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Evergreen Flight Museum

N363RV

Well Known Member
So, Amanda and I traveled to Seattle for some business. We were so excited to go see the factory... see this little write up.

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=104788

But we were actually on our way to go see the Evergreen flight museum.

OMG!! It is such a cool museum. We really wanted to see the spruce goose. It is amazingly large. It was such a pleasure to see it! But as an added bonus, there was an example of our airplane... a 6! (We actually have a 6A). It was a curious discovery because it is actually a 6.5 because it has a 7 tail. It is described as being serial number 1. In addition to that the SR71 is also there. Here a few pics and a link to all of the pics we took on that portion of our trip.


Here is a link to the rest of the album. Lots of pics of the museum!

https://picasaweb.google.com/105240...&authkey=Gv1sRgCOeurYSYg5bqRw&feat=directlink

Enjoy!!

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+1

My better half is not really into aviation museums, but she will happily attest that the Evergreen Flight Museum is probably the very best aviation museum we have visited, and well worth the journey from Aurora, should you be visiting Van's.
 
Thanks for posting the photos

I would like to see it but absent that I'm glad you posted your photos. In 1947 The flight of the giant seaplane by Howard Hughes was in the news reels at all the theaters and I saw it at that time. I would like to see it in person but this is good.

Thanks,

Bob Axsom
 
It is indeed awesome!!

I was sick as dog the day I was there but it was still a great day.

All the museums I have seen in the USA are awesome.

The best three have to be Evergreen USAF (Dayton) and the Smithonian at Dulles. I am not sure which order to put them in, so they are all equally good.

The USAF Museum in Dayton OH needs a couple of days or even 2.5 so do not expect to just blow in and out. Dulles needs a day. Evergreen maybe half a day. So plan ahead.
 
Another unique opportunity

As a side note to any going to visit evergreen; If they still offer this, you can pay a little extra, I recall 6 or 8$ per person for a small group to get a "photo opportunity" on the flight deck. They allowed me to take as many photos as I wanted, including out of the hatch on the top of the fuse. There is even a hat, so you can sit in Howard's seat with his hat on. As a courtesy, I did purchase one of their photos, but it wasn't a terrible price. You can actually see the walkways into the wings from there. Well worth the price, if they still offer this. Ask them when you get there. It's an amazing museum.

KB
 
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As a side note to any going to visit evergreen; If they still offer this, you can pay a little extra, I recall 6 or 8$ per person for a small group to get a "photo opportunity" on the flight deck. They allowed me to take as many photos as I wanted, including out of the hatch on the top of the fuse. There is even a hat, so you can sit in Howard's seat with his hat on. As a courtesy, I did purchase one of their photos, but it wasn't a terrible price. You can actually see the walkways into the wings from there. Well worth the price, if they still offer this. Ask them when you get there. It's an amazing museum.

KB

They still do that, but I think it is $25.

On the upside, while I was about to give them $40+ to get in, they asked me if I am a member of EAA. I didn't have my EAA card with me, but I did have my smartphone with me and logged into the EAA site, which they accepted as proof that I am a member. This allowed Amanda and me to get into the museum free of charge. :)
 
Free

Also you can get free admission through your EAA membership -

http://www.eaa.org/passport/

Evergreen is a participating museum...

Having seen the Spruce Goose HK-1 in Long Beach several times, I think is looks much better in it's present Oregon home. With it surrounded by other planes you get a much better idea of its impressive size.
 
It should be on every aviators bucket list. It is a world class museum. I did all of the lighting, back in the day, and was granted permission to climb all around inside the Spruce Goose prior to the museum official opening. It is amazingly huge.

They kicked me out when I started making airplane noises and jacking the controls around while sitting in Howards seat....

A little known fact, the Museum building had to be re-permitted and partial construction stopped so the building could be moved over a few feet. This was to accommodate the position of the Spruce Goose so it's center line would be perfectly in-line with the F15 across the highway which was Capt. Michael King Smiths fighter, who the museum is dedicated to.

If you sit in Howards seat, you look straight out at the F15, which is about 1/4 mile away.
 
OK I Gotta Go See It

It should be on every aviators bucket list. It is a world class museum. I did all of the lighting, back in the day, and was granted permission to climb all around inside the Spruce Goose prior to the museum official opening. It is amazingly huge.

They kicked me out when I started making airplane noises and jacking the controls around while sitting in Howards seat....

A little known fact, the Museum building had to be re-permitted and partial construction stopped so the building could be moved over a few feet. This was to accommodate the position of the Spruce Goose so it's center line would be perfectly in-line with the F15 across the highway which was Capt. Michael King Smiths fighter, who the museum is dedicated to.

If you sit in Howards seat, you look straight out at the F15, which is about 1/4 mile away.

OK I watched the Long Beach flight in the theater news reel shortly after it happened in 1947, I visited the Evergreen museum when it was located at an airport north of Tucson where I refueled one time in the 1980s and I worked on the F-15 at McDonnell in St. Louis in the 1970s, I feel an urge to bring it all together.

Bob Axsom
 
OK I watched the Long Beach flight in the theater news reel shortly after it happened in 1947, I visited the Evergreen museum when it was located at an airport north of Tucson where I refueled one time in the 1980s and I worked on the F-15 at McDonnell in St. Louis in the 1970s, I feel an urge to bring it all together.

Bob Axsom

That would have been Pinal Air Park (KMZJ)... Evergreen contracted with the US govt. and might have been part of this - from wiki -

Marana became the headquarters of all Central Intelligence Agency air operations during the Vietnam War years, when it was the primary facility of Intermountain Airlines, a wholly owned CIA "front" company which was used to supply covert operations in Southeast Asia & elsewhere. Intermountain was infamous for its thinly veiled CIA special ops which included development & use of the Fulton Skyhook, but its cover was its non-scheduled freight & maintenance operations. Marana was the principal continental United States maintenance base for Southeast Asia CIA operations including Air America and Continental Air Services.

It still has govt. connections with a NG base and this -

Pinal Airpark also hosts the U.S. Special Operations Command's Parachute Training and Testing Facility

However, it is still a public use airport, and is where the "black helicopters" come from...:)

http://goo.gl/maps/YjdCw
 
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Huge Thanks!

That museum is fantastic! I saw the Spruce Goose in it's San Diego local decades ago and it was painted in an ugly white preservation paint. Like white latex. I looked at all 215 pictures and enlarged them all to see the detail. In my Vernonia transition training, we landed at McMinnville a few times but never left the runway.

Thanks again for taking and posting the excellent documentation of this fine museum. It was the next best thing to being there, but I will be sure to land there in my 7 when completed!
 
Blown away

Wow. Just went. Blown away. I had no idea it was so big with so many airplanes to see. We didn't even have time for an Imax movie and many other things to see. It is probably too big to take in a single day.

DO NOT FORGET YOUR SWIM SUIT! I have to go back to go to the furthest building with the 747 on top. Apparently, there is a water slide from the top of the 747 that circles down and around into the bottom pool!

Personally, i think this is the best aviation museum i have seen. Better than the Smithsoneon Aerospace. Certainly much less crowded, nicer, and beautiful. Haven't seen the Dulles museum yet. Nobody else has the Spruce Goose, and of course, i had to watch The Aviator with Leonardo DiCaprio again.

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ALl the praise is well-earned ...

Spousal Unit and I went there a couple years ago... we were blown away by what a gorgeous museum it is. I fully concur that it ranks up there with NASM and the USAF museum in Dayton. We paid the extra $$ for our picture on the flight deck of the Spruce Goose. For the photo, they even give the left seater a hat to wear like Howard wore.
I was troubled by the lack of visitors there ... didn't see how they could pay the bills with so few visitors. Since then, I've heard scary stories about their sell off selected planes from the collection to pay the bills. I believe their gorgeous P-38 was already put on the block. :(
It's truly a "don't miss" opportunity if you're ever in Portland. Not a long drive from there at all.
 
Hey Jae!

Great pics! You back home now?
I too enjoyed watching Aviator after my last visit to Evergreen.
This is the model used for the movie scene, on display at the museum.
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Delford Smith, the founder of Evergreen passed away not too long ago. The airline Evergreen had been used to funnel money to the museum for quite some time, and finally succumbed to bankruptcy and closed the end of '14. It makes sense that that the museum may be canibalized till it too is whittled away to nothing. Hopefully I, and everyone who wants to see it can before it is gone.

Mark
 
http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-delford-smith-20141110-story.html

The story of Delford Smith and his son Michael could be a movie all unto itself. The museum is basically in memory of his son who died in a sudden and tragic car crash. With the grieving father now passed, i guess the will to keep the museum going could be in jeopardy. Pretty tragic story.

A nice memorial to his son containing a F-15 is just outside McMinnville airport across the road from the museum.

https://goo.gl/maps/qo3XG
 
Concur with all

Yup, concur with all of the praise as well. Delford Smith was a class act and an EXCELLENT ambassador for aviation and inspiring children. Even at the waterpark there are aviation displays and inspiring quotes and pictures all over the walls. Breaks my heart that it might be coming apart.

Side notes: I was lucky enough to get a tour from the staff of the 747 on top of the waterpark--up through the cargo compartment to the flight deck. Got some really puzzled look from all of the sliders as at the top of the stairs about to hop onto the slides as walked past them and through the door into the cargo bay.

Also, when I went through there a few years ago there was a Ford Tri-Motor parked where the DC-3 currently is. Turns out that Tri-Motor is now on the EAA's tour circuit operated by the Liberty Aviation Museum and I got to fly it last month, but that's a different story.
 
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