Nov. 2, 1947 - the only flight of the Spruce Goose
Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 10:04 amLink
"The Spruce Goose, with Hollywood producer-aviator-tycoon Howard Hughes at the controls, makes its first -- and only -- flight, skimming the waters of Long Beach Harbor in California for roughly one minute.
That short hop, made mostly for the benefit of the press and newsreel cameras, was the climax of a story that began more than five years earlier, at the height of World War II.
Appalled at the heavy toll being taken on Allied shipping by the German U-boats, Henry J. Kaiser, builder of the Liberty ships, proposed a fleet of gigantic flying transports to move men and material across the Atlantic. After Kaiser enlisted Hughes' support, the two men sold their idea to the government and walked away with an $18 million contract (about $238 million in today's money) to build three flying boats ...
Because of restrictions on the use of materials deemed critical to the war effort, Hughes built the prototype, HK-1, not out of steel or aluminum but of wood. And while the seaplane would become known worldwide as the Spruce Goose (a name Hughes despised), it was made largely of birch, not spruce ..."
Ah, government contracts.
"The Spruce Goose, with Hollywood producer-aviator-tycoon Howard Hughes at the controls, makes its first -- and only -- flight, skimming the waters of Long Beach Harbor in California for roughly one minute.
That short hop, made mostly for the benefit of the press and newsreel cameras, was the climax of a story that began more than five years earlier, at the height of World War II.
Appalled at the heavy toll being taken on Allied shipping by the German U-boats, Henry J. Kaiser, builder of the Liberty ships, proposed a fleet of gigantic flying transports to move men and material across the Atlantic. After Kaiser enlisted Hughes' support, the two men sold their idea to the government and walked away with an $18 million contract (about $238 million in today's money) to build three flying boats ...
Because of restrictions on the use of materials deemed critical to the war effort, Hughes built the prototype, HK-1, not out of steel or aluminum but of wood. And while the seaplane would become known worldwide as the Spruce Goose (a name Hughes despised), it was made largely of birch, not spruce ..."
Ah, government contracts.
