Orlando International Airport
Facts on MCO
MCO's airport code doesn't stand for 'Orlando' at all -- it's a holdover from McCoy Air Force Base, a Strategic Air Command installation named in 1958 for Colonel Michael Norman Wright McCoy, who had died in a B-47 bomber crash the previous year. When the base transitioned to civilian use and became Orlando International Airport in 1976, the IATA code MCO stuck.
Source: Wikipedia
MCO's honoree, Colonel Michael Norman Wright McCoy, commanded the 321st Bombardment Wing flying B-47 Stratojets at what was then Pinecastle Air Force Base. He died in 1958 when his B-47 crashed during the Strategic Air Command's annual Bombing and Navigation Competition, which his own base was hosting that year.
Source: Wikipedia
Pinecastle Air Force Base was renamed McCoy Air Force Base the year after the colonel's death. During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis it briefly hosted more than 120 fighter-bombers and the U-2 spy planes that photographed Cuba, before closing in 1975 and passing its initials, MCO, on to the civilian airport that replaced it.
Source: Wikipedia
At 11,605 acres, MCO is the fifth-largest airport in the United States by land area -- Wikipedia notes it has a larger footprint than John F. Kennedy International Airport, Miami International Airport, and London Heathrow combined.
Source: Wikipedia
MCO has a Hyatt Regency hotel built directly into its main terminal structure, so travelers can stay overnight without ever leaving security.
Source: Wikipedia
Two of Orlando's runways, 18L/36R and 18R/36L, were built to Air Force specifications sturdy enough for B-52 bombers -- which incidentally made them a designated emergency landing site for NASA's Space Shuttle, in case a return-to-launch-site abort from Kennedy Space Center fell short.
Source: Wikipedia
At 345 feet, Orlando International's air traffic control tower is North America's fourth-tallest, replacing two earlier Air Force and FAA towers on the site.
Source: Wikipedia
Emirates launched daily Dubai-to-Orlando service in September 2015 -- its first Florida route and MCO's first flights with the Airbus A380. The airline had courted the airport for five years beforehand, and the A380's dedicated three-jetbridge gate wasn't finished until three years after that inaugural flight.
Source: Wikipedia