Evergreen Air and Space Museum

Today we went to Evergreen space and aviation museum. The main attraction was a plane called the Spruce Goose. Although named the Spruce Goose it was not made out of spruce - it was made from mostly birch. It was built in 1947 and cost 25 million dollars to build. The reason it was built was because the Americans needed a way to deploy cargo and troops during WW 2, mostly to Europe. Called the air boat, the Spruce Goose was six times the size of the largest aircraft (at the time). It could fly, AND float on water.  It weighed 4,000,000 lbs and its payload weighed 130,000 lbs.

 

 

 

 

 

A man named Howard Hughes took on the task of building the Spruce Goose and many said it would not fly being the size and weight that it is. But he proved them wrong by flying the Spruce Goose for a short period.  After he flew it, it was never flown again. Instead it was kept in a specially designed hanger which cost 1 million dollars a year to maintain. He was rich, so he could afford it! Eventually, he decided he didn't want to pay anymore and was going to ship parts to museums then Walt Disney came in and said he would pay for the whole plane. It eventually was placed in Evergreen aviation centre and has been there ever since.

 

Not only does Evergreen have a Theatre, space museum and aviation centre. It even has a water park. The bad thing about the water park was the stairs. You had to take 111 stairs to get to the top. But at the top a plane (747) was sitting on the roof.  All the water slides came out of the plane. They also had wave pools, spa's, whirlpools and a basketball court in the water. It even had an arcade!