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N0KFQ > TODAY 03.11.11 00:08l 59 Lines 2744 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 13571_KB0WSA
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Subj: Today in History - Nov 2
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KB0WSA
Sent: 111102/2250Z 13571@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.0.4
Nov 2, 1947:
Spruce Goose flies
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 Goose"
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, K.O. n0kfq
Another old retired guy
E-mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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