Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum March 2012
Monday, March 12th, 2012
On Monday March 12th 2012, Larry & Ramona headed west towards McMinnville, Oregon, and spent the day at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum. This huge complex of four hangar-sized buildings has something amazing for all age groups. Since its still the dead of winter here, and there was snow on the ground when we left Gresham, we decided to pass on the Water Park part of the complex. The IMAX theater building was undergoing renovations, so we passed on that part too. Still, the remaining two buildings made the trip worthwhile. One building deals with the history of flight, from hand made wooden wings with ropes, all the way up to modern fighter jets. The jewel of the exhibit is the Spruce Goose.
General characteristics of the Spruce Goose include:
- Crew: 3
- Length: 218 ft 8 in (66.65 m)
- Wingspan: 319 ft 11 in (97.54 m)
- Height: 79 ft 4 in (24.18 m)
- Fuselage height: 30 ft (9.1 m)
- Loaded weight: 400,000 lb (180,000 kg)
- Powerplant: 8 × Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major radial engines, 4,000 hp (2,640 kW) each
- Propellers: four-bladed Hamilton Standard, prop, 1 per engine
- Propeller diameter: 17 ft 2 in (5.23 m)
- Cruise speed: 250 mph (407.98 km/h)
- Range: 3,000 mi (4,800 km)
- Service ceiling: 20,900 ft (6,370 m)
Also housed in this part of the museum was a firearms collection.
The next building was the Space Museum. Everything from hand made miniature rockets to four-story satellite launching behemoths, an SR-71 Blackbird, a Lunar Module and Lunar Buggy fill this building. The even have a mock-up presentation of a launch center with a launch simulation that literally shakes the walls. They actually had to turn it down after installation because the building’s safety computers used to shut down the elevators because it felt like an earthquake.
There is only one set of pictures this time. Ramona let me carry around her camera, and I took pictures of just about everything, so those of you who aren’t from the area can get an idea just how awesome this place is.
Admission to the complex is $20, although you can get $5 off if you have a AAA or Costco card. I think it was well worth the price.
For more info and directions be sure to visit the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum website.
Category : Misc. Non-Hiking Stuff
Tags: aviation, evergreen, Goose, helicopter, mcminnville, moon, museum, Oregon, plane, rocket, space, spruce
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