Spruce Goose to re-open tho the public
 

West Coast Bancorp Sponsors Opening Day of Evergreen Aviation Museum

LAKE OSWEGO, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 4, 2001--West Coast Bancorp, is proud to be the official opening day sponsor of The Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville (including the Captain Michael King Smith Evergreen Aviation Educational Institute) on Wednesday, June 6.

West Coast Bank's sponsorship will provide all visitors with free admission.

"We are excited to be sponsoring the museum's opening day events and participating in McMinnville's continuing growth," said President & CEO Robert D. Sznewajs. "We look forward to a long and successful relationship with this wonderful facility."

Opening day highlights include the Oregon debut of the famous Spruce Goose -- the world's largest airplane built in the 1940's by eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes. Constructed primarily of spruce wood, it was flown only once over the San Francisco Bay by Hughes himself.

Other vintage and historic aircraft will be displayed and the public is invited to an outdoor flag dedication ceremony at 10:00 a.m. with former U.S. Senator Mark Hatfield as featured speaker. A formal color guard presentation by the Oregon Air National Guard (ORANG) will begin at 10:00 a.m., with fly-bys of ORANG's F-15 and Evergreen's B-17 and P-51 aircraft.

Free tethered Vista hot air balloon rides will also be offered from noon-2:00 p.m., weather permitting.

Yes, there went the pay-raise the underpaid Evergreen pilots were hoping for.

(When Dell Smith bought the Spruce Goose and had it transported to Oregon)



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Men, this is no drill...

TOWER DOG--where did you get that handle, pray tell were you with a certain (unamed) airline out of NY (code named FF). Where we used "To fly more Muslims to Mecca, than any other ***ish Airline." if so drop me a line I am now a laid-off PFE from ATLAS AIR (THE BASTARDS) :mad: :mad: :mad:

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El Guapo 747
(Wow that is a BIG ONE!!)

Well I happened to be passing the other day so popped in to check it out. In the first week, they had pulled in 8,000 visitors - not bad!

The first impression is the remarkable and striking building it is housed in. Very functional, daylit and HUGE.

Everything is still new, and a lot has the feeling of being unfinished. Apparently the official opening isn't until November, and the Spruce Goose is not completed yet, with all the control surfaces lying on the floor (this in itself is quite interesting, as you can see the construction techniques up close). The aircraft interior is not accessible at this time, much to the consternation of many visitors, I'm not sure what the schedule for that is.

I think that the Spruce Goose, in its current state, really shows the continuing folly of the entire project - and it still goes on. It is not inappropriate that Evergreen are the current curator. ;)

There are some nice warbirds in there as well. A nice Corsair, Lightning, Spit, Me-109, P-40.

It's a bit vacant at the moment, and certainly like walking into someone's hangar while they are at work (but gone for lunch).

If you haven't seen the Spruce Goose before, it's certainly worth visiting. The view of the aircraft through the glass front of the building is very impressive. As far as going a long way to see it, I'd wait until the entire project is finished and they get everything organised.

One of the museum staff said that for the official opening they hoped to have Colin Powell and various other dignitaries there(possibly even the President!), but that sounded a lot like Evergreen to the core. It will be interesting to see how deep Del's roots run in Washington D.C., and how many paybacks he will be able to call in, here in his ultimate moment of philantrophy.

Certainly worth a visit.
http://sprucegoose.org/

My Dad worked for Hughes Aircraft briefly in 1946 before being appointed engineering project manager at Douglas on the DC-6. He mentioned that Howard was at the plant at least three days per week "supervising" the construction. Also a man could walk upright on a cat-walk behind the engines until just past the outboard engine. A very LARGE wing.
We had a table at home for years that was made from the 28-ply spar cap birch plywood.
A truly amazing aircraft which, I suspect needed at least 4 more engines. Clearly, Howard Hughes was...."one of a kind".