The Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville is a cool place.  Evergreen International is a family owned aviation company whose son, Captain Michael Smith, an air force pilot who tragically died in a car accident.  He was an F-15 fighter pilot and had a dream of creating a museum where the public could come in contact with the events, people and technologies associated with aviation, while preserving and commemorating the industry.

It covered early flight, the golden age, WW II, general aviation, rotary wing flight, reconnaissance and jets, and space.

This is a Sopwith Camel just like the one my grandfather flew and Bill’s grandfather worked on.

The museum had restoration teams who were honored for their passion and hard work to make these exhibits a reality.  Here, you can see into the cockpit of the Sopwith Camel and how the twin synchronized machine guns were mounted.

We were awed and fascinated.

But the biggest plane was Howard Hughes’ plane, The Spruce Goose.  All the other planes were dwarfed by it.

We had better luck taking pictures of the miniature built for the movie The Aviator.

There was an extensive space collection in a separate building.

 And some meteorites.

Hope you had fun at the museum… thanks for coming along!