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Museum to keep 'Goose'

Visitors look over the Spruce Goose at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in Oregon. The museum has reached an agreement to take full ownership of the plane, built by Howard Hughes.
Agreement reached for giant Hughes' plane

PORTLAND, Ore. — Legendary mogul Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose, a gigantic historic wooden airplane whose fate was mired in a financial dispute, will permanently stay in Oregon.

The Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum has reached an agreement with the Aero Club of Southern California to take full ownership of the plane in the coming weeks, said California attorney Robert Lyon, who represents the Aero Club.

The McMinnville, Ore.-based nonprofit has been home to the Spruce Goose for more than two decades, but it still owed a payment to the California club from which it bought the plane.

The details of the agreement were not disclosed. But the dispute centered on the original purchase terms, which in addition to the $500,000 price tag also included a percentage of the museum’s earnings from displaying the Spruce Goose.

Dubbed a flying boat, the Spruce Goose has a 320-foot wing span — larger than a football field — and floats that allow it to land on water.

The Spruce Goose was built in 1947.

FILE - In this Oct. 29, 1980 file photo, Howard Hughes' wooden flying boat the "Spruce Goose," is towed by a tugboat from its hangar in Long Beach, Calif. The gigantic historic wooden airplane whose fate was mired in a financial dispute, will permanently stay in Oregon. The Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum has reached an agreement with the Aero Club of Southern California to take full ownership of the plane in the coming weeks, said California attorney Robert E. Lyon, who represents the Aero Club. Lyon said the agreement was reached in early July 2015. (AP Photo, File)

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