Wednesday, January 16, 2008

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A friend of mine and I took a short trip this week to McMinnville, Oregon to see a piece of aviation history; Howard Hughes’ H-4 Flying Boat nicknamed “The Spruce Goose.” It’s on display at the Evergreen Aviation Museum along with many other historically interesting aircraft. It is the largest wooden aircraft in the world and big by any standard. 3 meters shorter than a Boeing 747, 17 meters wider than an Airbus A-380. It was built of wood because the government contract which funded it specified no materials critical to the war effort (i.e. metal) could be used in its construction. It was to replace shipping as a way to move men and material to Europe during WWII and avoid the threat of U-Boat sinkings. It was flown only once, on November 2, 1947 by Hughes himself. The war and therefore the purpose for the aircraft ended. It was never commercialized. Here are three more pictures of it.

The aviation museum also houses a bunch of interesting flying machines. Below is a P-38 Lightning and the interior of the Mercury-10 Space Capsule.

On our way back, we stopped at the Tillamook Air Museum housed in, you guessed it, Tillamook, Oregon. Frankly, the museum is a disappointment after Evergreen. The most interesting thing is the building itself. It was originally constructed as a hanger for Squadron ZP-33’s 8 K-Class blimps. These blimps, used in anti-submarine warfare, were each 251 feet long and all 8 fit inside the enormous hanger at the same time. The hanger itself is over 1,000 feet long, almost 200 feet high, and almost 3oo feet wide. Big enough to play 6 NFL Football games, at the same time, but sadly no extra room for paying fans. Below are photos of the hangar itself, an A-26 Invader and a vintage MiG.

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Planes
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