An airport that aimed to clinch the top spot as the world’s largest would have welcomed in holidaying Brits-but it never saw the light of day.
The Everglades Jetport in Florida had grand ambitions of becoming a major transport hub with six runways, ready to host some of the globe’s speediest flights. This would have included the Boeing 2707, the United States’ response to the iconic Concorde, projected to reach scorching speeds of up to 1,800 miles per hour – dwarfing Concorde’s maximum velocity of 1,354 miles per hour.
Unveiled in 1968, the golden era of jet-setting, the colossal project aimed to accommodate the soaring number of tourists flocking to Florida tourist hotspots. Miami International Airport at the time was bustling with up to 10 million passengers annually.
The visionary masterplan positioned Everglades Jetport as a potential replacement for Miami Airport one day. With its sights set on becoming an unparalleled global aviation giant, plans depicted the airport to be a staggering six times the size of JFK Airport in its current state.
One newspaper report said: “The future development of Marco Island received a tremendous boost recently with the start of construction of a mammoth jetport, the biggest ever, anywhere just 48 miles away.”
To realize this dream, developers purchased around 26,000 acres of land, a vast undertaking when compared to Miami International Airport, which spans approximately 3,300 acres. Moreover, the ambitious plan included creating seamless links to the coastline through a newly proposed interstate highway and monorail system.
Claude R Kirk Jr, the Florida governor at the time, stated: “With our new supersonic jetport, South Florida is going to become a major gateway to Europe and a jumping-off place for the Pacific as well.”
Stuart Tipton, then president of Airlines for America, supported this by saying: “The recent action taken by the Dade County Port Authority to construct a new jetport makes certain that South Florida will be ready to play its part in the supersonic age.However, concerns were raved about the damage to the local environment which it claimed would “.
However, there were serious concerns about the potential environmental damage, with claims that it would “destroy the Everglades National Park”.
The estimated cost of the airport was around $2billion (£1.5billion), according to the New York Times, but construction halted in 1970 with only one runway completed.
This was followed by the cancellation of the Boeing 2707 project in 1971. The site has since been taken over by the Miami Dade Aviation Department and renamed the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.
The 10,000ft runway is now utilised by pilots for training purposes. Lonny Craven, the current manager of the airport, commented: “It was supposed to be the airport for tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, Croydon Airport, once the world’s largest, opened in 1920 and closed in 1958 following the redevelopment of London Gatwick. It has since been transformed into a museum.