Points of interest in New York

[kamaz]

I'm going to New York next week. Are there any (aero-)space related things worth a visit?

 

[Scav]

I wonder if the Intrepid museum is back up and running.

 

[Zatnikitelman]

If Intrepid is open (I didn't hear that it had closed!) it's worth a visit particularly with Enterprise there now. It's on the westside of New York City along the Hudson, easily reachable from a bus and short walk. My personal opinion is that it's not the best museum, but it's worth at least one visit.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

The Enterprise and its housing were badly damaged during Hurricane Sandy a few years ago. I think the Intrepid Museum itself is open, but I'm not sure if the Enterprise exhibit has been repaired.

EDIT: The website http://www.intrepidmuseum.org/ says that the exhibit reopened in July 2013 :thumbup:

I was in New York the day after Capt. Sullenburger ditched the Airbus in the Hudson, got to see the recovery on the lower west side of Manhattan. Horrifying to see the wreckage but it was wonderful to be in New York with everyone rejoicing the miracle that everyone survived.

 

[boogabooga]

http://www.amnh.org/

I hear that the director of the planetarium there is kind of popular.

 

[Eccentrus]

IDK anything about the spacy things aside from the Hayden Planetarium there, but on the cultural side of things, I would definitely visit the Blue Note as well as watch a show in Broadway.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Murray's Bagels on 6th AV 13th Street - they're out of this world! (Ba dum tssshhh!)

 

[kamaz]

I'm back from the trip and I thought I'd post some pictures.

We've flown from Warsaw on LOT's 787 Dreamliner. We were actually supposed to fly via Frankfurt on Lufthansa's A380, but LH pilots went on strike. We've had tickets to Broadway and Met Opera, so we went with LOT instead... And I'm still waiting for LH to refund the tickets. Sent them a nice complaint last week.

Anyway, here is the 787 still in Warsaw airport. These wings really bend up when it's flying:

Didn't take the picture of the interior, so here is one from the Internet:

Nice plane overall, silent, and the color-changing windows are immensely cool.

The Intrepid museum. We've started with the Concorde:

Concorde interior. You can sit inside for an extra $20 per person (used to cost $8000 when the thing was still flying). The seats are very comfortable:

They show you also the cockpit, but I forgot to take a picture. So, here it is in its 4000px glory from Wikipedia (different plane though):

(You understand why I forgot to take a picture?)

Blackbird. This is actually the second one I saw. The first one is in L.A., except that for some reason the one in L.A. is polished to bare metal, while the one in N.Y. has the famous black paint:

Two Israelis:

Two Polish accents. The first one is Mig-19, North Korean paint, but produced in Poland:

And Mig-21, Polish paint:

Let's go to space now. Shuttle. I never realized that this thing was so huge:

Mercury capsule model. Wait. You're saying Gordon Cooper spent 34 hours in this can?

Soyuz capsule. Compared to Shuttle (especially with Skylab) this cabin is really tiny:

Yes, that's a model of Intrepid made of legos:

As for the carrier itself, I was a little underwhelmed. USS Midway in San Diego in my opinion is much better, because inside they have recreated first day of the Gulf War I, maps, radar images, pilot rooms and all. Plus, aircraft have mounted missiles, guns etc.

V-22 Osprey flying over NY harbor -- not sure if USMC routinely flies circles above the Statue of Liberty, or I was just lucky:

The saddest aviation-related thing, the WTC memorial. You actually have to go through an airport-style security to get in, which makes the experience a little weird:

Yours truly:

 

[Quick_Nick]

Let's go to space now. Shuttle. I never realized that this thing was so huge

Huge? Sounds like your next stop should be a Saturn V! (JSC and KSC are the only places I know to see them though)

 

[Zatnikitelman]

There's also a Saturn V in Huntsville, Alabama. The real one is in a building horizontally like at KSC, but they have a full-scale model outside mounted vertically you can walk under!

 

[Codz]

Yeah, when I saw Endeavour at KSC, I was also rather impressed by the sheer size of the thing.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Blackbird. This is actually the second one I saw. The first one is in L.A., except that for some reason the one in L.A. is polished to bare metal, while the one in N.Y. has the famous black paint:

The aircraft that you saw in LA and on the Intrepid are actually A-12s, not SR-71s. They are earlier variants with similar airframes.

Let's go to space now. Shuttle. I never realized that this thing was so huge:

I just saw the Discovery at Udvar-Hazy in Chantilly VA - it is surprisingly large. But relative to an aircraft of the same size the shuttle is much lighter. The structure is more volume than mass.

It is something to see the Discovery with its scorched tiles. It is probably in the cleanest possible condition, but it sure looks used. It's the way spacecraft should look, IMHO.

Mercury capsule model. Wait. You're saying Gordon Cooper spent 34 hours in this can?

They have the Gemini VII capsule at Udvar-Hazy. Try 2 astronauts in a capsule not much larger than the Mercury capsule for 2 weeks!

 

[Codz]

The aircraft that you saw in LA and on the Intrepid are actually A-12s, not SR-71s. They are earlier variants with similar airframes.

Interestingly, at the USAF Museum of Aviation in Georgia, they actually have the SR-71A with the current record for highest airspeed achieved.

 

[kamaz]

The aircraft that you saw in LA and on the Intrepid are actually A-12s, not SR-71s. They are earlier variants with similar airframes.

I've found the photos of the plane from LA, so here it is for comparison. Note the absence of the black paint and a different cockpit:

Per the description, this appears to be the trainer version: