Evergreen Aviation Museum

In August 2010, I spent two weeks in the Pacific Northwest, both for work and vacation. Here are some photo highlights from my time off.

Click on the thumbnail images to get larger ones (around 100-300K). Click on the "huge" link to get the full size pictures (around 3M). Around 30 pictures included.

Part I: Seattle and WA vicinity
Part II: Downtown Portland, OR
Part III: Japanse Garden and Rose Garden
Part IV: Oregon Coast
Part V: Mt. Hood
Part VI: Spruce Goose
Part VII: Ann Arbor, MI

Spruce Goose

I went to the Evergreen Aviation Museum & Space Museum which has all forms of planes and space stuff. It's about an hour south of Portland. Its most notable feature is the HK-1 flying boat, known as the Spruce Goose.

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The first picture gives a small idea of what's in the aviation museum portion, while I was standing on a raised platform that let you look into the cockpit of some '60s or '70s fighter (sadly, I forget what it was; an F-4 era type thing). The second shot is of more planes, while under the wing of the Spruce Goose. And the thrid is of a plaque that contains more information about the HK-1 (Spruce Goose) than I can quote.

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The Spruce Goose is a big plane. Very big. These three shots, and the next one after it, form a poor-man's panoramic picture. Did I mention it was a big plane?

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Looking out to the edge of the wingtip of the HK-1. Another plaque with more specifications on the HK-1. And one of the doors with an anchor (it was a seaplane).

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The first picture was taken from inside the HK-1 in the belly, the cargo hold. This was a slow shot, about 1 second. There was a plexiglass wall and I essentially jammed the camera up against it and pressed hard enough so it wouldn't move (much). Given how dark it was, I'm pretty happy how this one came out. The beachballs were in fact part of the Spruce Goose. They filled space and helped with buoyancy. I believe the fire suppression system is a retrofit.

The second picture is from the raised platform where I enetered the cargo hold, looking out at the wing. The third picture is from the back, looking forward.

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Some shots of the tail, or as the French like to call it, the empennage. It's huge. In the second shot, it's clear that the horizontal support beams for the building extend lower than the tail. It had to be brought to the hangar in pieces and then assembed. Of course, that's not surprising, since how would you ship such a large thing in once piece? In the third picture, hanging from the ceiling a bit behind the tail is a V-tailed Beech Bonaza. It's about the size of the planes I fly, except not as big. There are also some helicopters hanging from the ceiling to the right of the Bonanza.

SR-71

The Space Museum section (it's in a separate building) has an SR-71 Blackbird. Remarkable planes. Very sexy. Even moreso, considering it was built with slide-rule technology in the '60s.

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A few shots of the Blackbird, the back, the side, and towards the front (another poor-man's panoramic shot).

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The first picture completes the panorama from the last set. Then a shot of the back. They engine cowling was open with an engine removed from the mounts. The last shot is looking into the back of the engine nacelle, though the engine is not present. I had to set the camera on a ledge above my head in order to take that shot because there wasn't enough light to see into the nacelle.

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The first picture is what the engine nacelle looked like normally (which is why it was hard to get enough light in the previous pictures). The second is a plaque with specifications about the SR-71, and the third is a head-on view of the plane.

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Three more views of the front of the plane.

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And two more pictures of the plane, from a bit farther back.

Miscellaneous

And finally a few other pictures from the musuem.

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They were moving a plane into a display area. They moved some stanchions aside and then moved the plane into place. It was a small, general aviation plane, so it was light enough for one person to move it, with the others watched the wing tips to make sure it wouldn't hit anything.

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The restrooms were labeled "Aviator" and "Aviatrix" which amused me. The museum is working on adding a new component: a water park. You slide from a 747 into a pool. They have the 747 mounted on top of a new building. They are still working on the other parts of it. Should be open in a year, Summer 2011. I'm kind of not sure how I feel about it. It could be really stupid or it could be really cool. Or maybe both.

Part I: Seattle and WA vicinity
Part II: Downtown Portland, OR
Part III: Japanse Garden and Rose Garden
Part IV: Oregon Coast
Part V: Mt. Hood
Part VI: Spruce Goose
Part VII: Ann Arbor, MI

Back to Frank's photos.

This page last modified Sep 03, 2012.
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