A visit to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum

On a recent trip to New York City, I visited the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in Manhattan.

The museum is located aboard a dicomissioned U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, the Intrepid. The ship is moored at Pier 86 in Midtown Manhattan, a few blocks away from Times Square at the Hudson River. As this blog is quite strictly anti-military and on civil aviation only, I was almost exclusively interested in the Concorde on display. It is accessible with an extra ticket worth $44, including general admission to the museum.

The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum caters to a wide variety of intersts. A broad focus is on the history of the aircraft carrier, along with historic fighter planes. As a huge fan of construction toys, I was pleasently surprised by the massive LEGO model of the ship located near the information desk, built of some 250,000 bricks.

After a short wait, today's tour guide Danny picked us up and taught us some basic facts about the Concorde's history. He did an awesome job during the entire tour, so a huge thanks! After about 10 minutes, we ventured outside and boarded the Concorde on display, G-BOAD. It is a very special Concorde, as this very airliner holds the world record for the fastest commercial Atlantic crossing in just 2 hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds on February 7th, 1996. It's also the Concorde with the most hours in the air at 23,397 flight hours.

I was surprised how narrow the Concorde really is, with just a single aisle and 2-2 seating like today's regional jets. Danny made the Concorde come to life, reciting tales of the Concorde family and the crews alike. We were then invited to the flight deck in groups of two, which felt like a travel back in time compared to modern glass cockpits.

The experience was very well worth it, although it was a bit sad to see G-BOAD rotting away outside in humid New York. Maybe, just maybe, the future holds the technology to make supersonic air travel viable again. Enjoy the photos!