Spruce Goose: The LARGEST Plane Ever Made!

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The Spruce Goose is an aviation icon that started off as a sensible but incredibly ambitious wartime aircraft project, driven by one man’s passion. But the only reason it ever got to fly is because that passion became an obsession.

Today, we'll look at how Howard Hughes developed and maintained the H-4 Hercules over a period of decades, the history of seaplanes and flying boats, and why the Spruce Goose will be forever be remembered as a truly classic aircraft.
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Below you will find the links to videos and sources used in this episode.

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#Mentourpilot #pilot #aircraft #plane #airplane #sprucegoose

[SueBobChicVid]

Kind of a throwback to see you on the sofa. Brings back memories of the dogs.

[TiptronicSS]

I like the "house" setting, it's like "grandpa, tell us a story" setting. 😄 feels natural to me like the early videos.

[danielbarreiro]

And why would ships traditionally moored on the 'port' side? Because before they had central rudders, ships had steering oars hanging out from one side which had to be kept away from the pier to avoid entangling or breaking it. That oar was known as the 'steer board'. One side of the ship became the 'steer board side' and the other the 'port side'' and later became 'starboard' and 'port'.

[diablouser]

My father worked for Hughes Aircraft. He was employee number 32 or 33. He graduated from Carnegie Tech as a Aircraft structural engineer. He had numerous involvements with Howard himself, including related to the Spruce goose, the lead engineer for the structural design of the fuselage. he also was the Hughes representative at Fairchild when they built the wings and tail section of the twin engine recon aircraft. He taught Howard structural engineering one night in Howards kitchen, and said that it was scary how fast he picked up the ideas. After that overnight session, you couldn’t pull any wool over his eyes on structural design.
My mother was the secretary for the production manager to Hughes Aircraft . Howard paid for their honeymoon when, almost without any warning, he sent five people to do the design for the flying boxcar for another company. When my father was in New York working on the reconnaissance job, my mother couldn’t get to New York from LA because she had two cats. Hughes put her, the cats and a servant on a i’m a railroad carriage.
He had numerous other interactions with Hughes until he finally resigned about three months before World War II ended. To do that he had to get permission from Hughes to resign and Hughes flow him from New York to LA and put him up with the cottages at the I forget the name of it restaurant hotel in Hollywood.

[bradkane]

I worked at Hughes Aircraft and my wife was an FA at Pan Am. So you incorporated both of our heritage in this video. Thanks

[Monotoba]

I actually met an old man who had been an engineer on the Hercules project. After we spoke for a few hours about aviation, he excused himself for a few minutes and returned with a concept drawing of the HK-1. He gave it to me and I charished for years before losing it to a house fire. In that fire I also lost a historic issue of Radio Electronics, and Altair 8800, and many model aircraft I had built growing up. The concept drawing had the signatures of many of the engineers and I was told that when the project ended, everyone who had worked on the project took all the momentoes they could carry because they all knew they had worked on something extremly special.

[connielentz]

I saw the spruce goose as a child and my sense of its size may have been affected by my own small size but it seemed massive. For some reason years later when I saw the Vasa, also made of wood, it made me think of the Spruce Goose

[RubyS.]

This is a nice little treat for a Monday morning

[gregorymeyer]

I grew up and lived in Long Beach the first 34 years of my life, and the spruce goose was a regular part of life. Most schools had field trips to see it and many families went on a regular basis. I always thought it was awesome.

[MarkJoseph]

I've sat in the cockpit pilot's seat of THIS airplane. It is in the Evergreen Air & Space Museum. You can, too!
It is truly something to behold... I can't type it all out here. You have to make the trip to go see it in person for yourself. (While you're there, there's also MiGs and an actual SR-71!)

[gonetoearth]

Your series on historic planes is better than high cost production on television. These are exceptionally well-made short documentaries. Love your analysis of accidents as I’m a pilot however I really love the series of these historic planes and keep the videos coming! Thx petter

[AutoReport]

Hughes may not have produced any series airplanes, but they did produce helicopters which are still being produced by three companies today - Boeing (Apache and Little Bird), MD Helicopters (the commercial models spun off by Boeing after acquiring McDonnell Douglas), and Schweizer RSG.

[roadsomewhere]

I visited the Evergreen Air Museum and found it amazing how all of the other aircraft were so completely dwarfed by it. After spending time observing all of the other aircraft I had the strange sensation that it wasn’t even there. It was as though it was part of the whole structure of the building. Being a woodworking hobbyist I found the wood structure and joinery fascinating too. It’s worth a visit.

[Mentaculus]

It should be mentioned that this aircraft pioneered the use of power boosted control surfaces. There were technical developments for this aircraft that were new for this time period.

[martentrudeau]

In the 1980's I saw the Spruce Goose in Long Beach, Ca, it was impressive. Hughes wood technology ideas would eventually succeed with companies like Trus Joist who manufacture wood "I" floor joists and other products. Hughes was interesting, an oil man, aviator, movie director, aircraft designer, manufacturer and more than this.

[Sailit]

When I used to work for McDonnell Douglas Helicoper, I used to work in Bldg 15, which was the building where the Spruce Goose was built in Culver City, CA when Hughes developed the property. The building was constructed using the same lamination techniques. At one time it was the biggest free standing structure in the world. The building is now owned by Google.

I loved this video. Please keep them coming.

[kenbrown]

I have, indeed been to visit the Spruce Goose, it bears mentioning that the museum she lives in was in its own way the product of an aviation lover whose businesses ran into trouble, yet took a loss in his business to be sure the museum stayed alive. and it has a lot more of aviation and space exploration represented than just the Goose.

[IvanSerbinenko]

Funny story, was still a PPL Student when I was on a Cross Country flight with my Instructor from BC, Canada to California. One of our over night stays was McMinnville Oregon, right across the airport was this Air and Space museum, we thought it'd be cool to check out before we went to the hotel. Imagine the shock we had when we realized the Spruce Goose was at the museum. Was an awesome experience, tons of pictures, funny how those things just happen

[davidbeattie]

I personally consider it a huge success. Hughes managed to create a unique and groundbreaking aircraft under war time conditions in a remarkably short time frame. The fact that the need for it disappeared is not the fault of Hughes.

[logic.and.reasoning]

WE WANT THE CARBON GOOSE..!!!! 😊 Howard was a "special" type of person. OCD can be a helping or hindering affliction, i know. His obsessions, especially with what i believe he saw as his most complex challenge and therefore truly his "child, " could be costly but extremely rewarding. Amazing man. Weird but amazing 😊