This Oregon flight museum is every bit as good or better than the Smithsonian Air Museum. The 'crown jewel' of the Evergreen Aviation Museum is known around the world as the 'Spruce Goose'.
The centerpiece or 'crown jewel' of the Evergreen Aviation Museum is a plane known around the world as the 'Spruce Goose'. The giant Spruce Goose is also known as the Hughes Flying Boat H-4 (HK-1) Hercules. The Hughes H-4 Hercules is an aircraft designed and built by Howard Hughes's Hughes Aircraft company. Its first and only flight was in 1947. Howard Hughes himself detested the nickname 'Spruce Goose'. The nickname arose as a way of mocking the Hercules project due to Hughes' alleged misuse of government funding to build the aircraft. The Hercules is the largest flying boat, and still holds the record for the largest wingspan of any aircraft ever. Only one was ever built.
Due to wartime restrictions on the availability of metals, the H-4 was built almost entirely of laminated birch, not spruce as its nickname suggests. The aircraft was a marvel in its time. On July 20, 2002, the Hughes Flying Boat received an Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark designation from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for her progressive contributions to mechanical engineering and her significance to society in general.
The museum also houses a large number of aircraft from U.S. aviation history in its 121,000 square-foot facility, including the Apollo Lunar Module. The museum features a replica of the Wright brothers' original 1903 craft as well as fighter jets, commercial planes, and, in the spirit of those aviation pioneers, home-built aircraft from the 1990s.
The museum is open daily from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 PM, in the summer they are open until 6 PM. They are closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. Children five and younger are admitted free of charge, and special discounts are available for students, seniors, and military personnel both past and present.
