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Even in New York's great harbor, her greyness catches the eye. And if one did not already know her identity, the aircraft on the flight deck and the " 11 " on the distinctive modernized Essex-class island would be further clues that she is the Intrepid. More than half a million visitors come aboard her every year.
What they find can be described only partially, for the Intrepid is different to each visitor. To the hundred thousand youngsters who tour her during a year, probably the Intrepid's space exploration displays mean the most-rockets and missiles, satellites and space probes, an Apollo capsule and a rock from the moon. Presented in Technologies Hall aft on the hangar deck, it is a collection of the space age's first 30 years.
Aviation buffs are drawn to Pioneer Hall's exhibits on Eugene Ely, rigid airships, blimps, and balloons. A display on the first transatlantic flight (by the Navy's NC-4) stands beneath World War I scoutplanes and battleship floatplanes. A 1907 Demoiselle, a Royal Aircraft Factory SESa, a Voisin, and a Curtiss Pusher should be seen.
In United States Navy Hall, an A-6 Intruder and a YF-17 (forerunner of the F/A-18 Hornet) are at the center of a multi-media display on today's Navy, strongly focused on battle group operations. Separate elements of naval power are brought together and explained, including nuclear submarines on patrol, missile cruisers firing, amphibious forces in action, and replenishment ships sustaining a force in constant motion. The highlight is a Grumman-produced 20minute, giant-screen color movie of air wing operations on a nuclear-powered carrier (with a mammoth stereo system supplying the roar of jet engines, the crackle of terse radio traffic, and other sounds familiar to today's sailor). And in Intrepid Hall, the amidships hangar deck area, visitors may best understand the accomplishments of this particular ship. Here, the sights and sounds are of 1944, Leyte Gulf, and kamikazes. A photomontage, three-screen slide show with a vivid soundtrack describes the Intrepid's role in history's greatest sea battle.
One could spend hours looking at the displays on the 700-foot hangar deck; and because the...