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OREGON AND WASHINGTON GUIDE

To see the Oregon and Washington Guide scroll down the page below oldest post, for places to see and things to do in OREGON and WASHINGTON.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Hughes Flying Boat, H-4, HK-1 Spruce Goose

The Hughes Flying Boat represents one of man’s greatest attempts to conquer the skies as the largest airplane ever constructed. It flew only one time on November 2, 1947. Conceived as a personnel and materiel carrier, the single hull prototype was designed to fly Trans-Atlantic to avoid World War II German submarines that were sinking Allied ships in large numbers. Completed in 1947 after the end of the War, the wooden winged giant is nearly six times bigger than any aircraft of its time. The press insisted on calling the Hughes Flying Boat the “Spruce Goose,” a name that its billionaire builder Howard Hughes despised. Most of the huge plane is actually made of birch, with only small amounts of maple, poplar, balsa, and, yes, spruce. Birch was chosen because testing proved it light, strong, and resistant to splitting, dry rot and deterioration.

The Museum is located at 500 NE Captain Michael King Smith Way, McMinnville, Oregon. Scroll down to Oregon and Washington Guide and click on link for EVERGREEN AVIATION AND SPACE MUSEUM - Home of The Spruce Goose.
The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.
- HARRY EMERSON FOSDICK