TIGHAR
Historic Aircraft Recovery and Preservation => War / Service Related Aircraft topics => Topic started by: Ric Gillespie on December 24, 2013, 03:45:36 PM
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There's trouble brewing in Oregon (http://www.flyingmag.com/news/money-squabble-looms-over-spruce-goose-museum?cmpid=enews122413&spPodID=030&spMailingID=18506635&spUserID=NTQxMTA4ODY1MjgS1&spJobID=245475696&spReportId=MjQ1NDc1Njk2S0). I hope they work something out. Our new barn storage area isn't quite big enough to handle the Spruce Goose.
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Money or sex are at the root of most troubles. Where is Howard Hughes to straighten this mess out when we need him?
LTM,
Monty Fowler, TIGHAR No. 2189 CER
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The fifty-grand seems ridiculous - the real problem obviously is the long-term storage / display need and vitality of what has been Evergreen as a sponsor (I don't know what the books tell, but it seemed clear to me when I visited that place that such a grand thing wouldn't have happened without a lot of 'corporate interest').
Looks like some sort of gargantuan trust is needed from a large body of those who care - that thing dwarfs every other aviation exhibit I've ever seen, including the Air Force museum in Dayton which has some truly acreage-challenging exhibits (the 'goose' could easily be a generous crate for the B-36).
Could the goose finally be cooked one day soon as the outlying aviation white elephant of all time? Did Hughes only buy a few decades by poking congress in the eye by demonstrating that his bird would actually fly?
I pray it is not so - and would hate to see that bird hacked-up for many smaller displays here and there... Somehow "look kids, that aileron is longer than our driveway... just imagine what the whole airplane must have looked like" doesn't seem as impressive as being able to walk under, around and through that giant.
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They should have left it in Long Beach.
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There's a place available here in the UK if needed...
http://www.beefeatergrill.co.uk/beefeater/restaurants/basingstoke/spruce-goose.html (http://www.beefeatergrill.co.uk/beefeater/restaurants/basingstoke/spruce-goose.html)