A Top Gun moment at Intrepid Museum

STEPHEN SCOURFIELD channels Tom Cruise, for just an instant

It’s a Top Gun moment. There’s a Tomcat jet fighter on the aircraft carrier’s flight deck, and the glass towers of New York all around.

A blast of cold wind and the first flakes of a snowstorm make it all seem edgier.

The only thing missing is Tom Cruise.

I’m standing on the deck of the USS Intrepid, an Essex­class carrier which took part in World

War II in the Pacific and in the Vietnam War, having been commissioned in 1943 and pensioned off in 1974, becoming the centrepiece of this New York museum in 1982.

One of the stars of its flight deck is an F­14 Tomcat. The Tomcat was the US Navy’s frontline fighter aircraft from 1972 to 2006 — and the other star (alongside Tom) of the original 1986 Top Gun film.

It had a top speed of 2485km/h and could simultaneously fire six Phoenix missiles at six different targets.

Tomcats were flown in the Gulf War and over Iraq and

Afghanistan from 2001 to 2006.

There’s also a Cougar, F­16A, Lockheed A­12 and lots of other aircraft on the flight deck, and you can climb the stairs inside the aircraft carrier to the navigation deck and bridge.

There are plenty of volunteer guides around who served on the USS Intrepid and similar ships.

Inside, in the USS Intrepid’s hangar, are more aircraft, and lots of interactive and educational exhibits. It is important to give this museum its full title, which is the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. At the other end of the flight deck is the Space Shuttle Pavilion, which stars the first space shuttle, Enterprise.

It’s quite something stepping inside and being able to walk around and under such an iconic, historic machine.

This first space shuttle also has star connections. It was named after the USS Enterprise in the TV series Star Trek. The prototype shuttle had been named Constitution, but 400,000 Star Trek fans petitioned then US president

Gerald Ford, and Enterprise it was. The original Star Trek cast, including William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk, and Leonard Nimoy, who was Spock, attended space shuttle events, and Nimoy officiated at its landing in 2012. Back outside, I leave the carrier and stroll down the pier to get a closer look at the museum’s British Airways Concorde. Having taken care of space, aircraft and the ocean’s surface, I head to the USS Growler, a diesel­electric submarine which was armed with nuclear cruise missiles during the Cold War. It cruised, mostly submerged, off the Pacific coast of the Soviet Union

WYNTK from 1958 to 1964, supporting the belief that a nuclear deterrent would help keep the peace. The Growler’s patrols could last two months or more and it could be submerged for days at a time. As with the rest of the exhibits, the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum takes its visitors up close: it gives them a real feel of life in space, air and on (and under) the sea. And, on this freezing New York winter’s day, it takes my breath away. what you need to know Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum is at Pier 86 on the Hudson River, on the west side of Manhattan Island, New York. It is open daily (usually from 10am to 5pm) and admission for adults is $US36 ($52). intrepidmuseum.org Fly direct to New York from Singapore with Singapore Airlines. Only premium economy and business class are available on the bespoke flight, which takes about 17 hours from Singapore to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and about 18½ hours for the return flight on the excellent A350­900 ultra long range. It’s about five hours to fly to Singapore, with the pleasure of connecting in Changi Airport. singaporeair.com

Stephen Scourfield flew to New York as a guest of Singapore Airlines. They have not seen or approved this story.