When it comes to cities high on aviation, Pensacola is Top Gun. Not only is this northwest Florida beach town the place where all naval pilots train, it is home to the impressive National Naval Aviation Museum and the Blue Angels Naval aerobatics team. “Pensacola’s importance as the cradle of Naval aviation can’t be overstated,” said Blue Angel pilot Lt. C.J. Simonsen. Pensacola’s U.S. Naval Aviation Training Program produces more than 1,000 new pilots and flight officers each year as well as training Air Force Navigators and aviators from around the world. pullquote Pensacola owes its pivotal role in American aviation history to its famous warm climate and sunny skies. “Just three years after the Wright Brothers’ first flight, the Navy started experimenting with airplanes,” noted Pensacola historian and author John Appleyard. Cloudy skies and chilly temperatures in upstate New York and Annapolis, Md., sent would-be fliers searching for warmer climes, and Pensacola’s 1,000-acre Naval Yard, which dated to before the Civil War, was just the ticket. The navy had closed the facility in 1911, the same year it started flying. Aviation training began officially in January 1914, with seven airplanes and a handful of pilots. The rest, as they say, is history. Experience Pensacola’s high-flying history at the National Naval Aviation Museum, where more than 350,000 square feet of exhibits includes some 150 historic aircraft including World War I biplanes and rare planes like the NC-4, the first to cross the Atlantic. Try your hand at Top Gun Air Combat flight simulators, catch an IMAX