02/04/2025
A Message to Our Members from Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum CEO, Scot Laney
As always, thank you for being Museum members. Your support helps to make all sorts of good things happen here, from education, exhibits to collections and beyond.
Come for a visit and you may notice that our Museum is changing. We are committed to making a beneficial change to the visitor experience every day and we have now completed over 200 specific changes. New signage for most of the aircraft in the Aviation Museum is almost completed. Our new signs better explore the history of each aircraft as well as spotlight individuals that played a significant role in the design, development or operation of the artifact. Many of the aircraft on display are unique in that they are the only known examples of the type class, or one of only a few known to exist, and our new signage tells that story too. Look for the same in the Space Museum soon.
We have added a new aircraft, a Bell UH-1F/P “Huey”. This Huey was used extensively in Vietnam by the USAF 20th SOS (Special Operations, Code Name The Green Hornets) in support of the Army’s MACV-SOG teams. It is one of only 27 ever built and one of only a very few known examples still surviving. The 20th SOS group flew without insignia or any kind of personal identification, including dog tags, in missions that are in some cases still classified even today. There are only three other UH-1F/P Huey helicopters on display in the world and we are happy to add a fourth. It will be placed in line for restoration soon. In the meantime, come and see the progress we are making on the restoration of the Museum’s C-47-it is coming along nicely.
You will also find, attached to this newsletter, some background on a Howard Hughes memo from our collections. The Museum has thousands of objects related to Howard Hughes and this is the first in a series of Inter-Office memos we will include in future Membership Newsletters. If you would like to see more things like this let us know, we are curious about the interest in this” Museum by Email” test for Members.
Please, if you visit, say hello. I am usually out in the Museum and would appreciate the chance to meet you.
Scot
