Mustang Climbs the Empire State Building

In 1965, a brand new Ford Mustang Convertible climbed the 86 floors to the observation deck at the top of the Empire State Building, to celebrate the new model's launch.

Fifty years later, and to celebrate the launch of the new 2015 Mustang, history would repeat itself.

At more than 1,000 feet above street level, the observation deck is too high to reach by crane, and the 400-foot spire makes using a helicopter impossible.

No, just as in 1965, engineers from Ford and partner DST Industries would have to cut the Mustang into sections and take them on a convoluted journey through a series of elevators.

While the journey starts with a freight elevator, the team would also have to negotiate two smaller passenger elevators.

As one of the engineers noted: "the Mustang may have grown over the last 50 years, but the Empire State Building is just as it was."

The team started by taking a scale model of the new Mustang and drew a series of lines to work out where the cut points should be.

A tubular steel subframe was constructed to hold the sections together once assembled, and a mock-up of the smallest elevator was built to test that each section could fit without damaging the building's intricate art deco wood and brass features.

Retired DST engineer Claude Cochran recalls: "The only real problem we had in 1965 was the steering wheel.  When we tried to roll the middle section of the car with the windshield removed into the elevator, the top of the wheel stuck out a bit too far through the door, so we had to tip the cart a bit to get it in."

Transporting the sectioned Mustang to the roof wasn't the only challenge: the team also had to re-assemble it inside a limited time-frame.

The observation deck is open to the public from 08:00 am to 02:00 am, leaving just a six-hour window for the team to assemble the car before the deck re-opened the following morning.

The six-man team spent several days practising the assembly and disassembly process to ensure they could complete the task in the allotted time.

The Mustang was on display to visitors atop the Empire State Building from April 16-17.  At 2am on April 18, the engineers disassembled the car and retraced their steps back down the elevators.

In the Empire State Building's 83 year history, only two cars have ever journeyed to the top.

Both have been Mustangs.