Space Shuttle Collides With Bridge In New York 157
First time accepted submitter AbrasiveCat writes "While transporting the space shuttle Enterprise to its new home at the Intrepid Museum, a gust of wind caught the shuttle and pushed a wing tip into the South Channel Subway Bridge. With any luck it was just the protective covering that was damaged. Ah, New York traffic."
Disappointment (Score:2, Interesting)
Why am I both relieved and disappointed this wasn't an awesome space crash?
I didn't see anything... (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, I can say there was nothing recognizable damaged to an untrained eye with a 300mm camera lens... I was on the bank of the bay, near the Verrazana-Narrows Bridge taking pictures... Maybe that's why they were late getting there, they might've stopped to inspect it after the collision.
Re:It was on a boat (Score:5, Interesting)
Low speed doesn't mean little damage necessarily
I can vouch for that. When I was in the USAF stationed at Dover in 1971-3, one of the tow tractors backing a C5-A into a hangar hit the hangar door with a wing. We're talking really low speed here, slower than a normal walk. It did five million dollars in damage. Worried the hell out of the tractor driver until they layed the blame on the wingwalker.
Someone understandable. (Score:5, Interesting)
After looking at the pictures, it's not like the Brooklyn bridge just jumped out in front of the barge carrying the shuttle. It was transiting a fairly narrow bridge. The wingspan on the shuttle is 78 feet, and a google map distance measurement of where the shuttle clipped the bridge says the space they had to work with was about 100 feet, give or take. That means if you absolutely threaded the needle, you should have had 11 feet (That's about 3.3 meters for you folks unfamiliar with a proper unit of measurement =) ) to work with on either side of the bird. That seems like a lot, but on a windy day.....very touchy.
https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=J+F+K+Airport,+New+York,+NY&aq=0&oq=JFK+&sll=40.639749,-73.824348&sspn=0.097239,0.057421&vpsrc=0&t=h&ie=UTF8&hq=J+F+K+Airport,+New+York,+NY&z=13&cid=17028024512003641840&iwloc=A [google.com]
(if the link is jacked up, just go to JFK and work your way south east)
It looks like, from the pictures upthread, the shuttle hit the railroad bridge that sits between Cross Bay Blvd and JFK airport. I've ground handled large aircraft on the tarmac, and 11 feet is too close for comfort in my book. I don't envy the guys who had to try and make that work.