McCoy Air Force Base
McCoy Air Force Base
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| Part of Strategic Air Command | |
| Orlando, Florida | |
Boeing B-52D-40-BW Stratofortress, AF Serial No. 56-0687, on display at B-52 Memorial Park, Orlando International Airport, Florida (Ex-McCoy AFB). Photo taken 4 April 2003.
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 McCoy AFB
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| Coordinates | 28°25′46″N 081°18′32″W / 28.42944°N 81.30889°WCoordinates: 28°25′46″N 081°18′32″W / 28.42944°N 81.30889°W |
| Type | Air Force Base |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1940 |
| In use | 1940–1975 |
McCoy AFB (1940–1947, 1951–1975) is a former United States Air Force base located 10 miles (16 km) south of Orlando, Florida. It was a training base during World War II. After the war it became a Front-Line Strategic Air Command (SAC) base during the Vietnam War and the Cold War. It was Orlando's biggest employer and economic backbone prior to the opening of Walt Disney World in 1971.
With McCoy's closure as an active air force installation in 1975, the site was redeveloped and is known today as Orlando International Airport, which continues to carry the base's original FAA LID airport code of MCO (i.e., McCoy) and ICAO airport code of KMCO.
McCoy Air Force Base was named for Colonel Michael Norman Wright McCoy (1905–1957) on 7 May 1958. Col McCoy was killed on 9 October 1957 in the crash of a B-47 Stratojet (DB-47B-35-BW), AF Ser. No. 51-2177A, of the 447th Bomb Squadron, 321st Bomb Wing, which suffered wing failure northwest of downtown Orlando, Florida while taking part in a practice demonstration during the annual Strategic Air Command Bombing Navigation and Reconnaissance Competition at Pinecastle AFB, Florida. McCoy was the aircraft commander during the flight and the mishap aircraft was one of two at Pinecastle that had been modified to carry the GAM-63 RASCAL air-to-surface missile.
At the time of his death, McCoy was serving as the commander of the 321st Bombardment Wing, the host wing of Pinecastle AFB. A hugely popular figure in Central Florida, Colonel McCoy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in a funeral that included a flyover of multiple B-47s.
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