Today was a big day for the Evergreen organization. Most employees joined the thousands of people lining much of the roadways surrounding the McMinnville Airport.
The following article was written by Starla Pointer at Yamhill Valley News Register:
At 10:50 a.m. Wednesday, a 747-100 — the biggest plane ever to attempt a landing at the McMinnville Airport — appeared as a silver slit in the eastern sky. As it drew closer, crossing the Willamette River, it grew more defined. The distinctive hump of the 747 fuselage, painted in Evergreen white and green, began to appear between two sweeping wings.
The Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum was bringing in the first-generation 747, one of its retired cargo planes, to serve as the centerpiece for a water park it is planning to develop on the museum site.
Observers awaiting the 747’s arrival spotted the 39-year-old plane long before they heard the roar of its four powerful Pratt & Whitney jet engines. In fact, it seemed eerily silent until just before it sailed over the runway, landing gear still tucked away, and began to circle around for a landing. Then the sound caught up with the vision. The huge plane whooshed across the airport 100 feet off the ground, not much higher than the tops of the hangars.
“To those of us watching from the ground, the speed is very deceptive,” said Kurt Gunderson, a retired 747 pilot. “It looked so slow, but he was probably doing 150 mph in that low pass over the airport, and 175 later when he was circling.” Near the end of the mile-long runway, the flight crew powered up the engines and thundered to 900 feet, banking right over Airport Park and Three Mile Lane. The plane floated slowly and elegantly eastward past the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museums, where it soon will be on display. Then, landing gear locked down this time, the 747 headed east over the Dayton area, then glided back toward the runway.
This time, as the plane grew larger, there was no doubt that it would land. The crew set it down gently, touching the first of its 16 main wheels to the asphalt directly in front of the Pilots’ Lounge. Within yards, its two front nose wheels settled in as well. Flaps down, the big plane rolled on, gradually slowing until it came to a full stop near the end of the runway. At that point, the sound of applause replaced the noise of the engines.
From his viewpoint on the ground, Evergreen’s Gene Swan pronounced the landing “uneventful” — perfect, in other words. Swan said pilots Steve Harp and James Tammany set the plane down very gently. They could have landed in much less distance, if necessary, he said, but there wasn’t any need to risk damaging either the plane or the runway with an abrupt stop. The pilots were accompanied by mechanic Kim Brown, flight engineer Jim Swanson and safety engineer Andy Benedict, a retired Evergreen captain who knows McMinnville Airport very well. Harp, a 25-year veteran serving as Evergreen’s chief pilot, said the runway was shorter than he’d like. But he said it was no problem for the plane, which weighted a svelte 380,000 pounds at landing, some 250,000 pounds under the rated maximum of its cargo hauling days.
Harp estimated he and his crew had the plane stopped 2,500 feet before the end of the runway, thus probably used less than 3,000 of the 5,400 feet available to them. He rolled her to a leisurely stop so her brakes wouldn’t heat up, he said.
Many people will think seeing a 747 fly into McMinnville is as startling as seeing a UFO. But at major airports, the 747 is a normal part of the landscape. It’s been a mainstay of passenger airlines since January 1970, when Pan Am started flying the original model of the giant jumbo jet. Boeing produced just over 200 of its firsts series of 747, the 100s. About three-quarters of them are still flying.
Most were set up to hold 350 or more passengers, although some were built as cargo planes or combination passenger and cargo carriers. In addition to the initial 100 series, Boeing produced 200, 300 and 400 series 747s, each subsequent model equipped with more powerful engines and designed for longer-range flights. Hundreds of 747s are still flying, including the two are set up as Air Force One, which ferries the president. Windows and other external details vary depending on the series number and the intended use. But all 747s are distinguished by the pronounced “bump” at the top front of the plane. The bump is the result of original designs for a military cargo plane that would open at the front. In passenger 747s, the bump quickly became an area for an upscale passenger lounge or first-class seating.
Dozens of observers gathered outside the airport gates or parked along nearby roadways Wednesday morning to await the plane’s arrival. “It was exciting to see the large amount of people, nice to see there’s so much interest,” said Brian Bauer, president of Evergreen International Airlines.
In the fixed base office, a computer displayed a website, www.flightaware.com, that tracked the plane’s progress from its takeoff in southern Arizona through its flight north and west across Nevada and the northeast corner of California and then on north through Oregon.
The plane took off from Evergreen’s base in Marana at 8:39 a.m. Pacific time. By 10:15, it had crossed the Oregon line, prompting the pilots to announce an estimated ETA of 30 minutes. At that point, FBO operator Robbie Sturm, owner of Cirrus Aviation, radioed pilots flying in the vicinity, asking them to stay at least five miles from the airport until the jumbo jet was on the ground. After the picture-perfect landing, pilots shut off the jet engines. But they let the APU unit keep running to power electrical systems and steering. A tug pushed the plane backward, then turned it to face Highway 18 and pushed it onto Evergreen property.
Workers will remove the still-useable engines over the next several days, in preparation for moving the 747 across Highway 18 to the museum site. They will be replaced with older units for display purposes.
Plans call for pushing the plane across Highway 18 Sunday morning, starting at 5. Evergreen’s Oregon Department of Transportation authorizes an hour-long closure, but company officials don’t think the move will take more than 15 minutes or so.
The jet will displayed in front of Evergreen’s IMAX Theater for now. It will be lifted atop the new water park building when construction reaches that stage. Bauer said work will start in late summer or early fall on the latest additions to the museum campus, starting with a lodge, then moving to the water park.
The 230-foot-long plane is comparable in size to the Hughes HK-1 Flying Boat, known as the “Spruce Goose,” which serves as the centerpiece to the aviation museum. The two planes are nearly the same length and girth. However, the wooden Goose has a straight-across wing spanning 319 feet, while the 747 features a swept-back wing that holds its span to 196 feet at the widest point. Eight Pratt and Whitney engines powered the propellers of the Goose on its one-and-only, 70-second flight over Long Beach Harbor. The 747 from the 100-series, the first Boeing produced, is powered by four Pratt and Whitney jets.
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