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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: JANUARY 20, 1993

Flying Boat wings sail for home

By Yvette Saarinen
Of the News-Register

"One foot is as good as 10, if it clears," Mark A. Smith said Monday. Smith is overseeing the move of the legendary HK-1 Flying Boat to it s final resting place in McMinnville.

The wings, the last of the major pieces to be moved by barge up the Willamette River to Weston Bar near Dayton, sunday cleared the Highway 219 bridge near the Newberg with 1 foot to spare.

The cradled wings, moved by two tugs and escorted by two Yamhill County Sheriff's patrol boats, had no problem clearing the pipe bridge at Rogers Landing in Newberg. A crowd watched as the wings were being moored to await the higher water levels necessary to complete the move.

The fast-flooding Willamette River, with either too little or too much water, has been absolutely incredible to deal with, Howard Lovering, director of the Evergreen AirVenture Museum, said Tuesday.

Movers had to wait for the river level to go down in order for the loads to go under bridges. Now 6 to 7 feet more water is needed in order to offload at Weston Bar near Dayton.

Lovering, guest speaker at the Greater McMinnville Chamber of Commerce Forum luncheon, said 29 of the 34 parts of the historic craft are being stored in Tigard, where they are undergoing inspection and repair. Thankfully, not much repair has been needed, Lovering said, since the aircraft was disassembled and moved from the dome in Long Beach, Calif., where it had been displayed.

The rudder, which was cosmetically repaired after it was damaged during the move into the dome, has been restored and is in a hangar at Evergreen International Airlines in McMinnville. Two other major parts, the fuselage and the tail section have made the river trip and are in the staging area off Weston Bar.

Once the wings arrive, the four big parts will caravan overland for seven miles to a site near the McMinnville Airport. Storage pad and structures are being installed, Lovering said.

Three sites are being considered for the Evergreen AirVenture Museum, which it is hoped will be built by 1995. The Flying Boat, still the world's largest aircraft, will require 100,000 square feet for display, Lovering said. Architects for the museum have yet to be chosen, but he said the display begs for a water feature. The display will be supported by other vintage aircraft.

Lovering said the museum will not be just a small attraction featuring the Flying Boat, but will be a full-service museum with education as the driving force. The 100-acre campus-style complex will be active with frying aircraft, have up-to-date exhibits, bring in technical people and house a library, archives and scholarly research.

Lovering said the real personality of a community than through a fine museum. He calculated the museum could break even at the gate with 200,000 annual visitors but projected it could draw as many as half a million.

The director said he hopes the community will come to respect the vision of Del Smith, Evergreen owner, who spearheaded the effort to acquire the Flying Boat. Evergreen's proposal was chosen by the Aero Club of Southern California, the former owners, because it was the most substantial.

The aircraft became available when the Disney Co. Decided not to renew the lease on the exhibit in Long Beach. There were six other bidders nationwide.

That one airplane says so much about the American spirit, Lovering said. It was designed as a World War II troop carrier by billionaire Howard Hughes. Because metal was in short supply, it was built most of birch (less than 10 percent of it is spruce, and Hughes hated the nickname "Spruce Goose").

It was completed after World War II ended, however, and made its one and only flight on Nov. 2, 1947, in Long Beach Harbor, with Hughes at the controls. It then stayed in a hangar for years. The Wrather Corp. bought it in 1980, and the Disney firm began managing the display in 1988.

Sauce Bros. ocean towers brought the pieces of the historic aircraft up the Pacific coastline to Portland, arriving in late October. The pieces remain in the protective shrink-wrap applied for the ocean voyage. Emmert International is handling the river and overland moves.

The Flying Boat has a wingspan of 320 feet. Its overall length is more than 218 feet, and overall height is more than 79 feet. Its gross weight is 300,000 pounds.

It has eight Pratt & Whitney 28-cylinder, 3,000 horsepower engines. The propellors are 17 feet, 2 inches in diameter and the four inboard propellors are reversible. High speed is estimated at 218 mph, cruising speed at 175 mph and landing speed at 78 mph. It has a range of 3,500 miles. Fitted as a hospital ship, it will carry 350 litter patients and a medical crew.

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