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 Nevertheless, Howard Hughes, who became increasingly eccentric and withdrawn after 1950, refused to neglect what he saw as his greatest achievement in the aviation field.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.
American Revolution
1777 : John Paul Jones sets sail
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/john-paul-jones-sets-sail
Automotive
1902 : First four-cylinder, gas-powered Locomobile hits the road
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-four-cylinder-gas-powered-locomobile-hits-the-road
Civil War
1861 : Union leader Fremont is removed from the Western Department
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/-fremont-removed-from-western-department
Cold War
1963 : Ngo Dinh Diem assassinated in South Vietnam
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ngo-dinh-diem-assassinated-in-south-vietnam
Crime
1989 : A nurse's aide gets life imprisonment
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/a-nurses-aide-gets-life-imprisonment
Disaster
1982 : Truck explosion kills 3,000 in Afghanistan
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/truck-explosion-kills-3000-in-afghanistan
General Interest
1917 : Britain supports creation of Jewish homeland
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/britain-supports-creation-of-jewish-homeland
1948 : Truman defeats Dewey
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/truman-defeats-dewey
1983 : MLK federal holiday declared
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mlk-federal-holiday-declared
Hollywood
1966 : Friends star David Schwimmer born
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/friends-star-david-schwimmer-born
Literary
1960 : Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity trial ends
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lady-chatterleys-lover-obscenity-trial-ends
Music
1985 : Miami Vice soundtrack begins an 11-week run at #1
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/miami-vice-soundtrack-begins-an-11-week-run-at-1
Old West
1912 : XIT Ranch sells its last head of cattle
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/xit-ranch-sells-its-last-head-of-cattle
Presidential
1795 : James Polk is born
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/james-polk-is-born
1865 : Warren G. Harding is born
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/warren-g-harding-is-born
Sports
1986 : Grete Waitz wins her eighth NYC marathon
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/grete-waitz-wins-her-eighth-nyc-marathon
Vietnam War
1963 : Diem murdered during coup
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/diem-murdered-during-coup
1967 : Johnson meets with "the Wise Men"
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/johnson-meets-with-the-wise-men
World War I
1917 : The Balfour Declaration
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-balfour-declaration
World War II
1942 : British launch Operation Supercharge
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/british-launch-operation-supercharge
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