Atlantis May Land

on New York Intrepid

NASA is about to retire its flee of Space Shuttles and aerospace museums all over the U.S. are jockeying to display the Atlantis or the Endeavor. The Discovery is already promised to the Smithsonian Institute in DC. In New York City, the Intrepid Museum is a candidate with excellent credentials. The aircraft carrier, among other accomplishments during and post WWII, was the primary spacecraft recovery vessel during the 1960s.
Colltales is all for it. But then we saw the plans and our hearts sank.
No offense, but compared to designs presented by competitors, to say that the one the Intrepid unveiled needs improvement would be a huge understatement. It needs a radical overall of its concept or we won’t be seeing the Shuttle in the West Side of Manhattan anytime soon.
As the depiction above shows, the display proposed is frankly mediocre. The bird that used to take off in a blaze of fire and smoke, zip through the skies at God’s speeds, face radiation and catastrophic destruction, but always managed to bring back to earth its elite crew of highly trained rocket scientists, can’t be destined to be parked idly at ground level in some sort of airport hangar, as it’s shown. Come on, guys.
No dynamic angle to ignite visitors’ imaginations, no aim to the heavens where it was a frequent guest, no hint of its explosive past. As it’s depicted in this quickly-done drawing, it looks more like a wounded bird that never took flight, some kind of contraption very soon no one would remember what it was built for in the first place.
Sorry for being blunt but this design won’t take flight. Most likely will take in water and sink. Actually, despite being situated on a pier, the river was completely insulated from this concept. So was the world’s most vibrant city. And for crying out loud, whatever happened to the Concorde? We’ll have to lose it in order to have the Shuttle? No way.
You’d better get back to the drawing board, boys, and hurry up.
The Atlantis belongs here (not the Endeavor, which is little more than a prototype) because like this city, it was made of dreams and the fire of unrealistic expectations, and has blood under its wings, and a lot of heart and guts.
It’s a perfect companion piece to the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Concorde and the Intrepid. Let’s give this vision a resting place suitable to warriors and superheros. Let’s bring home one of us and turn it into a honorary citizen of New York.
Above all, let’s give it our best shot, so Atlantis may soar again and forever.