Shuttle Enterprise to New York April 23rd, 2012

[Speedbird1]

I posted last week that there was a problem with the weather forecasted for April 23 and several resonders laughed at me. They should check first before making a fellow aviation enthusiast sound like a fool. I was trying to be helpful to those changing plans for Monday. I was also mocked when Kids Day got cancelled back in Sept. a few years ago. We must try to get along and be helpful on this wonderful site. We have enough problems these days with the authorities when doing our spotting!

[Speedbird1]

Very informative. Thank you. I plan to be at Battery Park Wed. AM to see the fly-by over the Statue. I saw the exact same fly-by back in June 1983; it was awesome but I had no camera.

[Derf]

WHERE DID THIS HAPPEN? WHO LAUGHED AT YOU? WHO MADE YOU LOOK LIKE A FOOL?

Here is page 8, is this what your talking about?
http://nycaviation.com/forum/threads...3rd-2012/page8

[gonzalu]

It looks like it will be very high for the statue run... hope I am wrong for your sake. After seeing the passes in D.C., I think the idea would be to watch. For photos, it may be a bit of a stretch :-(

[AJ]

Just posted on the 1983 Shuttle thread, wrong one, sorry. I am currently in IAD and the shuttle is still sitting on the 747. I thought the news in NYC said that the shuttle would be delayed.

AJ

[Zee71]

Wednesday may seem to be the day of choice. Looking forward to this BIG TIME!

[Matt Molnar]

It looks like it will be very high for the statue run... hope I am wrong for your sake. After seeing the passes in D.C., I think the idea would be to watch. For photos, it may be a bit of a stretch :-(

While the TRACON itinerary says 1500 ft, I did hear from a pretty good source that "at or below 1,000" is a possibility. Unfortunately we probably won't know until it actually happens.

[Speedbird1]

1500' or 1000' is acceptable so I could get both the Statue and the aircraft in the shot. I would also see the flight over EWR from there. Standing on the Intrepid is another possibility. Thanks for the insight.

[Speedbird1]

Regarding an extra fee to view the Shuttle, I am also very disappointed but it seems the Intrepid Museum hasn't received enough donations so they must charge to see the Shuttle. I had hoped it would be placed alongside Concorde on the pier, so all could see for free. This is not the case. Incidentally, boarding the Concorde is no longer included with a $22 Intrepid admission. There is an extra hefty fee to board which includes a short film and I think tours allow guests to sit in the cockpit.

[Speedbird1]

I agree. Those 3 displaced historic aircraft could have been placed on the pier in front of Concorde; there's plenty of room. This has happened before. Intrepid used to display an El Al 707 cockpit but it got shipped-off to I believe a museum in Long Island. Maybe they were scared it would offend terrorists. Sadly, there's no chance that MIG-15 will ever be returned. Remember what they did to the Edson?

[Speedbird1]

Thanks for posting this great information. It is very helpful.

[Speedbird1]

There was a depressing editorial in a recent NY Daily News regarding the Shuttles being placed into museums. While we are all celebrating, we must remember the sad thought that this is a funeral for the US Space Program. We now have no way to send astronauts up to Skylab and must pay Russia exhorbitant fees to do so for us; how humiliating! Hopefully, we will return to space one day. Like you, I am thrilled to again see the Enterprise fly over NYC as I did back on June 10,1983 while she was returning from the Paris Air Show to advertise America's leadership in Space.

[Speedbird1]

True. The Concorde was kept in Brooklyn at Aviator Sports Complex in deplorable conditions. Day camps used her to play handball off her frame. Birds were allowed to defecate and nest in her engine nacelles. The promise to allowe visitors aboard never materialized. One night, a bus from a Jamaican festival clipped the nose and left it there. The radome was finally replaced by British Airways but nobody has any information about the repairs. Was it the same radome or a new one? If a new one, what happened to the original? What happened to the 3 Olympus 393 engines? One is on display at the Intrepid; where are the others?

[Speedbird1]

The Intrepid used to have an actual El Al B707 cockpit but suddenly removed it. I heard it went to a air museum in Long Island.

[Speedbird1]

I used to make plastic models of aircraft in my youth. I recall Revell made a kit of the Shuttle atop the B747. I made the model over 2 decades ago and I can't find it. The scale was 1/200. Nowadays, plastic model kits of aircraft have gone the way of VHS and Kodacolor film. Models were such fun to build and cheap as well.