Tillamook Air Museum

Tillamook Air Museum
Established 1994
Location Tillamook, Oregon, United States
Type Private: aerospace
Website TillamookAir.com

Tillamook Air Museum is an aviation museum south of Tillamook, Oregon, at Tillamook Airport in the United States. The museum is housed in a former military blimp hangar, called "Hangar B", which is the largest clear-span wooden structure in the world.[1]

Constructed by the US Navy in 1942 during World War II for Naval Air Station Tillamook, the hangar building housing the aircraft is 1,072 feet (327 m) long and 296 feet (90 m) wide, giving it over 7 acres (2.8 ha) of area. It stands at 192 feet (59 m) tall. The doors weigh 30 short tons (27 t) each and are 120 feet (37 m) tall. Hangar "B" is one of two that were built on the site originally, Hangar "A" was destroyed by fire in August,1992.[2][3]

USA Today described the Tillamook Air Museum in 2004 as "one of the country's top private World War II aircraft collections".[4] However, in April 2013, the museum announced that the part of its collection owned by Jack Erickson would be moving from Tillamook to Madras, Oregon, and all of the World War II aircraft had been removed by September 2014.[5]

In November 2014, the owners of Hangar B, the Port Of Tillamook Bay, announced that they would continue operation of the Tillamook Air Museum with the remaining collection.[6] The museum's lease on the hangar extends to January 2016.[7]

Aerial view of the museum hangar

A portion of the blimp hangar is now leased by the Hillsboro, Oregon-based American Blimp Corporation, which is the largest manufacturer of blimps in the United States.

Collections

The museum features a collection of more than 15 aircraft. This is a listing of some of the more notable:

Aero Spacelines Mini Guppy
External shot of Hangar B
External shot of Hangar B showing doors
Interior shot of Tillamook Air Museum


The Museum also features an exhibit hall with a large collection of rare historical wartime and aviation themed artifacts including pieces of the great German airship the Hindenburg, a WWII Luftwaffe flight jacket and a WW II Japanese Army Winter flight suit.

Aircraft formerly included

Aircraft formerly part of the museum collection included the following:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Larsen, Jeff (March 21, 2002). Short Trips: Slice of History and a Wedge of Cheese Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved 2008-04-24
  2. ↑ Tillamook Air Museum: Building
  3. ↑ U.S. Naval Air Station Dirigible Hangars
  4. ↑ 10 great places to remember World War II USA Today (June 4, 2004). Retrieved 2014-09-27.
  5. ↑ Hammers, Scott (May 9, 2014). "Air Museum Collection Landing at Madras Airport". Bend Bulletin. Retrieved February 2, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Port to Assume Operation of Tillamook Air Museum". Tillamook County Pioneer. November 6, 2014. Retrieved November 23, 2014.
  7. ↑ Tobias, Lori (May 7, 2013). "Future of Tillamook Blimp Hangar in Question as Air Museum Prepares to Move". The Oregonian. p. 1. Retrieved May 8, 2013.

External links

Media related to Tillamook Air Museum at Wikimedia Commons

Coordinates: 45°25′13″N 123°48′17″W / 45.420391°N 123.804835°W / 45.420391; -123.804835

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