Naval Air Station Melbourne (1942-1946)

Naval Air Station Melbourne was a United States Navy fighter training station that operated at the Melbourne airport in Brevard County from 1942 to 1946.

The Florida Division of Historical Resources marker placed in 2001 describes a 129-building station constructed at the Melbourne Municipal Airport at the beginning of World War II, commissioned as Operational Training Unit #2 on October 20, 1942 and closed on February 15, 1946. Its job, in the marker's words, was training newly commissioned Navy and Marine pilots.

The marker counts more than 2,200 pilots trained at NAS Melbourne in the Grumman F4F Wildcat and the F6F Hellcat, and says the Melbourne station served more than 310 officers and 1,355 enlisted personnel. The same field is now Melbourne Orlando International Airport, and the marker notes that the area is operated today by the City of Melbourne Airport Authority.

The Navy built its station on an existing civilian field, the Eau Gallie-Melbourne Municipal Airport, after Congressman Joe Hendricks pressed the Roosevelt administration to designate it a Naval Air Station.

The Museum of Florida History states that NAS Melbourne was commissioned in October 1942 on the site of the Eau Gallie-Melbourne Municipal Airport, and that as early as June 1940 the Civil Aeronautics Authority had authorized a Civilian Pilot Training facility at the field to provide standardized flight training. With the threat of war, the museum says, Congressman Joe Hendricks convinced the Roosevelt administration to designate the old Melbourne Airport a Naval Air Station.

The state marker supplies the exact commissioning date, October 20, 1942, when the Melbourne station became Operational Training Unit #2, and records that the Navy built 129 buildings at what the marker calls the Melbourne Municipal Airport.

Training at Melbourne was advanced flight training for Navy and Marine fighter pilots, in SNJ Texans, F4F Wildcats and F6F Hellcats.

The Museum of Florida History places the Melbourne base under the Naval Air Operational Training Command in Jacksonville. Peak activity came in mid-1944, when 150 Hellcats were in use and as many as 1,500 naval personnel were on base.

NAS Melbourne did not work alone. The Museum of Florida History places auxiliary fields at Malabar and Valkaria and notes that the Valkaria field served to launch and land airplanes in simulated aircraft carrier conditions. The U.S. Bureau of Aeronautics also tested engines and aircraft at the Melbourne station.

Training was dangerous. The state marker records that 63 of the pilots trained at Melbourne died in aerial accidents and two enlisted men died in ground-related accidents.

The Melbourne base population changed as the war went on, adding WAVES in 1944 and German prisoners of war in 1945.

The Museum of Florida History reports that WAVES, the Navy's women's reserve, were stationed at NAS Melbourne in 1944, and that in 1945 German prisoners of war were held at the station as laborers in the base laundry and mess facilities.

One wartime building is still standing at the airport. According to the Museum of Florida History, the base Ship's Service and Recreation Building survives as the one extant structure, and during the war it hosted basketball games, movies, dance parties and lectures for the Melbourne garrison.

When the Navy left in February 1946, the Museum of Florida History says, the Melbourne station reverted to the local municipality for civilian use, and the site now serves as the city's international airport.

The leftover Navy buildings housed the next chapter of Melbourne's economy. Radiation, Inc. records held in the Florida Institute of Technology archives in Melbourne note that the company, founded by Homer Denius and George Shaw in 1950, was first located in an old Naval building at the Melbourne Airport. The same archive description says that when Radiation merged with Harris-Intertype in 1967, the company had over 3,000 employees. The archive record adds that Radiation later added facilities in Palm Bay and Orlando as well as expansions throughout Melbourne, and that its work centered on PCM telemetry systems, digital data communications systems and tracking antennas, for clients that included Boeing, Northrop Grumman, RCA, General Electric and General Motors.

The airport is now overseen by the Melbourne Airport Authority. The airport's board page lists three Melbourne City Council representatives on the authority, among them Mayor Paul Alfrey, alongside members at large, a Melbourne Regional Chamber representative and an airport tenant representative.

The state marker record lists Naval Air Station Melbourne as a 2001 marker in Melbourne, Brevard County, but its online entry gives no street location.

For the site itself, the Museum of Florida History lists the airport at One Air Terminal Parkway in Melbourne and directs visitors east from I-95 at Exit 71 or Exit 72 to the airport complex, following signage to the terminal. The museum names the base Ship's Service and Recreation Building as the one extant wartime structure on the former Melbourne station.

The old Navy field is now a business hub. The airport's Land Development and Growth page lists notable tenants including Northrop Grumman, L3Harris, Rockwell Collins, Embraer and Dassault Falcon Jet.

Passenger service now uses the same Melbourne field where Hellcats once trained. The airport's airline page lists several daily nonstop flights to Charlotte on American and to Atlanta on Delta, twice-weekly Allegiant service to Pittsburgh, Allentown and Cincinnati, seasonal Sun Country flights to Minneapolis and St. Paul, and TUI flights from six United Kingdom airports, among them London Gatwick, Manchester and Glasgow.

Last verified: October 15, 2026, by re-reading the state's Naval Air Station Melbourne marker record, the Museum of Florida History's NAS Melbourne entry, the Radiation, Inc. collection record in Florida Tech's archives and two Melbourne Orlando International Airport pages.