Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum

Wednesday Sept 26th, 2012

The Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, in McMinnville Or,  is home of the world’s largest wooden airplane, the Spruce Goose, as well as 150 other historic aircraft. 

 

The Spruce Goose is built entirely of wood, due to wartime restrictions on metal.  The largest airplane ever built, and flown only one time. The plane was designed and built by Howard Hughes.

The plane made only one flight on November 2, 1947. The unannounced decision to fly was made by Hughes during a taxi test. With Hughes at the controls, David Grant as co-pilot, and several engineers, crewmen and journalists on board, the Spruce Goose flew just over one mile at an altitude of 70 feet for one minute. The short flight proved to skeptics that the gigantic machine could fly.

Perhaps always dreaming of a second flight, Hughes kept a full crew to maintain the giant plane in a climate-controlled hangar up until his death in 1976.

 

Veterans Memorial

Leonardo Di Vinci’s notes on the flying machine were written backwards, they had to be viewed in a mirror.

 

A golf cart made to look like a space shuttle for transporting visitors.

The first passenger plane built by the Ford Motor company.

 

Moon Buggy

Blackbird Spy plane.

Evergreen Wings & Waves Waterpark is an educational waterpark that includes ten waterslides (ranging from slides for the little ones to slides for daredevils), a wave pool and a children’s museum to teach students about the power of water. Consisting of classic Evergreen Museum building design, the space features nearly 70,000 square feet and topped by a massive Evergreen International Aviation B747-100 aircraft on the top of the building.

The plane on the top of the building is part of the water slide. 

We spent two nights in McMinnville before moving down the coast of Oregon.