Daytona Beach International Airport - Daytona Beach, Florida | Walkthrough

In late 1930 a 740-acre piece of land turned into the current airport, a few hundred feet from the main drag of Volusia Avenue (now International Speedway Blvd.) The first name it was given was Sholtz Field, after the then Governor of Florida, who was from Daytona Beach. The airport began with two gravel runways, one 1,800 feet long and one 2,100 feet. Before long the name became Daytona Beach Municipal Airport.

Eastern Air Lines began passenger service, flying Kingbirds and Condors. After a few years Eastern did not re-bid, after the airmail route changes of 1934. In 1935 National Airlines won a bid on the cross-state route from Daytona Beach to St. Petersburg. In 1933, the airport was closed for repairs. National rerouted its flights to Jacksonville but Eastern became upset and called National's move an act of "buccaneers". National Airlines then referred to its service as being the "Buccaneer Route".

When World War II broke out the US Navy took over and used the airport for training, calling it Naval Air Station Daytona Beach. An extensive military construction effort followed, to include multiple new buildings for NAS Daytona Beach, as well as the construction of Naval Outlying Fields which were built at Spruce Creek, New Smyrna Beach, Ormond Beach and Bunnell and that were shared with Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Naval Air Station Sanford and Naval Air Station DeLand.

Naval Air Station Daytona Beach conducted advanced training for Naval Aviators and enlisted Naval Aircrewmen of the US Navy and US Marine Corps in aircraft ranging from carrier-based single seat F6F Hellcat and F4U Corsair fighters to the multi-seat SB2C Helldiver dive bomber. At the end of the war, NAS Daytona Beach was decommissioned, and the auxiliary airfields were returned to the respective local governments for civil use as airports.

Many of the buildings constructed by the Navy were later used by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University after the university's move from Miami in 1965, while others were used by the city aviation department that later became the current aviation authority.