Taxi2Gate has recently released their second scenery for Microsoft Flight Simulator: a rendition of Orlando International Airport (KMCO), the busiest airport in Florida and seventh in the United States with a yearly average of 50 million passengers.

Orlando International started its life as Orlando Army Air Field #2 in 1942, an auxiliary field to the Orlando Army Air Base, now known as Orlando Executive Airport. Although very briefly, it was used for aircraft testing right after the war. 

The Korean War saw its return as a strategic air command facility, housing B-47 Stratojets and KC-97 Stratofreighters. Then, during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, it became a temporary FOB for fighter bombers and reconnaissance aircraft flying over Cuba. 

Between 1974 and 1975, control of the airport was given to the FAA, where it finally became a civil-only airport. Previously, it was a joint civil-military airport, which was back then a model for other civil joint-military airports in operation (some are still operating today). After that agreement, in 1961, many airlines shifted their operation from the old Herndon Airport to Orlando International. 

The opening of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in 1971 transformed Orlando into a major tourist destination, attracting traffic from all over, be it nationwide, South America, Asia, and Europe. 

In 1978, they started constructing the current Landside terminal and two airside on the west side of the terminal, which reached completion in 1981. The original international concourse opened in 1984, and Airside 4 was finished in 1990 with a new International concourse. Arside 2, completing the North Terminal complex, reached its completion in 2000.

The airport has 93 gates, divided between three terminals: A, B, and C, with two airside each on A and B. 

It’s a hub for Silver Airways and a focus city for Avelo Airlines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue, Southwest Airlines, and Spirit. Southwest leads the passenger market share with 23.54% of the yearly figures, followed by Spirit, Delta, and Frontier with 15.85%, 14.05%, and 13.06%, respectively.

The scenery features an accurate rendition of the airport, with custom ground textures, custom photoscenery, a detailed custom mesh, full-detail buildings, numerous static objects, fencing, an up-to-date AFCAD, dynamic night lighting, PBR texturing, and more. The developers recommend turning off photogrammetry to avoid terraforming issues on bridges.

It’s available on SimMarket for roughly $25.77, requiring at least 2.35 GB of free hard disk space to install.

Stay tuned to Threshold for more flight simulation news!

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