Indianapolis Int’l Airport

Watch out for the dinosaur at IND Airport

Museums,

A 33-foot-long Tyrannosaurus Rex is currently towering over passengers and visitors in the pre-security Civic Plaza at Indianapolis International Airport (IND).

Bucky the T. rex, as he’s known, will be onsite at IND until April 11 to help celebrate the 100th birthday of the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, which is the world’s largest children’s museum.

While the airport’s dino is a replica, visitors can see the real Bucky T. rex fossil on permanent display at The Children’s Museum, which actively digs for, prepares, and displays unique and one-of-a-kind dinosaur fossils.

The Children’s Museum offers a cool Dinosphere experience and this week is also debuting a 110-foot-tall Centennial Ferris wheel, making this museum even more of a must-see destination for kids and adults than ever.

Bonus: earlier this week, while the festivities for Bucky the T. rex were underway at IND Airport, Rex, the official mascot of the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, practiced the journey through the airport.

Good work, Rex!

Opera & ballet at Helsinki Airport + Giant miniature house at Indianapolis Airport

Art, Uncategorized, ,

Helsinki Airport shows ballet & opera snippets

The Stuck at the Airport team is a big fan of Helsinki, Finland. And not just for the licorice.

We love the airport too.

And we’re delighted to learn that passengers traveling through Helsinki Airport (HEL) can now enjoy snippets of opera and ballet from the Opera House in Helsinki.

Audio and video selections from performances are projected on a giant wall at the airport train station.

The first set of snippets includes highlights from the ballets Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty and the operas Tosca, Turandot and Don Giovanni. The run time is about 20 minutes and the program selections will be refreshed regularly.

We’re putting this in the running for Airport Amenity of the Week.

Indianapolis Int’l Airport displays a replica of a President’s house

Here’s another fun installation at an airport.

(Courtesy IND Airport)

The home of Benjamin Harris, the 23rd President of the United States, is a popular tourist destination near downtown Indianapolis.

And now an intricate replica of Harrison’s house created by miniaturist Jimmy Landers is on display in the pre-security Civic Plaza at Indianapolis International Airport (IND).

The replica is nearly six feet long, three feet wide and four feet tall. It includes more than 40 windows, eight porch columns, four chimneys and real slate roofs.

The original home was built with 380,552 bricks. The replica has 48,000.

The original structure cost $29,000 (over $800,000 in 2024 dollars). The cost of building the replica was about about half as much: $15,000.

More about that basketball court at IND Airport

Sports, , ,

Earlier this week, the sports department at StuckatTheAirport.com declared the basketball court at Indianapolis International Airport (IND) the Airport Amenity of the Week.

Even though it was only Monday. And even though the temporary court is a no-real-basketballs-allowed promo for the festivities and special events surrounding the NBA All-Star 2024 game to be held in Indianapolis on February 18.

Here’s more about that court and more information about what IND Airport has in store for travelers now through the NBA All-Star 2024 weekend.

About that court

The basketball court is a decal located pre-security in the airport’s public gathering area, which is called the Civic Plaza. The court is 50 feet wide by 94 feet long and is the same size as a professional basketball court. The basketball goals are courtesy of the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

Basketball graphics galore at IND Airport

Graphics celebrating the NBA All-Star 2024 weekend are also in the IND bag claim area and other parts of the airport.

And there’s more to come.

IND officials tell us that a 6-foot-tall ceramic basketball will be rolled into the bag claim area, there will be live music from local musicians, custom artwork by local artists in the airport’s KIND Gallery, and pop-up shops with all manner of NBA All-Star merch.

Blue Skies at IND

If you’re heading to Indianapolis during the NBA All-Star 2024 weekend, or anytime, be sure to look for the newest major piece of public art at IND Airport.

Blue Skies, by Brenna McCarty, is suspended more than 65 feet in the air from the terminal roof structure and is composed of hundreds of acrylic spheres.

Indianapolis 500 cars at Indianapolis Airport

Museums, ,

Car racing fans take note: classic Indianapolis 500 race cars will be on display at the Indianapolis International Airport (IND) through October 2013.

The first two cars on loan from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum are the Sugaripe Prune Eagle/Offy (above) driven to second place by Bill Vukovich Jr. in the 1973 Indianapolis 500 and the backup Norton Spirit Penske/Cosworth (below) driven in practice by three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Unser before the 1979 Indianapolis 500. Look for Vukovich’s car on Concourse B near the exit to Civic Plaza and for Unser’s car on Concourse A.

Two other historic race cars will replace those cars in April 2013.

Want to see more cars like this? The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum, on the grounds of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, displays at least 75 cars year-round.

The 97th Indianapolis 500 is scheduled for Sunday, May 26, 2013.

(Photos courtesy Indianapolis International Airport)

Free airport cab rides. Turkey Day at MIA, Santa at IND

ground transporation, Holidays, , ,

Getting ready for Thanksgiving travel? Here a few things that may help.

The folks at Shairporter – a new cab-sharing social platform – is promoting its New York City launch by giving away free cab rides on November 21 to New Yorkers traveling to the airport who register their ride through the Shairporter platform.

If you’re traveling through the Miami International Airport on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, November 19-21 or on Saturday and Sunday, November 24th and 25th, you’ll find activities underway that include a DJ, Pilgrim and Indian greeters, a kids craft station, a stilt-walking scarecrow, giveaways and a harvest background for taking photos. Here’s a link to the list of events and a sheet of coupons for the shops and restaurants.

And if you’re at Indianapolis International Airport on Saturday, November 24th, keep an eye out for Santa. He’ll be arriving on a giant fire and rescue truck (the reindeer only work on Christmas Eve) and once in the terminal, he’ll be hanging around the pre-security Civic Plaza from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. overseeing activities that include taking pictures with kids, holiday decoration-making stations, and photos and autograph opportunities with the Indianapolis Pacers Pacemates and Rowdie Claus from the Indianapolis Indians