Up Close With the Enterprise Shuttle At the Intrepid Museum

An anonymous reader writes "As you probably remember, the Space Shuttle Enterprise was flown on the back of a 747 to New York City where it was then delivered to the USS Intrepid. As sad as it was to see a space shuttle retired (and NASA take a major step down in the space flight abilities) this was one of the most amazingly geektastic events in recent memory. Now the shuttle is on top of the aircraft carrier's flight deck, living in its very own pavilion. As of tomorrow it will go on display as part of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, but today we got a sneak peek at the shuttle."

Comments

Enterprise Shuttle?

[busyqth]

I use it every time I travel on business.
They're the best car rental in my opinion.

Not the best possible home

[Bruce Perens]

One thing I remember about the Intrepid was the fighter jets on the flight deck with shattered cockpits. Unfortunately, it's not been possible to date to keep vandals off of the ship. So, keep watching how they take care of the Shuttle. If there are problems, we really should start lobbying for a different home.

Re:Not the best possible home

[Deadstick]

the fighter jets on the flight deck with shattered cockpits

That's the usual fate of aircraft put on permanent static display in an unsecured location. The unbroken canopy parts turn yellow in the sun and then craze, the tires rot, the paint fades, the cavities fill up with bird shit and used condoms, and you have an eyesore within a couple of years.

Seen it at Dulles

[Robo1icious]

I worked at Dulles airport in the 80's when the Enterprise was just setting out in the woods at the back of the airport property. I remember walking up to it just so I could say I touched it. They had several other old planes setting back there at the time and if I recall correctly at least one of those are now at the Smithsonian. To bad we didn't have camera phones back then eh?

Re:Seen it at Dulles

[westlake]

I worked at Dulles airport in the 80's when the Enterprise was just setting out in the woods at the back of the airport property.

Air & Space at Dulles

The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport is the companion facility to the Museum on the National Mall. The building opened in December, 2003, and provides enough space for the Smithsonian to display the thousands of aviation and space artifacts that cannot be exhibited on the National Mall. The two sites together showcase the largest collection of aviation and space artifacts in the world.

The James S. McDonnell Space Hangar opened in November 2004 and displays hundreds of famous spacecraft, rockets, satellites and space-related small artifacts. The centerpiece of the space hangar is the Space Shuttle Discovery. Other space artifacts include the Gemini VII space capsule; the Mobile Quarantine Unit used upon the return of the Apollo 11 crew; and a Redstone rocket.

Between the Discovery and the overlook is the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, the fastest jet ever built.

Other unique artifacts exhibited in the Boeing Aviation Hangar include:

the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay.

the Boeing 367-80 or Dash 80, the prototype 707, America's first jet airliner.

the Aichi Seiran Japanese WWII bomber, the only remaining Seiran.

the Boeing 307 Stratoliner Clipper Flying Cloud, the first airliner with a pressurized cabin.

a Concorde supersonic airliner.

National Air & Space Museum The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

Re:Seen it at Dulles

[kiwimate]

The Udvar-Hazy Center has both the shuttle and the Blackbird. As a bonus, you can go up into an observation tower and watch the planes at the nearby airport while listening to ATC chatter.

Cool pictures but...

[FSWKU]

FTFA:

"Some interesting points to note include the painted-over windows (the gray circles near the nose), the amazing intricacy and build quality of the landing gear mechanism, and the tail piece. The Enterprise was never fitted with engines so it has that specially designed part in the back."

Umm, hate to be "that guy" but there is so much fail in that one snippet I can't stand it.

• The "gray circles near the nose" are not windows that were painted over. They're inserts to block the nozzles for the RCS system (and thereby reduce drag for glide tests).
• The Enterprise may not have had real engines, but it DID have mockups for handling tests at KSC (as seen here.
• That "specially designed part in the back" is an aerodynamic faring used to reduce drag on the ferry flights and thus reduce fuel consumption in an already heavily burdened 747 carrier aircraft. They ALL have one of those that could have been fitted when called for.

Normally I wouldn't get this worked up, but from a site supposedly aimed at geeks, I expected more...

Re:Cool pictures but...

[DerekLyons]

The "gray circles near the nose" are not windows that were painted over. They're inserts to block the nozzles for the RCS system (and thereby reduce drag for glide tests).

Actually - you're both wrong. They're just indentations in the skin that are painted grey - to simulate RC nozzles since the Enterprise was not equipped with an RCS system.
 

That "specially designed part in the back" is an aerodynamic faring used to reduce drag on the ferry flights and thus reduce fuel consumption in an already heavily burdened 747 carrier aircraft. They ALL have one of those that could have been fitted when called for.

Not quite correct. While they were designed to accept the fairing, they didn't all have a fairing. IIRC there were only three built. One, unique, for Enterprise, and two operational fairings. (Trivia - the fairing could be broken down and carried internally onboard the SCA.)

Fond memories

[ComfortablyAmbiguous]

I remember when I was a kid and they were testing the Enterprise out near Edwards air base. Periodically we would see it fly (glide) over on its way to a test landing during recess ( I was like 6 or 7 years old). My father was a fighter pilot and took me out to an open house at the air base. I was a huge Star Trek fan and seeing a real life Enterprise space shuttle was pretty amazing. I even got to sit in the pilots seat and generally look around. In terms of geektastic childhoods it doesn't get much better than that.

Re:Shuttle on back of a 747

[Idarubicin]

Um, carrying a shuttle on the back of a 747 is how it's typically transported. About as geektastic as a furniture shipment, by now.

I suspect that it was very seldom flown to New York City, however. Many millions of people would have had the opportunity to see such a flight for the first time.

And honestly, your smug dismissal of this event as being "as geektastic as a furniture shipment" marks you as being as wannabe-cool and faux-jaded as the hipster who won't listen to any band he's already heard of, because "they're so last week".

Re:The author is a moron

[JWSmythe]

    Well, it was used in the space program. I'm sure most of us know, it was used as a flight model. It was planned for use as an active shuttle, but NASA found it would have been cost prohibitive to fit it with the required gear.

    I believe it was flown 5 times. So it didn't launch the same way the others did, and it didn't achieve orbit (by design), but it was flown. It was used for various purposes from 1976 through 1985.

    What I don't quite get is why it's a big deal that it's available to the public to view now. It was at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles for a while, where you could walk right up to it. Just like everything there, it was interesting to see.