Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, McMinnville, Oregon

Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, McMinnville, Oregon

As you drive on the property the first thing you see is vineyards and then a building under construction that has a 747 on the roof. What I heard was that this was going to be a restaurant and wine tasting room in the 747, not sure what the remainder of the building will be. But it sounds like it could be a lot of fun to visit again.

The Evergreen Air and Space Museum is very impressive with its displays of aircraft from the days of Orville and Wilbur Wright to the space craft of both the United States and Russia. There are 3 buildings that make up the museum, "Evergreen Aviation, Evergreen Space, Evergreen IMAX Theatre and an educational center. When visiting the museum you should plan on being there for a good day as it will take that much time to at least do a walk thru to see all the aircraft, space crafts and vintage vehicles and to take in the IMAX theater. There are many video presentations going on throughout the buildings. There is also an area outside in the parks of more military vehicles, tanks and equipment.

In the Aviation building the main feature is the famous Howard Hughes troop transport "Spruce Goose" build mostly of wood. The plane's features of wingspan and tail section are longer and higher than a 747. Wingspan of over 319 feet and tail height over 79 feet. It was designed to carry 750 troops. Some interesting fact that 7 tons of small nails were used in construction to form the shape and then when all the glue or special adhesives were set they were removed and holes plugged and the aircraft painted. The plane history is short as it only flew once on Nov 2, 1947 for approx 1 minute and 1 mile and 70 feet above the waters of Long Beach Harbor and the pilot was Howard Hughes. After this flight it went into storage in a special built hanger and after Mr Hughes death in 1976 it was to be disassembled and parts sent to different aviation museums or scrapped. The plane was saved and put on display in a dome facility near the Queen Mary in Long Beach for the period of 1982 to 1988. In 1988 Disney Corporation bought the facility but did not want the plane so its fate was up in the air. In 1992 the Evergreen museum was awarded the honor to save the plane, so in 1992 the dis assembly of the aircraft started and was the fuselage and wings were put on a barge and other parts trucked to the Portland, Oregon and in 1993 it was all trucked to McMinnville and stored on site and in 2001 the new building was ready and the aircraft moved into it and reassembled and opened for tourist the same year.

In the Aviation building there are over 150 aircraft from the Wright Brothers to some modern day aircraft. In the Space museum many different rockets, an SR-71 Blackbird, American and Russian space capsules, lunar rovers, landing craft, suits and so many exhibits to mention. It is a must to see for those who are interested in aviation.

We did not get into the IMAX, time constraints but they did offer several movies to see during the day. Also offered for an additional charge you could go up in the cockpit of the Spruce Goose and have pictures taken of being at the controls.

We did find a compact vehicle in the parking lot that we could almost strap to the roof of the RV as you can see in one of the pictures Sue is standing over it.

The Pacific Northwest offers so much to see that it will take another trip there and not just a drive by and stop a few times. What a beautiful area.