North Perry Airport (IATA: HWO, ICAO: KHWO, FAA LID: HWO) is a public airport in the City of Pembroke Pines, 5 miles (8 km) west of the central business district of Hollywood, in Broward County, Florida, United States. It is also known as Hollywood North Perry Airport, hence the HWO codes. The airport is owned by the Broward County Aviation Department. It is a general aviation airport devoted to private and business light aircraft activity.
In 1943, Henry D. Perry, a dairy farmer, sold 640 acres (259 ha) of land to the United States Navy for a flight training field between Hollywood Boulevard and Pembroke Road. It became known as North Perry Field, and functioned as an auxiliary training facility for the main naval air station known as NAS Miami. There also was South Perry Field, which was located to the southeast of North Perry (the Florida Turnpike runs right through this area today). South Perry was a grass field (no facilities/structures) that was only intended to be for North Perry overflow.
North Perry remained inactive after the war, until 1950 when it was acquired by Broward County to become a civilian airport. It was then upgraded for use by small aircraft, as a station for advertising blimps, and for United States Coast Guard helicopters practicing search and rescue skills. In the 1970s, the U.S. Army Reserve established an Army Aviation Support Facility (AASF) at the airport, making it a joint civil-military airport. AASF North Perry hosted the 347th Medical Detachment (RA) of the Army Reserve, an air ambulance unit flying the UH-1 Iroquois helicopter, also known as the "Huey." In 1990, the unit was mobilized to active duty and forward deployed to Southwest Asia in support of Operation DESERT SHIELD and Operation DESERT STORM. Returning in 1991, the unit and AASF North Perry were disestablished in 1997 when the Army Reserve temporarily opted to withdraw from Army Aviation and relinquish all Army Aviation missions to the Army National Guard. The Army Reserve later reversed course and retained aviation units but did not reactivate the 347th MED DET (RA). One of the unit's helicopters, a UH-1V, Army Serial Number 68-13168, is currently in the collection of the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum at Space Coast Regional Airport in Titusville, Florida while the AASF facilities were released to North Perry Airport for conversion to civilian use.
Without doubt North Perry offers the finest flight training site in South Florida.
