Boca Life

Boca Raton Airport Opens Public Viewing Platform, With Flight Audio and A Perfect View

by
Daniel Nee
January 30, 2025

South Florida is dotted with myriad spaces for great bird spotting. But starting this week, Boca Raton Airport has joined a number of facilities around the country in opening a place to view a different kind of bird – as well as a journey through the city’s vibrant history in aviation.

A viewing platform at Boca Raton Airport opened this week off NW 8th Avenue, next door to the airport’s administration office. It is found at the end of a long driveway near Florida Atlantic University’s research campus, just yards away from the runway, which is secured behind a fence. The viewing platform is more than just a slab of concrete next to a runway; speakers that are integrated into the lush vegetation emit audio between controllers and pilots as they approach and depart the airport. Chances are, the pilot’s voice heard on the radio will be seated in a plane that will be taking off or landing a few minutes later. The tower sits to the south.

The new viewing platform at Boca Raton Airport opened Jan. 29, 2025. (Photo: Boca Daily News)

“It was a beautiful day out there today,” city Councilwoman Fran Nachlas said at a meeting Tuesday night, hours after she attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the platform, which will be open 24 hours to accommodate all types of airport photography. “Go check it out, it’s open all the time.”

By Wednesday, word had gotten out, and a number of self-proclaimed “aviation geeks” and photographers were spotting their first aircraft float past. In a span of just 15 minutes, planes ranging from a large Bombardier Challenger, to a Dassault Falcon, to the humble Cessna 172 trainer all graced onlookers. The site is elevated from the ground by about four feet, contains a sun shield, and the Bose speakers that provide stunningly-clear audio of the communication transmissions of the flights. Display boards around the platform show historic photos of the airport, a list of the most common planes that visitors might see, and descriptions of the airport’s history as a crucial military facility that carved out its place in aviation history.

Work on the platform began over the summer. The airport awarded the construction contract to build the observation area to Recreational Design & Construction, Inc. (RDC) in Fort Lauderdale. The project was funded by a $900,000 federal grant.

“The observation area will be a place where people of all ages can come and enjoy seeing planes take off at a close, safe distance,” said Boca Raton Airport Authority Executive Director Clara Bennett. “The airport understands the importance of community and that is why we are excited to provide this area that will educate, inspire, and create memorable experiences.”

The new viewing platform at Boca Raton Airport opened Jan. 29, 2025. (Photo: Boca Daily News)

Boca Raton Airport is unique in that it largely operates as an executive airport, but contains a U.S. Customs facility to process incoming flights from abroad. The site where the airport stands today began its life as a primitive air field in 1936. By 1941, Boca Raton sold land to the federal government to establish Boca Raton Army Air Field, which was created in response to worries over threats from the Axis powers. Some of the land was also seized through eminent domain in the run-up to World War II.

The airfield hosted the Army Air Forces Eastern Technical Training Command and the Air Technical Service Command during the war. Many of the facilities were purpose-built to house a radar training base, pioneering the use of radar guidance in aviation. But its primary duty once combat operations began shifted to anti-submarine warfare, hosting A-29 Hudson, B-34 Lexington and Lockheed B-37 tactical bombers that could patrol the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, and serve as a base for patrols that would extend up and down the eastern seaboard.

During the war, tt was also common to see heavy bombers such as the B-17 Flying Fortress, B-24 Liberator, B-25 Mitchell, and B-26 Marauder practicing bomb runs over the airfield, while radar operators with top secret security clearances practiced tracking and targeting them with new radar technology.

The new viewing platform at Boca Raton Airport opened Jan. 29, 2025. (Photo: Boca Daily News)

After the war, the airfield became an “auxiliary airfield” for training purposes as activity was dramatically scaled back. During the Cold War, the air field was used as a research site for fungus-based biological weapons to counter those employed by the Soviet Union. By 1959, the use of the air field as a military facility was no longer required, and the land was turned back over the city for use as a civilian airport, with 1,000 acres set aside for aviation research by universities.

Portions of the former taxiway that were once utilized by some of the military’s most legendary aircraft now comprise auxiliary parking for nearby FAU Stadium.

The customs facility at the airport opened in 2018 as private and “air taxi” international travel grew in popularity. The airport now handles 81,550 aircraft operations per year, an average of 223 per day.