Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum

Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum

Established	1991 (as the Evergreen Museum)
Location	McMinnville, Oregon, United States
Coordinates	45°12′14″N 123°8′36″W / 45.20389°N 123.14333°W / 45.20389; -123.14333Coordinates: 45°12′14″N 123°8′36″W / 45.20389°N 123.14333°W / 45.20389; -123.14333
Type	Private: aerospace
Director	Brandon Roben
Website	evergreenmuseum.org

The Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum is an aviation museum which displays a number of military and civilian aircraft and spacecraft, most notably, the Hughes H-4 Hercules, popularly known as the Spruce Goose. The museum is located in McMinnville, Oregon, across the street from the former headquarters of Evergreen International Aviation. Oregon Route 18 separates the museum from the company operations and McMinnville Municipal Airport (KMMV). An IMAX theater opened in 2007, and a second exhibit hall focusing on the Titan II ICBM and space technology opened in 2008.

History

A B-25 Mitchell bomber on the main floor of the museum.

First envisioned by Capt. Michael King Smith, son of Evergreen International Aviation founder Delford Smith, the Evergreen Museum opened in 1991 with a small collection of vintage aircraft in a hangar at company headquarters.

In March 1990, The Walt Disney Company announced that it would close the Long Beach, California, exhibit of the Spruce Goose. The Aeroclub of Southern California began looking for a new home for the historic aircraft. In 1992, the Evergreen Museum won the bid with a proposal to build a museum around the aircraft and feature it as a central exhibit.^[1]

The disassembly of the aircraft began in August 1992. The parts were sent by ship up the Pacific Ocean, Columbia River, and Willamette River to Dayton where it was transferred to trucks and driven to Evergreen International Aviation. It arrived in February 1993.^[2] For the next eight years, the plane went through detailed restoration. Volunteers removed all the paint, replaced worn parts, and repainted the entire aircraft, among many other tasks.^[3] In September 2000, the main aircraft assemblies were complete. The fuselage, wings, and tail were transported across the highway and into the new museum building, still under construction. Over the next year, crews assembled the wings and tail to the fuselage. These were completed in time for the museum's opening on June 6, 2001. The control surfaces (flaps, ailerons, rudder, and elevators) were assembled later. The last piece was put into place on December 7, 2001.

The name of the museum has evolved. Initially known as the Evergreen Museum, it changed in 1994 to the Evergreen AirVenture Museum. In 1997, the facility was renamed the Captain Michael King Smith Evergreen Aviation Educational Center in memory of Captain Smith, who died in an automobile accident in March 1995.

In September 2006, work began on the space museum building, a twin to the aviation museum. By this time, the museum had acquired several space-related items, and the original building was running out of room. The new building was completed in May 2008 and had its grand opening on June 6, 2008, exactly seven years after the aviation museum opened.^[4] In 2009, the museum became an affiliate in the Smithsonian Affiliations program.^[5]

Attempts to obtain a retired Space Shuttle were unsuccessful.^[6]

In early 2016, Michael King Smith Foundation officials announced they were filing for bankruptcy. According to reports, the campus was acquired by The Falls Event Center, a company owned by Steve Down, for $10.9 million in July 2016.^[7][8]

Description

Currently, two exhibit centers are open to the public: The original structure is the aviation center with the Spruce Goose as centerpiece. Other aircraft, spanning the entire history of aviation, are arranged in the building, some parked under the wings of the Spruce Goose or suspended from the ceiling.

The space flight center is in a building the same size as the aviation center. Because there are fewer space-related holdings, the center includes a large number of panels and other displays that chronicle the history of space flight. Visitors can operate flight simulators for landing the space shuttle as well as for docking a Gemini capsule and performing a moon landing of the Lunar Excursion Module. The building also exhibits overflow holdings from the aviation center, usually the higher-performance jet aircraft.

Two of the main attractions of the space flight center are a Titan II missile and a SR-71 Blackbird.^[9] The Titan II sits upright in a specially constructed display extending two stories below the floor, silo fashion. The exhibit includes a re-created missile control room furnished with furniture and equipment donated from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

The museum's many volunteers include former aviators who flew the planes on display. Their detailed descriptions and real-life commentary help bring the planes and their days of flight back to life.^[10] The museum also offers a number of film presentations on the development and use of the aircraft, along with hands-on displays demonstrating various principles of avionics.^[11]

An F-15 Eagle is displayed on a pedestal in front of the EIA headquarters across the highway from the museum. A bronze statue stands by on the pathway between the aviation and space museum. Both are marked in Smith's memory.^[12]

Kids climb on a Soviet T-55 behind the main building.

A smaller building has a seven-story IMAX theater. A radio control air flight field is located behind the aviation center, near a group of Soviet-built armored vehicles, including two T-34/85s, a T-55 and two armored personnel carriers.

Wings and Waves Waterpark

Exterior of the waterpark, showing the mounted Boeing 747-100

Wings & Waves Waterpark opened June 6, 2011.^[13] The 71,350-square-foot (6,629 m²) waterpark, Oregon's largest, features 10 slides and a 91,703-gallon wave pool with the intent of tying into the educational focus of the Evergreen Museum Campus with its "Life Needs Water" interactive display in the H2O Children's Science Center.^[14] The four big slides begin inside a retired Boeing 747-100 that sits atop the roof, 62 feet (19 m) above the splash landing.

The Waterpark was bought by The Falls Event Center in 2017, and is now run as a separate organization.

The Museum sued the waterpark for failing to make monthly payments in April 2018.^[15]

Key holdings

SR-71 instrument panel

Panorama of the museum, taken from under the wing of the Hercules

Martin Titan II SLV Space Launch Vehicle, on display

• Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress AAF Ser. No. 44-83785
• Curtiss P-40 Warhawk
• de Havilland DH.100 Vampire Mk.52
• Douglas A-1 Skyraider
• Douglas A-4 Skyhawk
• Douglas C-47
• Douglas DC-3A
• Foton-6 Space Capsule
  • Unmanned version of the Vostok spacecraft (Russian space capsule)
• Grumman TF-9J Cougar
• Hughes H-4 Hercules
  • This is the famous Spruce Goose, a flying boat with the largest wingspan of any aircraft ever built.
• North American T-39 Sabreliner
  • Donated to the museum in January 2013, Rockwell Collins’ 1964 Sabreliner Model 50 (tail number N50CR), acquired by the company in 1976 was utilized for many significant flight-test projects that helped shape modern commercial and military avionics. The aircraft was flown approximately 8,000 hours with more than 5,000 landings.^[16]
• Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird
  • This Blackbird was one of three that were reactivated and used by NASA and the USAF in 1995. Its last flight was February 1, 1996.^[17]
• Martin Titan II SLV Space Launch Vehicle
  • This particular missile is the last of 14 Titan IIs that were converted for science, weather and military satellite launches. This was the only one out of the 14 not to be launched. It also holds the distinction of being the last Titan-II ICBM fabricated. Serial Number 66-4319 or B-108, the final of 108 Titan-II ICBMs produced. The exhibit includes the Titan II launch control center equipment used in California for launching the Titan 23G.
• Titan IV
  • One of only two remaining Titan IV launch vehicles in existence is on outdoor display at the museum. The exhibit includes the core stages for Titan IVB #K-40 and some parts for the solid rocket motors.^[18]
• McDonnell Douglas F-15A Eagle
  • This aircraft is displayed on a pedestal at the Evergreen headquarters in memory of the late Capt Michael King Smith, USAF / OR ANG, son of Evergreen International founder Delford "Del" Smith
• McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II
• Mercury Space Capsule
• Messerschmitt Bf 109G-10/U-4 610937
  • This is one of very few Bf-109s that is capable of flying in its current condition.
• Messerschmitt 262 (Reproduction by Legend Flyers)
• Mikoyan Guryevich MiG-17A "Fresco" (true Russian version)
• Mikoyan Guryevich MiG-21MF "Fishbed-J"
• Mikoyan MiG-29 "Fulcrum-A"
• NASA X-38 V-131R
• Supermarine Spitfire Mk. XVI

Also on display are many different aircraft engines.

The exhibit also includes many helicopters, reflecting Evergreen Aviation's original helicopter fleet.

90° panorama of the Hughes H-4 Hercules (the Spruce Goose) as currently seen in the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum

Gallery

• 
  Nose, cockpit, and four starboard engines of the Spruce Goose
• 
  B-17G-95DL 44-83785
• 
  An SR-71 Blackbird under the wing of the Spruce Goose (taken before the SR-71 was moved to the new space building)

See also

• List of aerospace museums

References

Bibliography

• Careless, James. "How the 'Spruce Goose' Became Part of a Water Park". IAAPA. Retrieved 11 July 2018.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Evergreen Aviation Museum.

• Official website