As many readers will remember, the magnificent Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon has endured significant turmoil in recent years due to missteps by its late founder Del Smith, whose business empire collapsed in 2014. The labyrinthine relationships between the corporate and non-profit sides of his operations have taken years to unravel, and involved numerous court cases.
Home of the Hughes H-4 ‘Spruce Goose’ and many other rare and beautiful aircraft, the museum parted with a significant number of its WWII-era warbirds, including among them a B-17G Flying Fortress, FG-1D Corsair, Me 109G, P-38 Lightning and others, in an attempt to unload some of the debt. However, the museum still found itself struggling when another individual who’d stepped in to ‘save’ the institution following Smith’s death also ended up in bankruptcy court, along with a cloud of other allegations, in September, 2018. Thankfully, however, we are happy to report that another businessman has stepped in to give the museum surer footing. While the museum is owned and operated by a non-profit, the property where it resides now belongs to Bill Stoller’s McMinnville Property Ltd., following their $9.5million purchase in a bankruptcy liquidation sale. According to his statements, Mr.Stoller is keen to see the museum thrive, and is looking to preserve its long-term future, which is hopefully a sign of great things to come!
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Richard Mallory Allnutt's aviation passion ignited at the 1974 Farnborough Airshow. Raised in 1970s Britain, he was immersed in WWII aviation lore. Moving to Washington DC, he frequented the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum, meeting aviation legends.
After grad school, Richard worked for Lockheed-Martin but stayed devoted to aviation, volunteering at museums and honing his photography skills. In 2013, he became the founding editor of Warbirds News, now Vintage Aviation News. With around 800 articles written, he focuses on supporting grassroots aviation groups.
Richard values the connections made in the aviation community and is proud to help grow Vintage Aviation News.
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