The Wheels on the Bus go round and round, round and round, round and round. : Tillamook, Oregon

Heading south on Hwy 101

Tillamook Elks own an RV Park with 35 spaces down the road from their Lodge

The former airship hangar that houses the Museum can easily be seen from Highway 101. In fact when driving south on 101 the hangar can be seen for quite some time before arriving. It dominates the landscape.

Tillamook Air Museum is housed in a former US Navy blimp hangar, called "Hangar B", which is the largest clear-span wooden structure in the world.

This wall display shows the location of the 17 airship hangars that were built to help defend against submarine attack along the coasts and their current status. German submarines operated off both the Atlantic and Gulf coasts during WWII sinking 233 ships during 1942. This naval disaster for the US has been brushed aside in the history of WWII by US historians and history books. Most people don't even realize it happened and how severe it was. While the threat existed on the west coast from Japanese submarines it never really materialized.

A visit to the Tillamook Air Museum is like taking a step back in time

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 high and filled with 425,000 cubic feet of helium. With a range of 2,000 miles and the ability to stay aloft for three days, they were well suited for coast patrol and convoy escort.

The Drone

A radio controlled, aerial target aircraft first developed by the Army Air Corps and the Radioplane Company of Van Nuys, California in the late 1930's. The Unmanned drone was used as an aerial target for training fighter pilots and aerial gunners.

1941 Dodge Ambulance

As a kid I slept on a Army cot like that

Kaman HTK-1

A Three-seater US Navy training helicopter

Cal Worthington, who once owned this Lear Jet 24, was an American car dealer best known on the West coast.

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 Rutan Model 61 Long-EZ is the same type of aircraft that musician John Denver was killed in on October 12, 1997.

This Corsair II is an A-7E that was flown by Captain John "Shooter" Sanders in 39 missions over enemy territory in Iraq in the first Golf War. The camel silhouettes on the fuselage is evidence of this. The cockpit marking also indicate the he dropped 640 general purpose bombs, 105 cluster bombs, 3 walleye glide bombs, and launched 10 HARMS missiles.

Check out the pilot's name.

Captain Chesley Sullenberger AKA Captain Sully, hero of the Hudson River.

1944 Willy's Jeep

History Housing History

Not only does the museum tell a story, but the hangar that houses it all has a story of its own to tell. Built in 1943 by the U.S. Navy for Naval Air Station Tillamook, Hangar B is 1,072 feet long and 296 feet wide, covering more than seven acres of land. It stands 192 feet tall and was one of two hangars built on the site (Hangar A burned down in 1992). It is one of the world’s last remaining wooden WWII blimp structures and a sight to behold. The station was decommissioned in 1948.