Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum

By Saint Greg

May 25, 2026

The USS Intrepid is an Essex-class aircraft carrier that was commissioned in 1943. It served WWII and Vietnam, surviving five kamikaze attacks in WWII. The Intrepid also acted as a recovery vessel for the Mercury-Atlas 7 and Gemini 3 NASA space missions.

The Intrepid was decommissioned in 1974 and opened as a museum in 1982. Tickets can be purchased in advance at intrepidmuseum.org. The current price is $38 for adults and $28 for children. They offer a $2 discount for seniors and students. Veterans are able to get tickets free of charge.

We are starting out on the hanger deck.

This is a lego model of the WWII version of the Intrepid. Back then it had a straight flight deck. During the Cold War it was converted to the angled flight deck that is still used on carriers today.

This is one of the four propellers that was used on Intrepid from 1943-74. It weighs 27 thousand pounds.

The Avenger was our primary torpedo bomber during WWII.

The FJ-3 Fury is the Naval variant of the F-86 Sabre.

This is the AIM-9 Sidewinder short range air-to-air missile. The navy began using them in 1956 and they are still in use today by both the Navy and the Air Force.

This is the Piasecki HUP 2 Retriever. The Navy used it for search and rescue in the 50’s and early 60’s.

This is the A-4 Skyhawk. Most people will recognize it as the plane the instructors (Viper and Jester) flew in the movie Top Gun.

This is an area for the kids to play.

This is a replica of the Aurora 7 Mercury capsule that Scott Carpenter was in when Intrepid recovered it in 1962. This replica was a practice capsule.

This escalator was installed in the 1950’s to easily transport pilots from the ready rooms on the lower decks to the flight deck while carrying heavy gear.

Let’s check out the flight deck.

I timed it just right for an aircraft elevator demonstration.

Let’s check out the aircraft on the flight deck.

This is another A-4. We saw one down on the hanger deck. This is the type of plane flown by Viper and Jester in the movie Top Gun.

This is a MIG-21 Fishbed. The MIG-21 is a 1960’s Russian fighter that is still in use by half a dozen countries today. North Korea is the largest operator with 26 still in service out of their original 200. This particular aircraft was a gift from Poland in 1991.

This is a T-38 which is used to train Air Force and NASA pilots. The T-38 is very similar to the F-5 which was used to portray the fictional MIG-28’s in the movie Top Gun.

This is the AV-8B Harrier. It was a British plane purchased and modified by the U.S. Marines in the 1970’s. It was one of my favorite planes as a kid because of it’s VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and Landing).

This was my favorite helicopter as a kid. It’s the AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter. It entered service during the Vietnam War and was retired in 2001.

This is an H-19. It has the engine in it’s nose which is why it is so big. The Army version had two nose mounted guns.

This is a HH-52 Seaguard which is a modified civilian helicopter used by the U.S. Coast Guard in the the 1960’s. One of the modifications is the wheels retract into floats allowing this helicopter to land on the water. The winch above the side door is another modification. They would attach a basket to that and lower it into the water to pick someone up. These helicopters rescued over 15,000 people during their 26 years in service.

This is an F3H-2 Demon. It was developed for use during the Korean war but didn’t enter service until three years after the war. It was retired just before we entered the Vietnam War.

This is an E-1 Tracer. It’s a modified C-1 Trader which was a cargo plane in the 60’s and 70’s. The Tracer was an early warning version that was replaced by the E-2 Hawkeye in the 1960’s.

The F-16 was my favorite plane as a kid. It was used in the movie Iron Eagle. But in that movie it was Israeli F-16’s which is why they had a desert camo paint scheme. Apparently the US Air Force wasn’t as good about working with movie companies as the Navy was.

This is an Israeli Kfir. This plane was used to portray the MIG-23’s in the movie Iron Eagle.

This is an A-12 Blackbird. The A-12 was a single seat reconnaissance aircraft in the 1960’s that could fly over 90,000 feet and 2,100 miles per hour. It was replaced by the larger two seat SR-71 Blackbird.

This is the F-14 Tomcat which most people will know as the plane from the movie Top Gun.

The A-6 Intruder you may know if you’ve seen the movie Flight of the Intruder. It is unique in the fact that it’s an attack aircraft where the pilot and bombardier/navigator sit side by side in the cockpit.

This is an F9F-8 Cougar which was used in the late 1950’s. It was also the plane the Blue Angels demonstration team used from 1957-1959.

The F-11 was the Navy’s first supersonic aircraft. It was the next plane used by the Blue Angels until it was replaced by the F-4 Phantom in 1969.

Speaking of the F-4 Phantom, they have one of those out here as well.

Let’s see what’s in restoration.

That is a MIG-17 Fresco.

On the ground level is a British Airways Concorde. That is available for tour. They have 20-minute tours every 30 minutes beginning at 11am each day. That tour costs an additional $15.

The Enterprise was NASA’s first Space Shuttle. It conducted three test flights in 1977 before being retired. They did consider bringing Enterprise back to replace Challenger but they ended up building Endeavor from spare parts instead. Enterprise was in the Smithsonian until it was moved here in 2012.

Let’s see if we can get up to the bridge.

This is an officer’s cabin.

The chart house is where they would plot out the ship’s current position.

This is the captain’s cabin.

This is the navigation bridge.

This is the pilot house.

This is the flag bridge.

This is the captain’s chair.

When Intrepid was first built, the navigation and flag bridges were open air. They enclosed them in 1952-54. The angled windows are to reduce the glare.

The equipment in the flag plot would allow the admiral to understand what was going on around him. The sailors would use RADAR to detect ships and aircraft and plot them on plotting tables and boards.