4. A Helicopter From the Original Ride Still Exist in Storage
Phyllis Bilick, Helicopter cars in The Panorama of the City of New York, c. 1990. Vintage silver gelatin print. Provenance research in-progress. Photo Courtesy of the Queens Museum 
New York City Exhibit at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, 1965. Poster. Provenance research in-progress., Image Courtesy of the Queens Museum
The first visitors to the Panorama during the World’s Fair got to experience it from an indoor helicopter ride. Within molded plastic cars on a track, visitors were treated to a view that simulated what they would see if they were flying above the five boroughs at 3,000 feet. During the 9-minute experience, riders listened to “The City of Opportunity,” a guided tour read by broadcast legend Lowell Thomas, which you can listen to on the Queens Museum website. The ride cost just 10 cents per person.
After “flying” around 3/4 of the perimeter of the model, the helicopters ascended to a second-story balcony. There, riders exited the vehicles and walked around the glass-enclosed platform, looking down at the model below. The view from this balcony mimics the way the city looks from 20,000 feet in the air. Today, one of the plastic helicopter cars still exists and is kept in storage at the Queens Museum. It was previously on display before the Museum’s 2013 renovation.
