field, is a city-owned public-use airport located three nautical miles (5 km) northeast of the central business district of DeLand, a city in Volusia County, Florida, United States.
Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay or MCAS Kaneohe Bay is a United States Marine Corps airfield located within the Marine Corps Base Hawaii complex, formerly known as Marine Corps Air Facility (MCAF) Kaneohe Bay or Naval Air Station (NAS) Kaneohe Bay. It is located two miles northeast of the central business district of Kaneohe, in Honolulu County, Hawaii, United States. The airfield has one runway (4/22) with a 7,771 x 200 ft asphalt surface.
Naval Air Station Squantum was an active naval aviation facility during 1917 and from 1923 until 1953. The original civilian airfield that preceded it, the Harvard Aviation Field, dates back to 1910. The base was sited on Squantum Point in the city of Quincy, Massachusetts. It also abutted Dorchester Bay, Quincy Bay, and the Neponset River.
Ottumwa Regional Airport, formerly Ottumwa Industrial Airport, is six miles northwest of Ottumwa, in Wapello County, Iowa. The airport is owned by the City of Ottumwa and is operated by the Airport Advisory Board. It is listed as a general aviation airport in the National Plan of Integrated Airport System (NPIAS) and as an Enhanced Service Airport in the Iowa Aviation System Plan.
Naval Air Station DeLand was a United States Naval Air Station located in DeLand, Florida from 1942 to 1946. After the war, the airfield and associated infrastructure was redeveloped into DeLand Municipal Airport.
Naval Air Station Chase Field is a former naval air station located in Beeville, Texas. It was named for Lieutenant Commander Nathan Brown Chase, Naval Aviator #37, who died in 1925 while developing carrier landing techniques for the U.S. Navy.
Naval Air Station Wildwood was a United States Navy airport located in Lower Township, Cape May County, New Jersey, United States, about 4 miles (6.4 km) northwest of the central business district of Wildwood, a city in the same county. Former Hangar #1 now contains the Naval Air Station Wildwood Aviation Museum, whose collection focuses on World War II.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires |journal=
(help) "Accompanying 14 photos, from 1996" (pdf). National Register of Historic Places Inventory.![]() | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Link Trainer Building . |