Ever since I was a kid interested in airplanes, I remember reading about and seeing photos of Howard Hughes’ “Spruce Goose.”  Officially known as the Hughes H-4 Hercules, the Spruce Goose was – at the time and for a while after – the largest aircraft to ever fly.  The Wikipedia Page  for the plane is a rabbit hole of more information for anyone wishing to delve deeper.  After many stops on a long journey, the current home for the plane is the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon.

I didn’t realize that the Spruce Goose was in Oregon when we started making plans, but I came across a reference to it during our research.  When I found out that we would be very close to McMinnville, a town in the heart of Oregon’s Willamette Valley wine region, stopping there was a no-brainer.  Except…the museum had been closed during Oregon’s response to the Covid virus.  Fortunately the conditions had improved enough for Oregon to allow museums to re-open shortly before we left home on our trip.  Good timing – the state has recently re-entered a lockdown phase the the museum has closed again.

As you can see from the photos, the plane is simply enormous, dwarfing all of the other aircraft in the museum.  For even more geekery, check out this article discussing the various calculations of “largest aircraft” along with a size comparison.

Seeing the Spruce Goose in person was a real treat.  In fact the entire museum is really well done, with two separate buildings – one for aircraft and the other for space related displays.  It was especially nice to have a good indoor thing to do, since all that haze you see in the outdoor photos is smoke. 🙁

For even more photos from the museum, I’ve created an Adobe Portfolio Page.  Check it out!