Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum
USS Intrepid is a historical aircraft carrier commissioned in 1943, one of 24 essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II. Since 1982 it houses the Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum, located in Pier 86 in Hudson River, on the west bank of Manhattan, near Hell's Kitchen and close to Midtown. It served USA during World War II and in the Vietnam war. She has visited historical places as Pearl Harbour in 1943, and Okinawa. It is one of the few aircraft carriers in the world that are open to public. Even the interior beneath deck has been converted into a museum, but I think it would be more interesting if they had kept more of the original interior. The captain's tower is comparatively authentic. The carrier is 266m long and can carry up to 100 aircrafts. Between 2006 and 2008 Intrepid was moved to Staten Island for reparations and renovation works. There are great views over Midtown Manhattan skyline and New Jersey from the upper decks of the museum.
We visited the musuem on a Friday, the day before the hurricane Irene was expected to hit New York, so it was a hectic day since we planned to take an early flight in the evening, to escape from the hurricane. It was also extremely hot and humid this day, and there were dark clouds on the sky.
USS Intrepid:
USS Intrepid was often called "The Fighting I" because of her prominent roles during battles. It participated in World War II and in Vietnam.
Intrepid was shipped to many places, for example San Francisco, Nova Scotia and Philadelphia. During reparations in 2006
In 1986, Intrepid was designated a National Historical Landmark.
She was an FBI operations center after the September 11 attacks in 2001.
From WWII to museum...
This Concorde, once operated by British Airways, stands just next to the carrier, as a part of the museum. Concorde was a supersonice airliner that entered service in 1976. It retired in 2003, 2 years after the fatal 2000 Paris accident. Before the accident it was known as the world's safest airliner. An interesting thing is that the first Concorde flight after the Paris accident was on September 11 2001, it landed just hours before the WTC attacks!
Only British Airways and Air France used Concorde, as it was a jointventure between UK and France. The 20 aircrafts flew from London and Paris to New York in just a few hours.
The Concordes used these kind of Rolls-Royce turbo engines.
Midtown skyline seen from underneath the wings of the supersonice Concorde.
Ugly highrises in commie block style on the New Jersey side, across Hudson River.
Luxury cruising ships sometimes stop in the harbour next to Intrepid.
Concorde in direction towards Midtown skyline, here dominated by One Worldwide Plaza. To the right is its RR engine.
USS Growler is a cruise missile submarine. It was the 4th US Navy ship to be named from the growler, a large-mouth black bass! It was laid down in 1955 and participated in the battle of Pearl Harbour, Hawaii.
Upper deck: Aircrafts and skyline views:
Captain's tower and upper deck seen from one of the elevator towers.
Aircraft and Hell's Kitchen skyline, dominated by Silver Towers.
Midtown Manhattan skyline.
Looking towards Empire State Building.
Skyscrapers around Times Square, tallest from the left: Marriott Marquis, One Astor Plaza, Bank of America Tower. In the near left you can see part of the Blackbird.
The black clouds above the skyline and airplanes, the day before the hurricane Irene was about to strike. We left earlier that day!
View towards mansions on hills at the New Jersey side, across Hudson River.
Blackbird, officially Lockhead A-12. It was part of the 1962 secret military program Project Oxcraft. This particular Blackbird served as a radar test example in Nevada.
Engines of the A-12.
West Midtown skyline including Time Warner Center and Hearst Tower. Note the curvy road ramp to the left, leading to the cruise ships.
Hell's Kitchen and Midtown skyline seen from underneath the wings of the Blackbird.
The escape from New York. Cars leaving New York, escape from the hurricane Irene, along West Side Highway. Or is it just normal rush hour?
Blue Angels Tiger.
An aggressive helicopter.
A Tiger plane.
Colourful aircrafts and tourists in front of a wealthy New Jersey suburb.
Captain's tower:
Captain's tower from upper deck.
Captain's view.
A school class, one of many that visited the museum.
Tourists visiting the captain tower.
Captain's sea cabin. The Spartan home of the captain.
Instruments used by the captain.
Underneath the deck, inside the museum:
In one of the lower decks, you can find the indoor part of the museum, featuring objects of air -and spacecrafts.
An helicopter on the indoor deck.
A model of how USS Intrepid looked during WWII...
...and in the Vietnam war.
An aircraft in the indoor deck.
A replica of a spacecraft engine.
The propeller of Intrepid.
These kind of wagons give signals for aircrafts during takeoff and landing.
Formerly Hangar 1.
The skybridges connect the elevator glass tower with the aircraft carrier.
Leaving Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. I didn't visit it in 1998, something I regret. So it was good to come back, even if we had to leave later the same day because of the threat from the hurricane Irene.