NAVAL AIR STATION FORT LAUDERDALE MUSEUM
​National Register of Historic Places   .   A Florida Heritage Site  .  Home of Flight 19

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​Mission Statement:
Educating. Preserving. Honoring Heroes

National Register of Historic Places.  A Florida Heritage Site.
Our mission is to develop and maintain a national and internationally recognized naval aviation museum that educates young and old alike, to preserve history by honoring the memory of Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale and the men & women who defended freedom during World War II.

The Museum has been instrumental in preserving the memory of Flight 19, one of the great aviation mysteries. Flight 19 flew out of NAS Fort Lauderdale on 5 December 1945, to vanish into the Bermuda Triangle. In addition, 19 year old future US President George H. W. Bush lived at this base as an Ensign, to train as a torpedo/bomber pilot.  From October 1942 to October 1946 the base would train pilots and thousands of aircrewmen from the U.S and other countries. In December 1999, the building was relocated to its permanent site at 4000 West Perimeter Rd., 2 blocks west from its original location.

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On Exhibit

• Link Trainer Flight Simulator: historic mechanical & engineering landmark.
• Recreated Soldier's Barracks: The George Bush Room.
• 25x7 naval aviation mural signed by President George H.W. Bush, John McCain, RADM Moffit, and Medal of Honor Vietnam Gary Littrell.
• Original paintings, cartoons, lithographs, drawings, and photographs.
• "Broward Goes To War"  Exhibit:  the war years of 1941-1945.
• Flight 19: collection of letters, photos, artifacts, books, videos,  & displays.
• Vintage ship & aircraft models, WWII artifacts, teaching props, flight gear, ship plaques, medals, insignia, uniforms representing all branches of the military.
• Online-Only Exhibits: take a tour of our virtual exhibits.

• John Payne Memorial Library: 3,000+ volumes from military history, personal memoirs, war diaries, aviator log books, veteran's letters, cruise books, war postcard albums, magazines, and world war II newsletters.
• Photography collection: 10,000+ images of aircraft, ships, people, naval history, technical manuals, photos of artworks, and a military video library.
• Outdoor artifacts include WWII torpedoes from a submarine, and TBM/TBF Avenger, an anti-aircraft gun, and an anti-submarine Hedgehog.  
• Veterans History Project: WWI & WWII collection of Veteran's Stories.​
• Award winning Butterfly Garden with a Flight 19 memorial. 
• Take the 360 degree Google Video tour.

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Link Trainer Building #8 - An Historic Building

The NASFL Museum is also known as the Link Trainer Building #8. On May 20, 1998, prior to moving from its former address at 4050 SW 14th Avenue, this building was added to the U.S National Register of Historic Places, thanks to the efforts of Allan McElhiney a WWII sailor (founding father of this museum), and a small group of naval aviation and history enthusiasts, who in 1979 formed the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Historical Association. For many years they worked tirelessly and eventually they succeeded: the building was thus saved from demolition. Broward County Commissioner Lori Nance Parrish, was able to obtain a $200,000 grant from the U.S Transportation Department in 1999, and the building was moved to its present location at 4000 W. Perimeter Road. To accomplish the move at the end of 1999 and through the first days of the millennium, a crew had to cut the 300 ton building from the old foundation, jack it up hydraulically, and place it on a grid of steel beams supported by multiple tires. Before that, asbestos was removed from the building's walls and the frame was reinforced to code.

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You can download Power Point Presentation  -  For Education Purposes Only

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EDUCATING  .  PRESERVING  .  REMEMBERING HEROES
This Website was launched on August 3, 2010
Latest Update: August 22, 2020