Intrepid Air and Space Museum, Manhattan, New York, March 2019

Written by

Lego, Technical Communication, Technology

November 29, 2023

Intrepid Museum, WWII Aircraft Carrier turned Air and Space Museum, Manhattan, New York, Front of Ship

In March 2019, I met up with my buddy Alan Lovegreen to visit the Intrepid Museum, a WWII-era air craft carrier that had been repurposed as an air and space museum moored on the west side of Manhattan.

Alan and I had been hired the same year to work at City Tech in the English Department. While he was there, we worked together to inaugurate the City Tech Science Fiction Collection. Soon after that, he moved back to California for a new job. He was back in NYC to give a talk, so we picked a cool place to meet up.

Some exhibits overlap those at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and its Steven P. Udvar-Hazy Center that I wrote about last week, such as the latter also having a Concorde airliner. Also notable is that the Space Shuttle Enterprise, which had been at the Udvar-Hazy Center, is now at the Intrepid Museum. Space Shuttle Discovery is now at the Udvar-Hazy Center. But, some similar looking aircraft are actually experimental or specialized versions, such as the Intrepid’s Lockheed A-12 compared with the Udvar-Hazy Center’s SR-71 Blackbird. There’s also some other unique displays involving LEGO: a 1:40 scale model of the Intrepid and a 50,000 brick mosaic image of the Space Shuttle Enterprise flying over New York City atop a Boeing 747.

We couldn’t have picked a better day to go. It was a cool and clear day, so we spent most of our time on the outside exhibits on the flight deck and hanger deck, but we also went under the water line to explore the submarine USS Growler tied up at the same pier (I’ll post pictures of the Growler tomorrow).

Flight Deck

Conning Tower

Bell 309 KingCobra

Bell UH-1A Iroquois “Huey”

McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II

McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21

Northrop T-38 Talon

Grumman F-11 Blue Angels

Lockheed A-12

Grumman F-14D Super Tomcat

Grumman F-9 Cougar

Intrepid Museum, WWII Aircraft Carrier turned Air and Space Museum, Manhattan, New York, Gumman F-9 Cougar

Israel Aircraft Industries Kfir/F-21A

General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon

Intrepid Museum, WWII Aircraft Carrier turned Air and Space Museum, Manhattan, New York, F-16

Anti-Aircraft Batteries

Hanger Deck and Interior

North American FJ-3

Martin-Baker Mark V Ejection Seat

Grumman Avenger Ball Turret

Mercury Capsule

Ship Interior

Space Shuttle Enterprise and Exhibit Area

Intrepid Museum, WWII Aircraft Carrier turned Air and Space Museum, Manhattan, New York, Space Shuttle Enterprise

Intrepid Museum, WWII Aircraft Carrier turned Air and Space Museum, Manhattan, New York, Space Shuttle Enterprise's Star Trek Connections Exhibit

Intrepid Museum, WWII Aircraft Carrier turned Air and Space Museum, Manhattan, New York, Space Shuttle Wind Tunnel Model

Intrepid Museum, WWII Aircraft Carrier turned Air and Space Museum, Manhattan, New York, Space Shuttle Enterprise LEGO Mosaic

The LEGO mosaic that capped off the Enterprise exhibit area was a cooperative construction project let by Ed Diment, who created the scale model of the USS Intrepid (below). The mosaic above depicts the Space Shuttle Enterprise’s flight over NYC before its arrival at JFK and eventual move to the Intrepid. It was constructed out of 50,000 LEGO bricks by hundreds of children and adults between July 26-28, 2013.

LEGO Build of the USS Intrepid

Built by Ed Diment, this recreation of the USS Intrepid with LEGO bricks is a 1:40 scale model. It is 22 feet long, 4 feet wide, and over 4 1/2 feet tall. It weighs 550 pounds and contains 250,000 pieces!