My grandfather and I went to the recently expanded Evergree Aviation and Space Museum in Mc Minnville, Oregon today. The day the Spruce Goose first came to Mc Minnville, I became a charter member of the then-future museum and have kept my membership since then. Long gone are the days of $15 membership dues. Now I pay $50 per year for an educational membership. Admission prices for non-members have gone up, as well.
This was my first time going into the space museum. The museum had its grand opening last year. Outside the building is as massive as the air museum that houses the Spruce Goose. Inside, it feels somewhat empty. The entire far wing is empty as is much of the back. There is much speculation that the museum will be receiving one of the space shuttles soon when they are decommissioned. Rather than artefacts from wall to wall, such as in the air museum, the space museum is mostly filled with interpretive displays. Personally, I like less interpretive displays and more artefacts but each unto their own.
The Titan II missile that is currently one of the anchor exhibits is truly impressive. It stretches from the roof to the floor and all the way down deep underground. We didn’t feel like going into the launch control mock-up in the basement but just seeing it standing upright, as opposed to being laid out like it had been before when it was housed in the air museum, was really impressive. The V2 rocket was also really amazing.
In the aviation museum there were one or two new planes but there were several prominent holes left from the shift of the spacecraft over to the new space museum. Outside the museum, a whole fleet of new fighter jets has been added since my last visit. Perhaps a few of them will be able to move inside out of the weather soon. I always thought it was a shame to see all of those beautiful aircraft outside slowly rotting in the rain.
Overall, the visit was fun and interesting, as always. However, with how expensive it is to go to the museum, I am afraid that soon it will be unaffordable for many families. I hope the museum doesn’t go too up-scale and price out much of the market I think it should be serving.