Owners Meet Today to Decide Where Goose Will Migrate : Aviation: The choices are Oceanside; Tampa, Fla., or McMinnville, Ore. The Spruce Goose, the world’s largest airplane, will likely end up in a museum.

Owners of the Spruce Goose plan to decide today where the world’s largest airplane will land once it is taken out of Long Beach.

Board members of the Aero Club of Southern California, which owns the giant plane displayed near the Queen Mary luxury liner, are scheduled tonight to choose a new site for the aircraft known as “the flying boat.”

The plane’s owners said they have narrowed down the choices to three: Oceanside, in San Diego County; Tampa, Fla., and McMinnville, Ore.

The Spruce Goose, which was built by billionaire Howard Hughes, is likely to leave Long Beach by the fall. Aero Club members want to relocate the plane before the departure of the Walt Disney Co., which manages the plane and the Queen Mary.

Disney announced plans earlier this year to discontinue running the attractions that have become symbols of Long Beach. During Disney’s four years with the attractions, the company has lost millions of dollars, officials said.

Though the fate of the Queen Mary is unknown, the Spruce Goose appears destined to leave Long Beach, its home for 45 years.

Some Aero Club members may push to keep the plane in Long Beach, but that’s not a realistic prospect, said William Shoneberger, president of Aero Exhibits Inc., a subsidiary of the Aero Club. City and port officials have not expressed any desire to subsidize the giant plane, he said.

Instead, the plane, with a wingspan of 320 feet, is likely to become a centerpiece for a museum, he said.

In Oceanside, the Spruce Goose would anchor a seaplane museum, according to George Barrante, president of the Oceanside Tourism Foundation, a nonprofit group interested in obtaining the aircraft. “It’s a very important part of the history of aviation,” Barrante said.

In Florida, the plane would be displayed under a waterfront dome similar to the one now encasing it by the Long Beach Harbor, said Will Bissett, president of Bissett, McGrath & Co. Inc., a real estate investment firm that wants to feature the Spruce Goose in a museum. In Tampa, the aircraft would be placed downtown next to an aquarium now under construction, Bissett said.

In Oregon, the Spruce Goose would join other historic aircraft in a museum in the Portland area under a proposal by Evergreen International Aviation Inc., Shoneberger said.

Until last month, Aero Club board members also considered proposals from Las Vegas, Miami and the Port of Tillamook, Ore., but Shoneberger said those were eliminated from the running.

Once a new site is selected, moving a plane with a wingspan the length of a football field will be a tricky operation. Bissett, for example, estimated that taking off the wings, relocating the plane to Florida and constructing a new dome could cost his company as much as $15 million. The Spruce Goose has only been moved a few times before.

The plane was constructed in Culver City and brought to Long Beach for final assembly. It was to be the first of a fleet of giant planes to transport troops during World War II. But by the time Hughes finished the first one, the war was over.

The plane was so huge and heavy that few believed it would fly. Hughes piloted the aircraft on Nov. 3, 1947. The behemoth hovered some 70 feet above the Long Beach Harbor for about a mile before splashing down. It was its only flight.

The Spruce Goose, which is constructed mainly of birch and only a small amount of spruce, remained in a hangar for years. In 1980, the Aero Club bought it and leased it to the Wrather Corp., which opened it as a tourist attraction. In 1988, Disney bought out Wrather and began managing both the Spruce Goose and the Queen Mary.

Whether the Aero Club will retain an interest in the plane once it is relocated will also be decided tonight, Shoneberger said. Board members may decide to lease the plane or sell it to the new managers, he said. He declined to discuss the financial details of the arrangements.

Aero Club’s main interest, he said, is maintaining the plane intact.

“Our objective is to preserve the flying boat in its totality and not have it cut up,” Shoneberger said. “We want to have it displayed with dignity and in an appropriate setting.”