


The drive south was initially foggy, but it brightened before I got to Portland. The buildings pictured here were my view of the city driving through on I-5.

The museum is built around one amazing aircraft: the Spruce Goose.

What a remarkable result. The Spruce Goose is the largest wooden airplane ever made. At three hundred nineteen feet, eleven inches, it has the greatest wing-span of any aircraft ever built. It is a seaplane, and is more than two hundred and eighteen feet long and almost eighty feet tall. The plane, in fact, is not made of spruce – the vast majority of the wood used to build it is poplar.
The great creature never again took too the air. But for the next 33 years, until his death, Hughes insisted that the plane be kept in flight-ready condition.


The airplane is too large to photograph in its hanger; the best overview is found in the model pictured above (under the bow and anchor line of the real thing), one of which was used in the film about Howard Hughes. One can go inside the plane. I did and it’s huge. The museum offered tours of the flight deck for $50, which was a little rich for my taste. Above are pictures of the interior of the Spruce goose, looking forward (toward stairs) and aft (person standing in it).
A DC-3 transport/airliner under the big plane’s left wing gives a little sense of scale:

One of the curious facts about the plane is that scores, and probably hundreds, of inflatable beach balls were found in it when it was disassembled and brought to McMinnville. It turns out that Hughes was afraid that the plane would sink in the event of a catastrophe, so he insisted that the pontoons and part of the hull be filled with these blow-up toys to lessen the chances, or perhaps just to slow the process.

You can get a tour of the Spuce Goose's flight deck for $50. That seemed a bit rich for my tastes, but I did take advantage of a $3 guided tour inside the museum’s airworthy B-24 Flying Fortress. A fascinating experience.
You go in through the rear.

Here’s the docent talking about the ball gunner’s position. – Very cramped and uncomfortable seeming. The average ball gunner on one of these planes was 5’7” and 140 lbs.

Inside it’s not much better. The docent is standing above the ball in the belly of the plane.

This is the radio room.

And here’s the hatch, through the bomb bay, up to the front of the plane. Yup, if you want to go there, you get to walk on a catwalk. All the light that you see in this photo would be ground, thousands of feet below, once the plane was aloft. Not a great place to stretch your legs just for kicks.

A huge percentage of the bomber crews that flew these planes were lost over Europe. Just staggering numbers. This tour gave a real sense of how little fun, and how cold, loud and uncomfortable, their missions were.
And there were lots of other great planes. These are just a few of them:

Apollo landing vehicle replica.
Soviet Mig-29 -- unusual.
One of my all-time favorites, the DeHavilland Vampire, one of the earliest and simplest jet planes.

Gorgeous Sopwith Camel Replica.
1946 Sikorsky helicopter.

Curtiss P-40 Warhawk in Chinese livery.
P-51 Mustang.
1 comment:
Whit
I'm sorry we didn't get to fly. But I'm terrifically happy you got to see the Goose. Evergreen's done a great job.
You're doing an amazing job of cataloging a trip like this. I can't wait to show it to friends who want to see some remarkable places.
Thanks. I hope to see you again. Perhaps to take you flying out east some time in the Glasair. I went up today with a friend and had an amazing flight looking at the new snow around western Washington.
Happy travels. cch
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