GW McLintock, thank you for trying to get us more time at the museum (and for not getting pissed at me for suggesting ). My comments below indicate more of my reasoning.

As we’ll have minimal time at Intrepid Museum, advance planning is recommended. It’s unlikely the other 3 main venues can be visited in an hour or an hour and a half. To visit more than one area of Intrepid Aircraft Carrier takes minimum of 20-30 minutes, probably an hour or two to see the 3-4 main display areas. Growler takes minimum of 20-30 minutes when there’s not a line. Shuttle Pavilion (Enterprise and Apollo: When We Went to the Moon) could be anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 hours. I strongly suggest deciding what YOU want to see before we all get there and do the Concorde tour.

The museum has 4 main venues:

- Intrepid Aircraft Carrier: Laid (started, get your mind out of the gutter ) a week prior to Pearl Harbor, due to take 4-5 years to build, finished in 16 months mostly by women because men were all at war). 1 of 24 Essex Class carriers built during WWII. In service 1943-1974; WWII, Vietnam, Cold War, Mercury/Gemini Space Capsule Recovery Ship, museum since 1982. Lots to see, could easily take 4-5 hours to see everything. Flight and Hangar decks, with multiple aircraft each, are accessible, Captain’s and Admiral’s Bridge(s) are not, require 3-4 ladders (flights of stairs) some steep.

Intrepid interesting trivia. The outer layers of slanted rectangular windows on Captain’s and Admiral’s Bridges were installed during a major overhaul/renovation after WWII. During the war the Captain’s Chair was basically outside, subject to bombs and kamikaze attacks.

The Pilot’s Escalator (starboard forward), which doesn’t work but can be walked up (32 or 34 steps) between Hangar and Flight Deck, was bolted to the side of the ship after WWII during that same overhaul (along with catapults and angled flight deck which allowed for launching and recovering aircraft at the same time). Can easily see it from the adjacent pier or sidewalk south of the ship. Pilots’ Ready Rooms were originally just under the (wooden, weight and easier to repair during battle) flight deck but suffered excessive damage and injuries/fatalities during WWII so during that same overhaul the Ready Rooms were moved a deck or two lower and thus the installation of an escalator to help aircrew, with their 20 or 30 lbs of equipment, get from Ready Rooms to Flight Deck.

In the Wheelhouse part of the Captain’s Bridge, the Helmsman (wheel) and the Lee Helmsman (engine message) can’t see (hardly) anything outside or ahead of the ship. Because they only turn the wheel or order engine operations based on the orders of the Captain or Officer of the Deck, they don’t decide when or where to go, they could do their jobs without seeing anything outside.

All of the above item were not installed on any subsequent class of aircraft carriers. Subsequent bridges were fully enclosed with helmsman being able to see outside, ready rooms were moved back to 1 deck below a much stronger and battle resistant flight deck so just 1 ladder for aircrew to climb so no escalator necessary (carriers were also deemed less likely to be bombed from above).

The Battle Boards on the Captain’s and Admiral’s Bridge(s) are written from behind. If the writer was in front, they’d block the entire board, no one would be able to see what they were writing. They had to write backwards, something they did as quickly and as easily as most of us write our names. I tried to do it without any success when I was deployed on Nimitz in 1987 (when written Battle Boards were only in Combat Information Center). Try it yourself on a piece of clear plastic, it’s not easy. (I don’t have a photo and couldn’t find one online, I’ll try to take a photo on Friday and post it here after dinner Friday night.)

- British Airways Concorde: not “accessible”. In service 1976-2003, we’ll learn more during our tour.

- Growler Submarine: not “accessible”. Conventional diesel-electric submarine with nuclear armament that had to be launched from the surface, in service 1958 to 1964, to provide nuclear deterrent capability off the Pacific coast of the Soviet Union during peak years of the Cold War by carrying and potentially firing the Regulus I nuclear cruise missile, 1 of 2 submarines in the class, basically obsolete as by the time of its service the U.S. Navy had veered its nuclear deterrence efforts into nuclear submarine underwater launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), the Polaris missile program.

Tours included in museum admission ticket, done as groups, often a line of 15-45 minutes, start upon entering submarine by watching a 3-5 minute video before descending 1 ladder to walk through the submarine which takes 10-30 minutes depending on group size and discussions with staff exhibit explainers, hard to walk past others while on the submarine.

-Space Shuttle Enterprise and (temporary exhibit basically underneath the Enterprise March-September 2024) Apollo: When We Went to the Moon, history of the Apollo program. Enterprise was the first orbiter of the Space Shuttle system, built to perform atmospheric test flights after being launched from a modified Boeing 747, constructed without engines or functional heat shield, was not capable of spaceflight, cannot tour interior, exterior is identical to other Space Shuttle orbiters.

Interesting to see the overall size of the orbiter. The Apollo exhibit is also very interesting. I particularly like the plaster models of the 3 Apollo 11 astronaut’s hands which were used to build their custom-made gloves, interesting the relatively different hand sizes of 3 men all of (otherwise) nearly identical body habitus. (I don’t buy the “one of them had to wear his wedding ring on the moon because he was wearing it when the models were made”, the gloves don’t look very tight at all .)