Plane Spotters in 1983 ?

[Speedbird1]

Any plane spotters here from back in 1983? I remember seeing the Space Shuttle Enterprise fly over NYC northbound piggyback on a B747. It was enroute to the Paris Air Show at the time. Iy was an awesome sight but I had no camera then. I just heard a rumor that this same shuttle is the one that will be given for display to the Intrepid Museum. The Enterprise has been on display at the Air & Space Museum in Virginia recently and will be flown to NYC sometime in the near future. I would be glad except this shuttle never flew into space but merely made several short flights. The Intrepid was hoping for either Atlantis or Endeavou, as Discovery will go to the Smithsonian.

[PhilDernerJr]

Where did you hear that the Intrepid was getting a shuttle? Do you have a link or a source for that?

[NIKV69]

Do you have a link or a source for that?

Sources? We don't need no stinking sources!

Actually accordong to wiki once the shuttle program ends and Discovery is retired to the Museum at Dulles where Enterprise is now it will be loaned to other places for display around the country but I doubt very highly NASA is going to give it to anyone.

[T-Bird76]

For once Speedbird is right....almost...there are rumors that organization that runs the Intreprid is trying to get a Shuttle.

[PhilDernerJr]

It's not a rumor that they are TRYING. NYCAviation is a part of that attempt. But as far as I know, nothing firm has been announced yet.

[Matt Molnar]

Sens. Schumer, Gillibrand, Paterson, Bloomberg, Christie and a dozen other NY+NJ gov't types wrote a letter to NASA about it last week.

One of NASA's specs for a shuttle recipient is that the location needs to be safe enough to exhibit the shuttle for 500 years. I wonder how strictly this will be looked at...Given Intrepid's proximity to the river and the nearly certain likelihood that NYC will get hit by hurricanes and/or rising oceans and/or a tsunami in the next 500 years (not to mention the probability of acts of war) I'm not sure it would qualify unless they built some kind of super-engineered (and super-expensive) structure to protect it.

[Gerard]

[quote="GothamSpotter"]One of NASA's specs for a shuttle recipient is that the location needs to be safe enough to exhibit the shuttle for 500 years.

500 years? :? WTF? It doesnt matter since we'll all doomed in 2012 anyway!!! :lol:

[SengaB]

500 years?
After the 34 year Chinese-American war?
In all likelihood after the take over the Chinese would have melted them for scrap.

Senga

[Matt Molnar]

In all likelihood after the take over the Chinese would have melted them for scrap.

They'll copy the design and build their own, first. :-)

[Tom_Turner]

500 years? haha... what a ludicrous condition. Hubris... why not 5000 years then?

I expect Intrepid will probably get it though... either permanent or on loan. If they don't, I am sure we'll be treated to a global warming lecture.

Tom

[Tom_Turner]

It would look good though next to the SS United States though wouldn't it? ... time will tell if either one get to the Hudson.

Tom

[jerslice]

Lest we forget, the Museum of Flight out here in Seattle is gunning for one as well...and have a safe place to put it :-)

[Matt Molnar]

...and have a safe place to put it :-)

I dunno, isn't Mt. Rainier due to blow in the next century or five? :)

[Tom_Turner]

It'll be coming to NY, don't worry... :borat:

[Mateo]

The requirement isn't to actually display the Shuttle until 2511; it's to find a location for it that has a disaster probability of 0.2% in any given year (i.e. a 100-year flood is called that because in any given year in a specific location, there's a 1% chance of it happening). This just ups the standard by a factor of 5. There isn't going to be a Shuttle in downtown St. Louis because the chance it will flood is more than 0.2% in any given year. If the chance that a lava flow from Mt. Rainier will cover the Museum of Flight site is more than 0.2%/year, then it doesn't qualify.