On a visit to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, in the United States you are met with the stunning sight of a Boeing 747 mounted on top of the 60ft (18.2m) high building. This is believed to the first time a Jumbo Jet has been positioned on the top of such a structure, but it is not there for just decoration…it is a key part of the museum’s Wings and Waves Waterpark and is the starting point for four water slides.
The facility is part of the Michael King Smith Educational Institute, dedicated to the late son of Evergreen Aviation founder Delford M Smith, now the chairman of the board of the museum. Although principally there for the enjoyment of visitors the waterpark includes a 107,650sq ft (10,000m2) children’s museum with over 20 interactive exhibits designed to teach concepts such as propulsion, Bernoulli’s Principle, the water cycle, and harnessing water as power. The aim is to teach not only about the science of water, but about the basic principles of aviation and space flight, incorporating the aviation, space, and water themes already present in the main museum.
The retired Boeing 747 was originally to be a simple exhibit at the museum but it is understood that a joking comment about positioning the aircraft during the planning for the waterpark, turned into a serious business idea. The suggestion was that slides should come out of the aircraft as if the aircraft had made n emergency landing on water and just a couple of years later this has become a reality.
The park is due to open on June 6 and at a cost of $30 for adults and older children and $25 for younger guests (under 42in in height), visitors will be able to take advantage for four slides from the 747 which range in severity from ‘The Sonic Boom’ via the ‘Mach One’ and ‘Tail Spin’ to the ‘Nose Dive’ a high energy descent completed in an inner tube. One of the slides will even take users through a transparent orange tube above the entrance to the park.
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