Wheeler Army Airfield the first transpacific flight from California in 1927; the great Dole Air Race from California to Hawaii; the first transpacific flight from the U.S. to Australia in 1928, and the first Hawaii-to-Mainland solo flight in 1935 by Amelia Earhart. Ms. Earhart visited Wheeler Field in 1935 in her Lockheed Vega and in 1937 in her Lockheed Model 10 Electra. Kingsford Smith, in his plane, the "Southern Cross", also used the airfield on his historic flights across the Pacific. By 1940, Wheeler Field had evolved into a primary base for Army Air Corps pursuit (i.e., "fighter") aircraft such as the P-40
Amelia Earhart Park 1937 en route to San Juan, PR, and then south from there and across the Atlantic to Africa. Miami Municipal Airport was renamed Amelia Earhart Field in October 1947. When the Navy discontinued operations at Naval Air Station Miami the U. S. Marine Corps moved to the Navy property from Master's Field, another large airport on NW 27th Avenue, east of Amelia Earhart Field . Marine Corps Air Station Miami only operated a couple of years before the Marines shut it down. The federal government's General Services Administration was then charged with disposition of the property and they granted a