Why is the Flying Boat at the Evergreen Aviation Museum and not Long Beach, California?

In the late 1980s, after the deaths of Jack and Bonita Wrather, the Disney Corporation purchased the former holdings of the Wrather Corporation. In March 1990, Disney informed the Aeroclub of Southern California of its intention to discontinue the dome exhibit, leaving the Flying Boat looking for yet another home.

In 1992, the Aero Club of Southern California began requesting proposals for custody and preservation of the aircraft. Organizations submitting proposals had to meet two criteria:
Have access to land on which to house the Flying Boat and the funding necessary to move and care for her. Evergreen’s plan, as envisioned by Captain Michael King Smith, proposed to not only preserve and protect her, but also to display her as the central exhibit in a living museum.

The move to Oregon brought a new set of problems for the Flying Boat. The move would require disassembly, packaging, transportation, and re-assembly.

How did the Flying Boat get to Oregon and the Evergreen Aviation Museum?

Disassembly of the Flying Boat began August 10, 1992 and concluded six weeks later with the plane in 38 separate pieces. Crews crated the propellers, engines, and smaller parts, shipping them via Interstate 5. They created a large opening in the dome, shrink-wrapped the remaining pieces and rolled them out onto an ocean-going barge.

After traveling 980 nautical miles the control surfaces, horizontal stabilizers, wings, vertical tail, and fuselage arrived in Portland, Oregon. Thousands of people celebrated the arrival with an official proclamation of Spruce Goose Day on October 22, at Tom McCall Waterfront Park. The water levels of the Willamette River delayed the Flying Boat’s trip from Portland to McMinnville. The water was either too high for passage under bridges or too low for migration from the river to land. The large pieces remained in storage for several months.

Finally, conditions improved and the Flying Boat slowly made her way up river, setting new records at historic Willamette Falls, for the longest and highest load ever to pass through the locks. After landing near Dayton, Oregon the caravan of pieces stretched more than 1,500 feet down the narrow road.
The Flying Boat arrived in McMinnville at Evergreen International Aviation on February 27, 1993. A Spruce Goose homecoming parade converged down the final mile of the 138-day, 1,055-mile trip from Long Beach.

Shortly after the successful arrival to McMinnville, Museum co-founder, Captain Michael King Smith, died tragically as the result of an automobile accident.

Delford M. Smith, founder of Evergreen International Aviation, co-founder of the Museum and father to Michael King Smith, persevered and continued his son’s dream of an educational institute and living museum and re-named the Evergreen AirVenture Museum as The Captain Michael King Smith Educational Institute and Evergreen Aviation Museum to young Captains Smiths life, dreams, and accomplishments.

Who restored and re-assembled the Flying Boat and how long did it take?

Dedicated crews of volunteers restored the Flying Boats’ exterior in a temporary storage area. They replaced the deteriorated fabric on the rudder and elevators and removed the old paint from the fuselage, wings, vertical stabilizer, and floats. The paint removal exposed inspection stamps, signatures of men and women who worked on the original construction, and evidence that the wood laminate had passed wind shear tests. The crew sanded the large pieces of the Flying Boat, primed them with a white latex finish, and repainted them in the original flight color of silver.

Preparations began for the final 800-foot move from temporary storage to the new museum. Moving crews, news crews, and spectators began arriving during the early morning hours of September 16, 2000. At 10 a.m., the B-17 Flying Fortress signaled the beginning of the procession across Highway 18. The vertical tail came first, followed by the right and left wings, each spanning a distance wider than the five-lane highway. As the tail and wings slowly made their way around the bends toward the new facility, the Flying Boat’s fuselage began the trek, dwarfing the buildings it passed.

It took a little over a year to reassemble the Flying Boat. Preparing for the arrival of the fuselage, workers positioned the wings on the right and left, just as they had in 1946. Before assembly, the crew lowered the fuselage, sitting in its cradle, into a seven-foot pit at the Museum's center south side. Volunteers assembled the wings and vertical tail first, followed a short time later by the assembly of the pylons. Assembly crews attached the eight Pratt and Whitney R-43 60 engines while restoration volunteers applied new fabric to the ailerons and began restoration of the flaps and horizontal stabilizers. They painted and prepared the propellers, assembled them to the aircraft, and completed the assembly of the horizontal stabilizers just in time for the new Museum facility’s opening on June 6, 2001.

After a busy summer, crews began assembling the Flying Boat’s control surfaces. First the flaps, then the ailerons, rudder and elevators. On December 7, 2001 the 60th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, crews assembled the tail cone, signifying the completion of the Flying Boats’ incredible journey.

What type of finish / paint is on the Flying Boat?

The exterior of the Hughes Flying Boat was finished with a special process developed by the Hughes Aircraft Company. It consisted of one coat of wood filler followed by a coat of sealer. The sealer acted like a layer of cement for a coat of thin tissue paper. Wallpaper hangers applied the tissue to the aircraft and covered it with two coats of spar varnish. The final coat - an aluminized spar varnish- created the silver aluminum-like color. This finish, coupled with the Duramold material, gave the Flying Boat a surface like a baby grand piano - making it very aerodynamic.

Has the Flying Boat received any special awards?

On July 20, 2002, the Hughes Flying Boat received an Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark designation from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for her progressive contributions to mechanical engineering and her significance to society in general.

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