Warbird Nostalgia

Judy and I had just been to the Tillamook Air Museum and that had pretty much filled her quota of air museums for the foreseeable future, so when I discovered the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, just a few miles away from the campground, she said, "Have a nice time."  The big attraction at this museum is the infamous Spruce Goose, which had been transplanted from Long Beach, but that wasn't what rang my bell.  Having been born during WWII and brought up in the San Fernando Valley near the Van Nuys Airport, I have a big-time case of  nostalgia for the warbirds of that era.  I still remember watching them fly over our house in Sherman Oaks.  And I knew from the museum's website that they had some real beauties.  The picture below is a stock photo of the museum campus, which includes a waterpark.  Go figure.



 I'll start with the warbird that just might be my favorite.  The Corsair was the plane flown by Pappy Boyington, a real-life ace in the Pacific theatre, who was played by Robert Conrad.  I used to watch the "Blacksheep Squadron" TV series just to see all the cool gull-winged Corsairs -- which I'm sure was less than two minutes per episode, but I loved it anyway.

 

This next picture is a display featuring two of the Luftwaffe's best fighters, the FW-190 and the Me-262.  The FW-190, on the left, replaced the Me-109 and became the backbone of the German air force for most of the war.  The Me-262 was the first operational jet fighter.  It might have had a big impact on the air war in Europe, but it was too late.  Few Me-262s were produced; the Allies had bombed the German aircraft factories into piles of rubble.

Now we skip ahead a couple of decades to the MIG-21, a very advanced Russian fighter of the Cold War era.  The MIG-21 saw a lot of action during the Vietnam War.  This one looks particularly nasty, I thought.

 

To tell the truth, I'm not a huge fan of choppers, but I couldn't look at these without thinking of my late father-in-law, Chuck Buzzetti, who was The Helicopter Whisperer.  This one's for you, Chuck.  I really wish you could have been there with me to see their collection of helicopters, of which this is just one part. 

And now we're back to the WWII warbirds and another of my favorites, the P-38 Lightning.  They had a lot of firepower, they could climb like a monkey, and they just look really cool.

Who doesn't love John Wayne in "Flying Tigers"?  OK, let's be honest -- the P-40 wasn't a great airplane, but it could dive like a rock.  The Flying Tigers would climb high, wait for the Japanese bombers, then dive out of the sun, make one pass, and run like hell for home. 

This might have been my favorite display, matching two old enemies -- a British Spitfire (foreground) and a German Me-109.  The Spitfire was the plane that saved England during the Battle of Britain, and they faced off with Me-109s on a daily basis.  Both planes are beautifully preserved.

It just wouldn't be right to do a blog article on the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum and not show the main attraction.  Photos really don't do it justice.  Without being there and seeing it up close, it's hard to fathom the incredible size of the Spruce Goose.  The planes in the foreground give you a little idea of scale.  The wingspan of a B-17 is shorter than the width of the tail of this monster.  By the way, just to set the record straight, it was originally supposed to have been built out of aluminum, not wood.  It was during WWII and aluminum was scarce.  Tough luck, Howard.

The Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum was an amazing experience, and I would recommend it for anyone -- even if you're not a warbird nut like me.  The space stuff was cool too, and they have a 3-D theater, a store, and a restaurant.  Stop by the next time you're in the McMinnville neighborhood and you'll be glad you took the time.