Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD) told us about Bernice “Bee” Haydu, one of the 1st women to fly for the U.S. military as a member of the WWII Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).
Happy Friday. We’re ending the week here at Stuck at The Airport with some tidbits that caught our attention, like this #TBT – “Throwback Thursday” – tweet from O’Hare International Airport
In 1955, O’Hare officially opens to commercial air traffic; the airport serves 176,902 passengers in its first year. Photo series on display in T3 (L Stinger) “Evolution of O’Hare” exhibit. #ORD#DidYouKnow#TBTpic.twitter.com/4yMP2tuNUT
All month long, we’re been paying attention to – and learning from – the tweets from St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL) highlighting the people featured on the airport’s Black Americans in Flight mural.
STL celebrates Black Americans in Flight during Black History Month. On this date in 1923, Tuskegee Airman Clarence "Lucky" Lester was born. His portrait is located in STL’s Black Americans in Flight mural. The artwork is also online at: https://t.co/wnrLroqfsopic.twitter.com/YjtSNJqKFQ
We’re sad we missed seeing this exhibit at Orlando International Airport (MCO).
Last days to visit the exhibit: “Twenty Years Bold: Wells’Built Museum of African American History & Culture” featuring artworks from the local museum, in celebration of Orlando’s African American Heritage. #BHM 🎨 Located at our Main Terminal, near Checkpoint for Gates 70-129 pic.twitter.com/vagBmtz7HB
And we’re impressed that Delta’s Flight Museum is being used as a mass vaccination site in Georgia.
Our Delta Flight Museum, which opened in 1941 as our first aircraft hangar, is taking on a new challenge as it now houses one of the largest vaccination sites in Georgia. pic.twitter.com/oOCCFHlY8B
Planted in 2011, ORD’s blissful garden is tucked into the mezzanine level of the Terminal 3 Rotunda Building, over the Concourse G corridor. The ORD Yoga Room is nearby. ‘
The garden uses no soil or fertilizer. And it looks nothing like your home garden.
Here, the plant roots are suspended in 26 towers that house over 1,100 planting spots. A solution of nutrients is cycled through the towers to feed the plants.
Getting hungry? You’re in luck. Super fresh vegetables and herbs picked from the ORD garden are used in dishes served at a variety of airport restaurants.
ATW now has its own Flex Farm hydroponic farming system to grow fresh greens for sandwiches and burgers served in the airport’s restaurant, the Fox Cities Eatery.
ATW expects to grow up to 300 pounds of fresh produce each year on its indoor farm.
Like the system at ORD, the hydroponic unit at Appleton International Airport uses only water, air, nutrients, and LED lighting to grow plants. No soil, pesticides or herbicides are used.
ATW’s farming project is a collaboration with Green Bay-based Fork Farms, an indoor agriculture technology company that partners with communities to make the process of producing healthy food accessible to the world.
We think this is a great airport amenity and hope other airports give this a try as well.
The “Channel Your Inner Chef” culinary competition is back for another year at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
The HMSHost-sponsored competition gives amateur cooks, culinary students and anyone with a great recipe a chance to show off their favorite dishes and win some great prizes – including having their recipe featured at a restaurant at O’Hare Airport.
To enter: make a two-minute video of yourself preparing your favorite recipe, then upload your video by February 20, 2018 at ChannelYourInnerChef.com.
Five finalists will be selected based on the recipe, presentation, form, and showmanship.
Those finalists will win a trip to Chicago to compete in a live cooking showdown in front of an audience and a panel of judges at O’Hare Terminal 2 on March 20, 2018.
During the timed cook-off finalists will be asked to create an original recipe with ingredients revealed at the event and the winning dish will be featured on the menu of an HMSHost-operated restaurant at O’Hare.
The grand prize winner will also receive two roundtrip airline tickets for a flight within the continental U.S. and a VIP trip for two to attend the James Beard Awards Gala on May 7, 2018 at Lyric Opera of Chicago.
At Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, a pop-up lounge just for kids (and their parents) is moving through the terminals.
Called the “Fly with Butch O’Hare” lounge, it’s described as a place to relax, take selfies, re-charge cell phones and devices and to learn about the Fly with Butch O’Hare mobile game the airport developed in collaboration with DeVry University.
First, who was Butch O’Hare? He’s the airport’s namesake, Edward “Butch” O’Hare – and this year marks the 75th anniversary of Butch O’Hare’s heroic actions in World War II, saving the aircraft carrier Lexington.
He was honored with the Navy’s first Medal of Honor, and in 1949 Chicago’s airport, Orchard Field was renamed Chicago O’Hare in his honor.
The lounge is outfitted with chairs and foot stools, cell phone charging stations, the airport code in 8 – f00t-tall letters, orange flooring and a miniature plane flying overhead with – you guessed it – Butch O’Hare.
There’s also an almost life-size cut-out of O’Hare and a plane – for selfies.
ORD is also giving out flat photos of Butch O’Hare (on a stick) in the lounge and at bins in the domestic terminals and encouraging passengers to pose with the flat Butch O’Hare while in the airport or and around the world and post their photos online with the hashtag #FlyWithButchOHare.
Looking for the lounge? It’s in Terminal 1, near Gate B12 through August 9 and then moving to Terminal 2, near Gate E1, from August 10 through 31.
And what about that Butch O’Hare game?
Updates on the progress of that project is on this Fly with Butch O’Hare page along with some airport trivia and a list of airport shops and restaurants offering discounts.
