Paddles_up
May 20, 2003, 09:55 AM
AP -- Dwarfed beneath the wing of Howard Hughes' fabled flying boat, the Spruce Goose, museum guide Dick Paridee exuberantly lists its leviathan specs as a clutch of rapt visitors listen in. It has a 320-foot wing span! That's a football field plus the end zones! enthuses Paridee while showing off the wooden wonder at the Evergreen Aviation Museum. Those propellers measure 17 feet two inches from tip to tip, says Paridee eliciting bursts of jeez and wow from his listeners as they gape at the big bird.
The Spruce Goose, the world's largest airplane in terms of wing span, is the star attraction at Evergreen Aviation
Museum. The airplane was rescued from an uncertain fate when it was moved to Oregon from Long Beach, California 11 years ago. It has been saved for posterity because of the aeronautic fervor of the late Capt. Michael Smith, who was an F-15 pilot in the Oregon Air National Guard. He was also the son of Delford Smith, founder of Evergreen International Aviation, a McMinnville-based corporation whose businesses include flying cargo maintenance of passenger airliners and selling airplanes and parts. Michael Smith encouraged his father to bid on the airplane with the intent of having it be the focus of an aviation museum. Evergreen won the bid. The aircraft was disassembled and transported to McMInnville by truck and barge at a cost of nearly $4 million.
Capt. Smith died in a car crash in 1995, but his father made sure his son's dream came true. :pilot_2: :windsock:
The Spruce Goose, the world's largest airplane in terms of wing span, is the star attraction at Evergreen Aviation
Museum. The airplane was rescued from an uncertain fate when it was moved to Oregon from Long Beach, California 11 years ago. It has been saved for posterity because of the aeronautic fervor of the late Capt. Michael Smith, who was an F-15 pilot in the Oregon Air National Guard. He was also the son of Delford Smith, founder of Evergreen International Aviation, a McMinnville-based corporation whose businesses include flying cargo maintenance of passenger airliners and selling airplanes and parts. Michael Smith encouraged his father to bid on the airplane with the intent of having it be the focus of an aviation museum. Evergreen won the bid. The aircraft was disassembled and transported to McMInnville by truck and barge at a cost of nearly $4 million.
Capt. Smith died in a car crash in 1995, but his father made sure his son's dream came true. :pilot_2: :windsock: