When we were on our way home from our 2020 Pacific Northwest Covid Escape trip, we saw this beacon of World War II but couldn't visit due to closures. This time we promised not to miss it. What incredible history! What a building!
In 1942, the U.S. Navy began construction of 17 wooden hangars to house K-class airships that would be used for anti-submarine patrol and convoy escort. Two of these hangars were built at Naval Air Station Tillamook, which was commissioned in December 1942 to serve the Oregon-Washington-California coastal areas.With WW II well under way, construction of the two hangars was rushed to completion. Hangar "B" was the first one built and was completed in August of 1943. Hangar "A" which was destroyed in a 1992 fire, was completed in only 27 working days!
Stationed at NAS Tillamook was Squadron ZP-33 with a complement of eight K-Class airships. The K-ships were 252 feet long, 80 feet in diameter, and filled with 425,000 cu. ft. of Helium. With a range of 2,000 miles and an ability to stay aloft for three days, they were well suited for coastal patrol and convoy escort.
With the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945 and the Japanese submarine threat eliminated, Naval Air Station Tillamook was reduced to functional status. In 1948, Naval Air Station Tillamook was decommissioned for good, ending a long and proud tradition.
Here are the awe inspiring specs regarding this fantastic building:
Length 1,072 FT
Height 192 FT
Width 296 FT
6 Hangar Doors 120 feet tall with each door weighing 30 tons
Over 3.2 million board feet of lumber all harvested from the Pacific Northwest.
Area of over 7 acres
2 Catwalks, each 137 ft. above the hangar deck
The mission and goal of the Tillamook Air Museum is to interpret, preserve, educate, and honor the history of Naval Air Station Tillamook, Hangar B, and all aspects of civil and military aviation. We work to preserve artifacts, photographs, and documents for all future generations and to honor the memory of the men and women who have contributed to this history. After our afternoon here, we confirm the Museum accomplished its goal!I knew nothing about helium. A walk through the Helium Room introduced us to the machinery used to pump and purify the helium used to keep the Blimps afloat while on patrol.My curiousity was piqued with the Anderson Air Raid Shelter, near exact replica of the air raid shelters built in London during the Blitz of WW II.We went inside to see what it was like inside these tight quarters meant keep a family of four safe from the bombs. Scary!
Next to most aircraft, there was a Did you know? plaque. This one's read: "The Museum's F-14 Tomcat was also featured in the original pilot episode of the television show JAG in 1995 AND in an episode of The Blacklist in 2014. Interestingly, the shots of the F-14 that were used for both JAG and The Blacklist were actually recycled footage from the 1985 filming of the movie Top Gun in which the Museum's Tomcat also appeared."I was intrigued by this fact, too. Before she was Marilyn Monroe, Norma Jean Dougherty worked for the Radioplane company in Van Nuys, California during WW II, folding and inspecting parachutes for aerial target drones. A young Marilyn Monroe had gotten the job from her mother-in-law who was a nurse with Radioplane.In 1944, a visiting United States Army photographer, David Conover, who was a part of the Army's 1st motion picture unit spotted Marilyn at the Radioplane factory and captured several images of her holding a wooden drone propeller. These photos of a young Marilyn, while not published, helped immensely to jump start her future career as a model and then actress. Who knew?
We grew up watching Cal Worthington (and his dog Spot), who once owned the Lear Jet 24 on display. I knew he was an American car dealer, best known on the West Coast of the United States, and to a more limited extent elsewhere, from minor appearances and parodies in a number of movies. What I didn't know was the fact that he was a veteran pilot of WW II. Captain Cal Worthington flew 29 missions in a B-17 Flying Fortress over Germany during the Second World War. One never knows what one will learn in a museum. Wow.As for the plane, we learned more about Lear Jets when we were in Palm Springs for Modernism Week. Bill Lear is founder of the Lear Jet Corporation (and lesser-known as the inventor of the 8-track tape). Cool stuff. Fun fun for me was the Museum’s Convair 880, a great example of the early jet age and dawn of commercial aviation. Here we got to "Step back into 1973 in the forward section, including the first set of passenger seating, gallery, and view into the cockpit and lavatory!"A unique and pioneering design, the Rutan Long-EZ incorporated winglets at the end of each wing. These devices reduce the amount of induced drag on the aircraft, thereby increasing the airplane's fuel efficiency, among other things. The Did You Know? was sad as this was the same type of aircraft that musician John Denver was killed in on October 12, 1997.That said, the Did You Know? for this plane intrigued me. Beginning in 1937, the interior of the Fairchild Model 24 was designed by famed French-American designer Raymond Loewy. Loewy is best known as the creator of such iconic images as the Shell Oil, Exxon Mobile, TWA logo, and the Air Force One paint scheme. In addition, Raymond Loewy designed the R-40 (New York City subway) car, and the U.S. Postal Service Eagle logo.Hangar B showcased the Museum's large and diverse collection.Outside held, perhaps, the most interesting of its aircrafts.As the space race gathered steam in the United States, NASA (National Aeronautic & Space Administration) began shipping its Saturn boosters for the Apollo program to Cape Canaveral, Florida where they would be launched. Unfortunately for NASA, no aircraft at the time were capable of carrying such large cargo, so NASA was forced to ship these boosters through the Panama Canal, and over to Cape Canaveral, a journey that would take some two weeks on the open sea!With this is mind, Aero-Spacelines Inc. of Santa Barbara, California, who had purchased several retired Boeing 377 Stratocruisers, had an idea to build an entirely new type of aircraft that would be able to carry these NASA products. Using the 377 Stratocruiser as a platform, Aero-Spacelines chopped up, rebuilt, and thereby transformed one of these Stratocruisers into what became known as the "Pregnant Guppy," a cargo aircraft large enough to carry NASA's precious Apollo boosters.The airplane was completed in late 1962 and would become so successful that Aero-Spacelines decided to build a second cargo aircraft called the "Super Guppy." This too was a success and so Aero-Spacelines decided to build a third cargo aircraft, this one being the Museum's "Mini-Guppy," which was officially completed in early 1967 and christened the Spirit of Santa Barbara.
Truly beyond amazing!
After being completely wowed by the museum, we took a driving tour of the old Naval Station's grounds. To see the 'shell' of Hangar A gave us an even greater appreciation of the magnitude of these engineering marvels. We are so glad we didn't miss the Tillamook Air Museum. Our campsite for the night was onsite at the Blimp Base RV Park. It wasn't glamorous, but for $20, it gave us the perfect spot for an early morning cheese tour.
“No other discipline has its portals so wide open to the general public as history.” -Johan Huizinga, Dutch historian (1872-1945)
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2 comments:
Wow, love it! This place is a beacon isn't it. They have the best advertisement, a gigantic roof that you can't miss when you are leaving the Tillamook Cheese Factory. It looks like it is one of those places you can visit on other trips, like it is impossible to learn everything it has to offer.
When I was a kid growing up in Goleta we used to frequently see the guppies and the big hangers they built for them at the Santa Barbara Airport. But I can’t say I knew why they had built the first one to carry the Apollo Boosters. They were just awesome and huge to us kids. Now i think they are even more cool.
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