It's been a little over four years and I figured it was time to once again visit the Tillamook Air Museum up in the northwest corner of Oregon while still home for the holiday break. Four years ago, I made my first visit with a so-so digital camera and really struggled with the interior lighting of the place. Also back then, the museum had the Erickson warbird collection before they moved out to Madras, Oregon because it was thought then that the Historic Hangar B would be shut down. Thankfully, the historic sight ended up being preserved with the Port of Tillamook Bay taking up ownership and control of the hangar as of November 2014. Starting in 2016, the Classic Aircraft Aviation Museum out of Hillsboro, Oregon started moving a bunch of their airworthy warbirds often seen at air shows to Tillamook on a long-term loan to beef up the collection. The museum also added other unique aircraft from other places to the collection.
The first post and update to the gallery for the year 2018 is a museum visit! There were a few new things up in Tillamook I wanted to see and I'm glad I was able to make the trip. Here's the link:
Tillamook Air Museum (Revisit)
Preview:
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| Aero Spacelines 377MG Mini-Guppy (N422AU) on display outside the massive blimp hangar. |
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| Face-to-face with the Mini-Guppy. |
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| The Mini-Guppy in comparison with the size of Hangar B. They sure don't build these like they used to anymore... |
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| Fisher R-80 Tiger Moth (NX34TM), an 80% scale replica kit version of the De Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth. |
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| Brown Starlite (N49RH). |
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| Chris-Tena Mini Coupe (N62ME). |
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| Nieuport 11-N (N132DL), a 7/8 scale replica of the famous French fighter of World War I. |
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| Rutan 61 Long-EZ (N1382Y) "Tempus Fugit." This aircraft was formerly displayed at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) in Portland, Oregon. |
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| ERCO 415-C Ercoupe (N99903). |
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| Fairchild 24W-40 GK-1 (N3779C). |
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| Arctic Research Laboratory Cessna 180F Skywagon (N2146Z). This aircraft was the very first light-aircraft to ever land on the North Pole. |
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| PZL-Mielec Lim-6 (N2503N), a Polish license-built variant of the Russian MiG-17. |
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| BAC/Hunting P-84 Jet Provost T3A (N27357). This is one of the jet warbirds from the Classic Aircraft Aviation Museum that's on long-term loan to the Tillamook Air Museum. |
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| WindRyder Rotorplane (N532WE), the prototype of a gyrocopter capable of cruising at 130 mph. |
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| Fouga (Valmet) CM-170R Magister (N71FM). This is another one of Classic Aircraft Aviation's jet warbirds on long-term loan to Tillamook. |
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| PZL-Mielec (MiG-17F) Lim-5 (N1426D). Another from Classic Aircraft Aviation on loan; not many places to see two MiG-17s displayed in one place! |
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| Lear Jet 24 (N711CW). This old Lear from 1965 is another vintage jet that's part of the Classic Aircraft Aviation Museum's collection. There aren't many Lear Jets that look like this, with the old windows. |
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| Douglas A-26C Invader (N26PJ) "Lead Sled." Another one from the Classic Aircraft Collection. The ironic thing is that the Tillamook Air Museum previously displayed the Erickson Collection's A-26 before they moved out to Madras only to get another one to display from Hillsboro! |
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| Cvjetkovic CA-65 Skyfly (N600W). Despite the manufacturer name, this plane is American-built! The aircraft's designer, Anton Cvjetkovic is of Yugoslav descent. |
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| Nord 1101 Noralpha/Ramier I (N2758). The history of the Noralpha starts in Germany, first designed by Messerschmitt as the Bf 108 Taifun. Production of the Bf 108 was transferred to occupied France during World War II and production continued after the war as the Nord 1000 Pingouin. The original Bf 108 was designed to be a sport and touring aircraft, purely for recreational use. Post-war French Noralphas were used for military purposes, serving in the communication and liaison roles. Many went to private hands at the end of their military careers. |
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| Grumman F-14A Tomcat (159848). Served with VF-14 "Tophatters" operating from the USS John F. Kennedy. |
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| Alenia G.222 C-27A Spartan (N2286Z). Formerly with the United States Air Force as 91-0107. The Air Force and U.S. Department of State operated a handful of these Italian-made Spartans for clandestine and counter-narcotic operations in Central and South America. This particular airframe served with the 310th Airlift Squadron/24th Wing out of Howard Air Force Base in Panama. It went to the Arizona Boneyard in September 1997. |
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| Face-to-face with the Spartan. I've never seen one of these Italian military transports, so I was really excited to see this at Tillamook! |
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| The Tillamook Air Museum acquired this C-27A from the Arizona Boneyard in Tuscon, Arizona at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base just one year ago. It is believed to be that this airframe is one of five left in existence. Given the condition of the aircraft and just how leaky so many places are, I still can't believe that they flew this thing to Tillamook all the way from Arizona! |
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| Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV) A-7E Corsair II (158819). Served with the United States Navy during Desert Storm with Attack Squadron 72 (VA-72) "Blue Hawks" operating off the USS John F. Kennedy. |
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| Douglas A4D-2 A-4B Skyhawk (142922) on display off of Highway 101 near the entrance to the museum. This aircraft is often the first to greet visitors to the museum. |
Glad to see that the Tillamook Air Museum was able to rebound under new ownership and operations after a period of uncertainty. I look forward to seeing the museum grow and add to its collection that would warrant another visit in the future!
Also, this year marks ten years since I started pursuing a hobby of plane-spotting and aviation photography!
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