At the F-J 3 Fury aircraft exhibit at the Intrepid Museum, museum educator Charles Kennedy asked a group of visiting Manhattan 9th-graders why “DANGER JET INTAKE” was painted prominently near the engine inlet at the plane’s nose.

When a student suggested a bystander could get pulled in, Kennedy said that was exactly what happened to a sailor who got too close when a pilot started the engine.

“Luckily, he was a large enough guy that he actually got stuck in the front part of this thing,” and shipmates grabbed his feet to pull him out after the pilot shut off the engine, Kennedy said. “He was OK, but his helmet got literally chopped up and then burnt, roasted by the engine.”

Kennedy then guided the students from the New Explorations into Science, Technology and Math (NEST+m) school to a jet engine display to explain how the engine pulls in air, heats it and blasts it out the back.

The nearly 30 freshmen, all physics students, chose the Intrepid Museum from a list of destinations to visit on March 13, which was an “exploration day” for their grade at NEST+m, a gifted and talented K–12 school on the Lower East Side. Physics teacher Andrew Beltcappellino and special education teacher Michael Muntner, the school’s chapter leader, accompanied them.

Jonathan Fickies

NEST+m 9th-graders examine a Lockheed A-12 spy plane during a STEM Designing for Flight tour at the Intrepid Museum.

Beltcappellino said exhibits at the museum tie in with what his physics students are learning, including gravitational force (G-force), the four forces of flight and freefall. “There are a lot of connections to things that we do in class,” he said.

Muntner said it’s helpful for teachers to observe their students in different learning environments because they act differently. “You get to see them in a new light,” he said. “It’s cool to see which ones are really engaged in this material.”

Before their “Designing for Flight” tour, the group had a chance to explore the USS Growler, an early submarine that carried nuclear weapons, as well as parts of the USS Intrepid, an aircraft carrier so massive that it would be as tall as the Chrysler Building if it were turned vertically.

The USS Intrepid was commissioned in 1943 and in use until 1974. During World War II, the floating airfield with 3,000 people aboard survived several kamikaze strikes and one torpedo strike. It was also used during the Vietnam War, in the Cold War era to hunt submarines, as a recovery vessel for NASA outside of wartime, and as a training vessel.

The tour included discussions of the physics and design of airplanes and helicopters, and how that affects flight, as well as the evolution of design and technology during the Intrepid’s four decades in action. All the planes that would have taken off and landed on the aircraft carrier have wings that fold so they can fit in smaller spaces and tailhooks to quickly stop planes, Kennedy said.

Some aircraft in the museum’s collection, such as the presatellite A-12 spy plane, would not have been housed on the vessel. In the 1960s, the A-12 flew at three times the speed of sound and three times higher than passenger jet planes. Pilots had to wear protective pressure suits with oxygen to protect them from the elements.

The tour gave students “behind-the-scenes access,” said Hudson, one of the 9th-graders, such as being able to go inside gated areas on the flight deck to get a closer look at the aircraft.

After it was decommissioned, the USS Intrepid was slated to be turned into scrap metal until a group of business leaders, with support from then-New York City Mayor Ed Koch, rescued it and brought it to Pier 86 on the Hudson River, recounted Lynda Kennedy, the museum’s vice president for education and evaluation. It opened as a museum in 1982, and more than 55,000 students visit each year. In addition to student tours, the museum provides after-school and summer programs and professional development for educators, she said.

The offers field trips that highlight the intersection of innovation and history. It welcomes students from kindergarten through grade 12 on 60-minute visits weekdays at 10:30 a.m. and 11:45 a.m. The “Welcome Aboard: Intrepid Highlights” tour is for students of all ages. A dozen other tours are available, including two for kindergarten through grade 2; three for grades 3-6; three for grades 6-8; one for grades 7-8; and three for high school students. It also offers programs for groups with varying disabilities. Self-guided visits for all schools and educator-led programs for New York City Department of Education public schools are $11 per person. A limited number of free programs are available. The museum also offers 45-minute virtual programs weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For group reservations, contract the Group Sales Department at 646-381-5010 or groupsales [at] intrepidmuseum [dot] org (groupsales[at]intrepidmuseum[dot]org).