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KF5JRV > TODAY 02.11.18 13:31l 52 Lines 2667 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 24179_KF5JRV
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Subj: Today in History - Nov 2
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KF5JRV
Sent: 181102/1115Z 24179@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.16
The Hughes Flying Boat—the largest aircraft ever built—is piloted by
designer Howard Hughes on its first and only flight. Built with
laminated birch and spruce, the massive wooden aircraft had a wingspan
longer than a football field and was designed to carry more than 700 men
to battle.
Howard Hughes was a successful Hollywood movie producer when he founded
the Hughes Aircraft Company in 1932. He personally tested cutting-edge
aircraft of his own design and in 1937 broke the transcontinental
flight-time record. In 1938, he flew around the world in a record three
days, 19 hours, and 14 minutes.
Following the U.S. entrance into World War II in 1941, the U.S.
government commissioned the Hughes Aircraft Company to build a large
flying boat capable of carrying men and materials over long distances.
The concept for what would become the “Spruce Gooseö was originally
conceived by the industrialist Henry Kaiser, but Kaiser dropped out of
the project early, leaving Hughes and his small team to make the H-4 a
reality. Because of wartime restrictions on steel, Hughes decided to
build his aircraft out of wood laminated with plastic and covered with
fabric. Although it was constructed mainly of birch, the use of spruce
(along with its white-gray color) would later earn the aircraft the
nickname Spruce Goose. It had a wingspan of 320 feet and was powered by
eight giant propeller engines.
Development of the Spruce Goose cost a phenomenal $23 million and took
so long that the war had ended by the time of its completion in 1946.
The aircraft had many detractors, and Congress demanded that Hughes
prove the plane airworthy. On November 2, 1947, Hughes obliged, taking
the H-4 prototype out into Long Beach Harbor, CA for an unannounced
flight test. Thousands of onlookers had come to watch the aircraft taxi
on the water and were surprised when Hughes lifted his wooden behemoth
70 feet above the water and flew for a mile before landing.
Despite its successful maiden flight, the Spruce Goose never went into
production, primarily because critics alleged that its wooden framework
was insufficient to support its weight during long flights.
Nevertheless, Howard Hughes, who became increasingly eccentric and
withdrawn after 1950, refused to neglect what he saw as his greatest
achievement in the aviation field. From 1947 until his death in 1976, he
kept the Spruce Goose prototype ready for flight in an enormous,
climate-controlled hangar at a cost of $1 million per year. Today, the
Spruce Goose is housed at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville,
Oregon.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@ICLOUD.COM
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