Florida's Air and Space History
From Amelia Earhart’s twin-engined airplane to NASA’s solid-fuel rockets, Florida history is full of flying machines.
This guide chronicles Florida’s aerospace history from the early 20th century through the present.
Materials are generally available through interlibrary loan from the circulating collection of the State Library.
Links within the bibliographies take you to information in our State Library catalog or to more information on external sites.
Aviation
- Brown, Warren J. Florida’s Aviation History: The First One Hundred Years. 2nd ed. Largo, FL: Aero-Medical Consultants, 1994.
- Craft, Stephen G. Embry-Riddle at War: Aviation Training During World War II. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2009.
- Daniel Guggenheim Foundation. “Leaflet Dropped by the ‘Spirit of St. Louis’ by Charles Lindbergh.” Florida Memory. Florida Division of Library and Information Services.
- Dunbar, Carl O. (Carl Owen), and Peter M. Dunbar. Before They Were the Black Sheep: Marine Fighting Squadron VMF-214 and the Battle for the Solomon Islands. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2011.
- Florida Aviation Historical Society. Florida Aviation Historical Society News. Indian Rocks Beach, FL: Florida Aviation Historical Society, 1980.
- Greenhaw, Thomas D. “Defending America by Aiding the Allies: British Student Pilots at Arcadia and Clewiston, 1941-1945.” Florida Historical Quarterly 74.2 (1995): 154–165.
- Hickman, Patrick M., E. Earle Rogers, and Edward L. Byrnes, eds. National Museum of Naval Aviation: The Aircraft Collection. Pensacola, FL: National Museum of Naval Aviation, 2002.
- Homan, Lynn M., and Thomas Reilly. Wings Over Florida. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 1999.
- Largent, Willard. RAF Wings Over Florida: Memories of World War II British Air Cadets. Ed. Tod Roberts. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2000.
- McCarthy, Kevin. Aviation in Florida. Sarasota, FL: Pineapple Press, 2003.
- Murphy, Leo F. Flying Machines Over Pensacola: An Early Aviation History From 1909 to 1929. Gulf Breeze, FL: Pensacola Bay Flying Machines, 2003.
- Schene, Michael G. “Ballooning in the Second Seminole War.” Florida Historical Quarterly 55.4 (1977): 480–482.
- State Archives of Florida. “Dale Mabry Field: From Army Air Base to College Campus, 1929-1948.” Florida Memory. Florida Division of Library and Information Services.
- State Archives of Florida. “Florida Flights of Fancy.” Florida Memory. 22 Oct. 2015.
- Williamson, Steven A. MacDill Air Force Base. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2011.
Space exploration
- Benson, Charles D., and William Barnaby Faherty. Moonport: A History of Apollo Launch Facilities and Operations. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1978.
- Bizony, Piers. The Space Shuttle: Celebrating Thirty Years of NASA’s First Space Plane. Minneapolis, MN: Zenith Press, 2011.
- Dean, Margaret Lazarus. Leaving Orbit: Notes From the Last Days of American Spaceflight. Minneapolis, MN: Graywolf Press, 2015.
- Dick, Steven J. et al., eds. America in Space: NASA’s First Fifty Years. New York, NY: Abrams, 2007.
- Faherty, William Barnaby. Florida’s Space Coast: The Impact of NASA on the Sunshine State. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2002.
- Hitt, David, and Heather R. Smith. Bold They Rise: The Space Shuttle Early Years, 1972-1986. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2014.
- Homan, Lynn M., and Thomas Reilly. Historic Journeys Into Space. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2000.
- Lipartito, Kenneth, and Orville R. Butler. A History of the Kennedy Space Center. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2007.
- National Park Service. Prospectus for a Visitor Services Program at the John F. Kennedy Space Center, NASA. Merritt Island, FL: National Park Service, 1965.
- Nolen, Stephanie. Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race. New York, NY: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003.
- Paul, Richard, and Steven Moss. We Could Not Fail: The First African Americans in the Space Program. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2015.
- “Special Issue: Celebrating 50th Anniversary NASA in Florida (1958-2008).” Florida Historical Quarterly 87.2 (2008).
- Spencer, Donald D. Cape Canaveral: America’s Spaceport. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2010.
- State Archives of Florida. “NASA and the Space Program Change Florida.” Florida Memory. Florida Division of Library and Information Services.
- State Archives of Florida. “NASA Turns 50: Florida’s Half Century on the Space Age Frontier.” Florida Memory. Florida Division of Library and Information Services.
