Today in History- November 2nd SPRUCE GOOSE FLIES: November 2, 1947 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 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 Nevertheless, Howard Hughes, who became increasingly eccentric and withdrawn after 1950, refused to neglect what he saw as his greatest achievement in the aviation field.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. ------------------------------------------------------------------ MORE GENERAL INTEREST 1917 Britain supports creation of Jewish homeland 1948 Truman defeats Dewey 1983 MLK federal holiday declared historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=general&month=10272963&day=10272967 AUTOMOTIVE 1895 First Gasoline-Powered Contest In America historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=automotive&month=10272963&day=10272967 CIVIL WAR 1861 : Fremont removed from Western Department historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=civil&month=10272963&day=10272967 COLD WAR 1963 Ngo Dinh Diem assassinated in South Vietnam historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=coldwar&month=10272963&day=10272967 CRIME 1989 A nurse's aide gets life imprisonment historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=crime&month=10272963&day=10272967 ENTERTAINMENT 1992 Hal Roach dies historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=entertainment&month=10272963&day=10272967 LITERARY 1960 Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity trial ends historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=literary&month=10272963&day=10272967 OLD WEST 1912 XIT Ranch sells its last head of cattle historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=oldwest&month=10272963&day=10272967 VIETNAM WAR 1963 Diem murdered during coup historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=vietnamwar&month=10272963&day=10272967 WALL STREET 1982 Economy Struggles Under Reagan historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=wallstreet&month=10272963&day=10272967 WORLD WAR II 1942 British launch Operation Supercharge historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=worldwarii&month=10272963&day=10272967 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Create a profile for your subscriptions; emailmgr.aetv.com/newprofile.jsp?brand=thc