We went to Evergreen Aviation museum in McMinnville, OR over the weekend. It's a very cool place. They had a great mix of aircraft from the Wright Flyer and Bleriot, Sopwith Camel and Stearman, to most of the great WW2 fighters, and of course the H-4 Hercules, or "Spruce Goose," which was incredible.

My favorite of all the aircraft on display was the Ford Tri-Motor. Since reading about Noel Wien using it in Alaska in the early days of his airline, I've been fairly intrigued by these things. Here's a few pics:

Definitely an all-time cool airplane. You can actually get a type rating in one of these at some outfit in the Grand Canyon area.

and here's the link... http://www.valleairport.com/typerating.htm

I seem to recall reading an article about a modified TriMotor (called a Bushmaster) that was used as a freighter in the Idaho backcountry not too many years ago.

Eric

We visited McMinnville last August on our trip out west after flying Idaho...my brothers had told me about the place...got to see the Ford Trimotor. What really impressed me was the BF-109 with the Damlier-Benz engine along with the Spruce Goose.
I took a lot of pictures but when I downloaded them I lost all of the pictures I took at McMinnville. I did take videos so I have the most important planes.
What I really missed were the pictures of the Russian T-34 tanks that were behind the museum. Is there anybody out there who might have good digital pictures of those machines?
HC

I thought the museum was way cool. Howard looked pretty dapper, but his copilot had a case of the leans, and it looks like they were using a piece of 6 inch sewer pipe for a pitot tube.



That Tri-motor is a jewel.

And here's that Bf 109: Imagine this in the hands of a 20 yr old Ubermensch


YB

Nice pics, C. Here's a few more. I was fascinated by these old engines. They had a whole line of them on display, including the beloved and ubiquitous O-235.



Curtiss OX-5


Umm...I can't recall. French manufactured. Maybe a Le Rhone model.


Le Rhone C9-J


Very shiny...somebody somewhere has a sore shoulder.

Very nice Zane!!

Did you go through the Goose? Probably a good thing it never went into production or we would have clear cut all of Oregon and part of Washington.

In the belly of the beast, it looks like something from a Stargate movie set:


Loved those rotary engines too.
Lots of subtle reminders of the real cost of the rapid development of these wonderful machines





The museum is a lovely venue. It ranks up there with my other favorite, the Pima Air Museum in Tucson which is much more of a Star Wars junk yard, but really fascinating.

YB

That first small round engine is a Salmson...and it's a radial not rotary. (second is a LeRhone rotary) Sweet smooth running engines, and an absolute jewell inside! That one should be about 40hp... they made basically the same engine with a geared nose that put out somewhere around 70hp.
John

I got 20 minutes in a tri-motor in 1978. One of the loudest planes I've ever been in but really fun.

Got a ride in one at Oshkosh in '03. Got to sit in the first seat on the right side..great pictures looking out past the engine.
HC