New Year's Eve at the Aluminum Aviary

It's been sort of a tradition for me to try to catch a ship on New Year's Eve.  I like to call it my last ship of the year because it most certainly will be.  However, it was pretty nasty on Lake Superior and Lake Huron and that meant that there weren't any ships passing Detroit or Port Huron yesterday.  I wanted to get pictures of something, so I headed over to the airport.

 First up was a 757 from Fort Lauderdale.

 As you know, the 757 is my favorite plane, so I was happy to catch one.

 Another angle of it.

 And one more.

 It was soon followed by another 757.

 This one was coming in from the Florida land of the mouse, Orlando.

 Orlando Airport was founded in 1942 as Orlando Army Air Field #2 as an auxiliary to the main Orlando Air Base.  In 1943, it was renamed Pinecastle Army Airfield and was briefly used to test the Bell X-1 program before it was moved to Muroc.  In 1947, the airfield was placed in caretaker status until the Korean War when it was activated as a Strategic Air Command Base and named Pinecastle Airbase.  during that time it was used by B-47s and KC-97s.  B-52s flew out of there for a time.  It was used as the primary base for the U-2 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  It was named McCoy in 1959.   In 1975, it was closed as a SAC base but still used by some military units.  In 1981, it was opened as Orlando International Airport.   At one time, it was designated as a Space Shuttle emergency landing spot.  In 2017, it surpassed Miami to become the busiest airport in Florida.

 An A320 coming in from LaGuardia.

 It was followed by a Southwest 737 from Baltimore.

 An A321 arriving from Palm Beach.

 And this Spirit Airlines A320 was arriving from Orlando.

 What would have been my last plane of the year was another 757.

 It was coming in from Tampa.

 A side shot.

I had to stick around for this E175 from American Airlines because I like the livery.  It was also arriving from LaGuardia.