Results tagged “intrepid”

    

Hopefully Linus knows his way to the Intrepid, because there is a Great Pumpkin on deck right now. Sculptor Patrick Moser, who has multiple sclerosis and cannot use his right arm, will spend nearly five days transforming a 932-pound pumpkin into what he calls a “Grumpkin.” He scooped out the insides yesterday, and today through Friday the public is welcome to drop by, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and see him work on the carving. It will also be on display over the weekend. Can't wait to see it all lit up! Wonder how many candles that will take.

The Triathalon spirit seems to be spreading all over town this weekend. A 65-year-old man had to be pulled out of the Hudson last night after he dove in and attempted to swim out onto the Intrepid. He made it 50 feet off of shore before firefighters caught up with him and assisted him onto a ladder leading to a rescue boat. An FDNY source told the News, "He felt like he had to go and touch the Intrepid, so instead of paying for admission and going on board, he decided to jump in the water. He was intoxicated. ... You could smell it." The man was taken to Roosevelt Hospital for observation and treatment for minor injuries. Where will the Dutchman's celebratory Quadricentennial festivities lead next??

The USS Growler was officially welcomed back to the Intrepid last week following two years of renovations. (Last year we saw it on the move, twice.) NY Post editor, Growler enthusiast and "Cold War veteran of the Submarine Service" Bob McManus reports back, and gives a little Memorial Day history lesson on the submarine that played a role in winning the Cold War, noting that, "All Moscow really knew of Growler and her sister ships back then was that one or another was always somewhere close by, armed with nuclear-tipped missiles and thus posing an existential threat to the Soviet Union itself." The sub was commissioned in 1958 and decommissioned by 1964. After a stay at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Washington it was finally brought to Manhattan in 1988. Learn more here.

     

Yesterday's Parade of Ships help begin the 22nd annual Fleet Week celebrations. Today's events include viewing of ships at Pier 45 in Manhattan and the Stapleton Pier in Staten Island, USMC/Air Ground airborne insertion/extraction of helicopters with combat Marines in Coney Island and Marine Day—with martial arts demonstrations and military working dogs (!)—in Central Park. Plus, at the Intrepid, it's the reopening of the Growler! More details here.

Count Senator Charles Schumer amongst those who want the space shuttle Atlantis to retire at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. Following NASA's announcement that they will send three space shuttles to institutions around the country, the Intrepid put their name in the hat. It's now being reported that "Schumer said Sunday he is supporting the Intrepid's bid for a space shuttle and he has appealed to Vice President Joe Biden to make it happen." If it all goes down, the shuttle would be housed in a glass enclosure at the end of Pier 86 around 2012.

Could the space shuttle Atlantis land in the Hudson? The folks at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum are crossing their fingers. The NY Times reports that they envision the shuttle, which took hold of the Hubble Space Telescope yesterday, housed in a glass enclosure at the end of Pier 86. They are just "one of 20 institutions that responded by a March 17 deadline to ask NASA about its plan to give away the last of the shuttles: Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis."

A space capsule has landed at the Intrepid! Earlier today a Beech T-34 Mentor airplane and a replica of a Gemini 3 space capsule, touched down on the Air & Space Museum. The plane will be part of an interactive display, giving visitors a taste of what it was like to "bring planes to the flight deck." The capsule is a replica of the one that took part in the first American two-man space mission; "on March 23rd, 1965 Intrepid helicopters picked up Gemini 3 astronauts John Young and Virgil 'Gus' Grissom and their two-person capsule nicknamed Molly Brown" after they orbited the Earth three times. Allegedly the nickname was a reference to Grissom's previous incident with the Liberty Bell 7 capsule, which sank in the Atlantic.

       

President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush flew into NYC today for the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum's re-dedication--and also for President Bush to receive the Intrepid Freedom Award.

              

The rainy weather couldn't keep people from heading to the USS Intrepid Sea Air & Space Museum on Saturday. The aircraft carrier-turned-museum reopened this weekend after a two-year refurbishing project. Jim Kiernan took some great photographs--some of his photos are above and his entire Flick set is here.

     

Back in September land-dwellers were on high alert as a submarine passed through the waters of the East River. It turned out that the sub was the U.S.S. Growler, heading to the GMD Shipyard Corp. facilities at the Brooklyn Navy Yard for some repairs. Now (really, right this second) it's making its way back to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. From the press release:

The refurbished Growler Submarine (SSG-577) will return to its home at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum at the Hudson River Park's Pier 86, located at 12th Avenue and 46th Street in Manhattan on Thursday, November 6, at 1:00 p.m. The Growler, which received an exterior refurbishment while in dry dock, will be towed by tugboat to Manhattan's West Side, in advance of the Intrepid Museum's reopening on Saturday, November 8th.

    

The retired Concorde jet that's been housed at Floyd Bennett Field for two years made its way to the Intrepid today with its brand new nose--GerritsenBeach captured great shots and some are above. The museum reopens on November 8th, and you can also expect to see the Growler on display--which made its trip there last month.

    

The U.S.S. Intrepid made it back up the Hudson to Pier 86 on the West Side today. The aircraft carrier underwent a $120 million refurbishing over the past two years and is headed back to serve as the Intrepid Sea, Air, & Space Museum.

After a two-year refurbishing stint away from its West Side pier home, the U.S.S. Intrepid is making a grand return today. The aircraft carrier will be led by a U.S. Coast Guard Cutter as well as the same tugboats that eventually pulled it from its muddy spot--and NYC fireboats will have red, white and blue water sprays. The Intrepid will be leaving its homeport in Staten Island around 11:30 a.m. and is expected to pass the Statue of LIberty at around 12:15 p.m. Then it will stop near Ground Zero to unfurl an American flag, and should be at Pier 86 (46th St & 12th Ave) by 1:30 p.m. The U.S.S. Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum is scheduled to reopen on November 8.

The Staten Island Advance has video of a two-deck helicopter being placed on the U.S.S. Intrepid's flight deck. The Sikorsky helicopter, dating back to 1949, is the kind of helicopter once used on the aircraft carrier; it "holds two co-pilots in the upper cockpit and 10 crew members in the hold below." The Intrepid, which has been undergoing repairs (first in Bayonne, NJ and now in Staten Island), will be headed back to Manhattan on October 2, and the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum will re-open to the public on November 8.

The supersonic Concorde jet that spent 30 years flying fiercely through the skies went unharmed until retiring in Brooklyn, where the president of the foundation that operates the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, Bill White, was charged with overseeing its care. After just two years in the borough, The NY Times reports it got it's signature needle-shaped nose taken off by a truck.

A Concorde that is owned by a British airline, was hit by a truck that was hauling equipment from a Jamaican music and soccer festival. The truck clipped the distinctive nose cone off the parked Anglo-French jet about 3 a.m. last Monday, prompting an impassioned uproar among the jet’s band of enthusiasts.

It's Fleet Week in NYC, but the city's hometown aircraft carrier Intrepid is having trouble finding its way home. The Intrepid is still in the harbor--docked at a shipyard in Staten Island as it undergoes renovations--but it's uncertain if the fabled craft will be able to make it back to its berth on Manhattan's West Side.