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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: AUGUST 24, 1999

Evergreen museum site work begins

By PAT FORGEY
Of the News-Register

Ground was broken this week on an air museum that was a dream of Michael Smith, the late son of Evergreen International Aviation's Del Smith.

The younger Smith was the visionary behind bringing Howard Hughes' legendary Spruce Goose to McMinnville as the museum's centerpiece. "It was his son's passion to build an air museum," said Evergreen's Gary Thompson.

Michael Smith was following in his father's aviation footsteps, as an Oregon Air National Guard fighter pilot and as a player in Evergreen operations, when he died in a car accident in 1995.

With the Spruce Goose still languishing in storage at Evergreen's Three Mile Lane headquarters, the museum project stalled. Some feared it might never be realized.

With his death, "everything went flat," Thompson said.

Then, Del Smith got his own vision for the museum, bringing it back to life as a memorial to his son. "What a better way to remember this young man than go forward with the museum," he said.

The name Capt. Michael King Smith was added to the museum's title and its concept was expanded to include education. "Our mission has changed a little since the death of Michael Smith," Thompson said.

Now the vision for the place is an educational center that can provide everything from after school activities for local school children to an institute to train young people for the aviation industry. "We'll take them from ground zero to pilot," the director said.

The facility also will train the mechanically inclined to work on planes.

"The end result is that they'll be able to earn the A/P license that certifies them to work on the air frame and power plant of planes," Thompson said. "In Michael's memory, what they're going to create here is a legitimate accredited campus."

The museum project didn't get back on track until after McMinnville had begun requiring voter approval of annexations. Because the museum site was on farmland across Three Mile Lane from Evergreen's corporate headquarters, it had to go before the voters.

In May 1998, city residents gave it the largest approval margin of any annexation and the project was back on track.

Now, a year later, construction is ready to begin. Portland's Hoffman Construction, which has done some of the region's most prominent buildings, is in charge of the work.

The building schedule is calls for completion in 20 months, depending on weather.

After 13 months, crews hope to move the Spruce Goose in. Much of the building will be built around it because of its phenomenal size.

The building has to be 516 feet wide to accommodate the plane's 320-foot wingspan. And the roof has to peak at 125 feet to allow room for the plane's towering tail.

The average building height will be 80 feet. The plane will sit in to depression in the floor so its keel is at ground level.

The contractor will finish the roof before the Spruce Goose moves in to make sure nothing falls on the historic plane.

The building will face Highway 18, but the final wall on the north side facing the South Yamhill River won't be completed until after the plane moves in. Then the building will be finished around it.

Engineers already are working on the reassembly plan. Meanwhile, Evergreen's team of aircraft restorers have been working on the plane.

The plane is coated with a fire retardant skin that the state of California required before it was put on display there. The restorers are removing that in preparation for painting it in its intended color.

Because the huge plane is made of wood, power paint strippers can't be used. The fire retardant has to be peeled off by hand.

That's time consuming, but the volunteers don't mind, Thompson said. "We've got one chance to do it right and treat it like an artifact," he said.

The most famous picture of the Spruce Goose, with Howard Hughes at the controls for its first and only test flight, has the plane painted silver.

Thompson, however, said that was simply an undercoat of aluminized spar varnish intended to protect the wood glue for the effect of ultraviolet rays. Hughes always intended to paint it white and that's the way it will be displayed in the museum, he said.

In fact, the Sherwin-Williams Co. notified Evergreen Friday that its McMinnville store would be donating all of the paint for the project. "That is a big deal," said Thompson, given the plane's huge size.

The entire museum has been funded by donations, largely from Smith.

Though at one point then-Senator Mark Hatfield tried to allocate several million dollars in federal money for the project, that fell through. No tax dollars are currently involved.

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