As usual...🙂..., I got triggered for this post today by a couple of (apparently) dis-connected events (of place and plane). I visited a local mall this week, far from the (Chicago) suburb I live in (an unusual event itself). There were times a decade or so ago, pre-Covid, when I would often visit the (local) malls (those large enclosed (indoors) ones); in the early weekend mornings and especially in the dead of winter...🙂...carrying my Apple Watch and a Pedometer (you know, the devices that can calculate distance, steps, speed, duration and the gamut for your outing, with pre-programmed input of personal data such as stride length, height, and weight etc....which data, these devices are now probably storing in the Cloud...with or without my permission...🙂...) ...Oh well...The aforesaid mall visits were not driven by the need to purchase anything, but simply to take walks from one end of the mall to another, up and down the steps, in the climate-controlled comfort of passageways (and in the peaceful quiet of early morning hours). 

These days (aka as my grey hair is catching on...🙂...), those modern gadgets, I feel a hinderance to the pleasurable activities of walks and strolls, especially outdoors in the nature trails (should I rather watch the birds, bees, flowers, and squirrels and such...🙂...or monitor my steps, speed and heart rate etc....🙂...?), so, these devices have been discarded (or/and handed over to the younger generation...🙂...). Anyway, the mall I visited, has in its name the words "Old Orchard". You might know that the IATA (and the ICAO) Codes for O'Hare Airport (ORD), are derived from the word "Orchard", a peculiar choice (see below) that has stuck to the present day. IATA's 3-letter codes are used for passengers (like on Tickets and Luggage; so, I had wondered for a long time, why my Tickets and Tags said "ORD" (what's that?), instead of e.g., something like "CHI", the O'Hare airport being within limits of city of Chicago). The IATA codes are passenger-friendly often reflecting the airport or city name, whereas the ICAO (4-letter) codes are used for (official) ATC purposes, with its first letter denoting the geographical region (e.g., 'E' for northern Europe, 'L' for southern Europe, 'C' for Canada, and 'K' for Continental U.S. etc.). 

Take as an (excellent) example, the IATA Codes for the Airports near London in England: (1) Heathrow/LHR (2) Gatwick/LGW (3) Stansted/STN (4) Luton/LTN (5) London City/LCY. So, clearly, O'Hare/ORD is one of the (rare) major airports that deviates from this norm. CHI/Chicago or even OHR/O'Hare would have been (seemingly) more appropriate...🙂...Oh well...

Anyway, I learned that the "Old Orchard" Mall I visited this week has nothing to do with the "Orchard" from which O'Hare IATA code (ORD) is derived, though it led me to ponder about Orchard/ORD. The origin of the name "Orchard" for O'Hare goes back to 1887 when the local community was named Orchard Place (there you go, the connection between local township name and IATA Code...🙂...) when it became a stop for Wisconsin Central Railroad (a pioneering transportation enterprise in building up lines through the desolate and forested wilderness of the Great Lakes Region). See the screenshot #3 below, of an 1883 Newspaper Advertisement for Wisconsin Central Line, originating from up north in Minnesota, down through Wisconsin, and ending in the City of Chicago, with "Orchard Place" being one of the last stops before its terminus. It would have been nice to be a passenger on this line in especially the "PARLOR CARS" with "New and Elegant Sleeper Coaches"...🙂...through to Chicago...travelling the (then) wilderness and forested lands of the Great Lakes Region. So, O'Hare's IATA Code owes its origin to that railway line.

During WW II, driven by the lack of capacity of the original Chicago Municipal Airport (now the thriving Chicago Midway Airport, KMDW), O'Hare originated as Douglas Field Airport, been the manufacturing site for Douglas C-54 Skymasters, though the local community was (already) called Orchard Place. With Douglas company's departure at the end of WW II, it took the name of Orchard (Douglas) Airport and was assigned the IATA Code "ORD". A few years later, in 1949, the city renamed the facility O'Hare Airport in honor of a WW II ace and aviator, Edward O'Hare. 

"Edward "Butch" O'Hare died at the young age of 29 in action on November 26, 1943, over the Pacific Ocean, when his aircraft disappeared during a nighttime fighter mission near the Gilbert Islands. His plane was shot down, though it is unknown if a Japanese bomber or friendly fire was the cause, and his body and aircraft were never found. He was officially declared dead a year later. During that mission, O'Hare was leading one of the first nighttime fighter attacks from an aircraft carrier when his plane disappeared."

The O'Hare airport is now consistently rated among the top 5 or 6 busiest (global) airports of the world. Here is an interesting fact about ORD/O'Hare: Out of the top 6 busiest (civilian) airports of the world, Chicago O'Hare has the most runways of the lot: [ORD/8, ATL/5, DXB/2, LHR/2, HND/4, DFW/7]. So, that's the history of the airport that's so familiar to me from my 3-4 decades of (close) association with it as an active (air) traveler, domestic and international.

Regarding the choice of aircraft for today's flight, I came to know yesterday of the iniBuilds A350 Update v1.1.7 (from earlier v1.1.6). However, my Xbox/Marketplace (streamed) version still showed up today as v1.1.6 in my File Library (a bit unusual because normally iniBuilds is pretty prompt about making their Airbus updates automatically and simultaneously available in the Marketplace). So, this, here, is still the older v1.1.6 version A350 that you see in my images below (the variant being an A350-1000).

On FlightAware, I looked up for this week, a few of the A35K arrivals into O'Hare, and then wished to simulate the final (arrival) bit of the route that was completed this week, as part of the RW (long-haul) flight. So, here is my own (experimental) flight plan (see shots of the iniBuilds EFB Map, the ND Display Route, and the MSFS EFB Map), as I lift off from Runway 10L of O'Hare straight eastward over Lake Michigan to VOGLR fix (~25 miles out), then head to the RW "Reporting Waypoint" PAPPI. The other waypoints adapted from the decoded segments of the RW FlightAware Route are as follows: KORD/10L -> VOGLR -> [PAPPI/TUBEZ (Highland Park) -> VULCN (Glenview) -> KURKK (Palatine) ->BAMBB (Carpentersville)]. Note that I'm quite familiar with the suburbs and neighborhoods (indicated above) over which the RW A350 flew this week, on its arrival into O'Hare. For my flight, I've chosen to land on Runway KORD/10L via its ILS Approach with fixes (PRATT, CARLE, BUGSE). 

The A350-1000 performed nicely today on my Xbox system, providing a highly enjoyable (and conveniently brief) flight experience in my busy life today... (since, I now need to leave right away for the task of procuring a bottle of fresh, regularly pasteurized (organic) milk...🙂...for raising (probiotic) kefir cultures today...🙂...). My flight was conducted under the fully FMC "Managed" mode of lateral guidance, at steady 4,000 ft altitude, until capture of the LOC/GS signals of ILS Runway 10L (see flightdeck screenshots).

Hope you enjoy the collection of images of this (ultra-long-haul) A35K in the colors of British Airways, flying here at the command of your truly, on an extremely short route around (my hometown) ORD/O'Hare airport, the history of which I also got to explore (and learn) alongside, in some depth today.

It was a rewarding and fun exercise...as I next look forward to the v1.1.7 (iniBuilds) A350 revision...on my Xbox system.

Thanks for viewing...!

Edited November 22, 2025Nov 22 by P_7878

Beautys, thanks for sharing !

cheers 😉

5 hours ago, pmplayer said:

Beautys, thanks for sharing !

cheers 😉

Thanks very much for the comment, pmplayer.

Yes, indeed, it’s a beautiful (and big and sleek) airplane to fly…🙂…

It performs well on my Xbox system, though switching of views (for screenshots…🙂…) between external and internal cameras, is causing me some issues (not as smooth as their A340).

I especially like the powerful new format of the MCDU in the A350…almost feels like a multi-page (multi-TAB) XL Spreadsheet…🙂…I was working on earlier this week…a most refreshing change from the calculator-type MCDUs of the A320/A330/A340s that we have been used to for decades…🙂…

Cheers…!