When the spruce goose flies

1947165438+10 On a cool afternoon in California, Hercules 4 in Hong Kong, also known as the spruce goose, finally flew. This should be a simple taxi test, just driving through the waters of Long Beach Port, showing off its speed and testing the plane in open water. However, after years of people laughing at this project and his own attempt to build such a huge plane that there is no hope of flying, howard hughes decided to seize this opportunity and extend his middle finger to them in his most bitter way.

There is no doubt that Hercules' eyes sparkled when he swam across the water. Hughes turned to David Grant, a 30-year-old hydraulic engineer for help. He was chosen as the co-pilot that day, and even though he was not actually a pilot, he was unexpectedly told to "put down the flaps to 15 degrees"-the take-off position.

Soon after, this huge plane, which is only a few hundred thousand pounds (empty weight is 250K pounds/13kg, gross weight is 400K pounds/18 1kg) long and 265,438 feet (67m) long, still has a record wingspan. It flew in the air for less than a minute, less than a mile, only about 70 feet high, but it did the impossible-the spruce goose flew.

Considering the innovative use of hydraulic system, landing is a bit unusual for aircraft of this era, because the aircraft must descend under the action of power, just as Grant instructed Hughes to "fly it into the water."

When it finally sank into the water, Grant said, "I was ecstatic all the way. It's like walking in the air. It doesn't lack power at all. Its performance is exactly the same as its design.

As for why Hughes didn't fly further, apart from the need to adjust the parts of the plane, there is also the potential danger of bringing the media to the test flight site. During the test flight, even the pilot was not sure what the plane would do. They taxied at this point for a while, and the plane ran out of fuel at first. Therefore, Hughes didn't want to run out of fuel on the high seas before he had a chance to land.

Now, the original plan of this plane is much more grand than a short publicity flight. From 65438 to 0942, the United States and most other places in the world were in World War II. When transporting materials, weapons and soldiers, it is a problem to face cross-sea operations.

At that time, the efforts in this regard were not smooth. German submarines patrol the Atlantic waters, torpedoing down anything that is considered helpful to the allied actions. It is estimated that from June 1942 to August1942, German U boats sank 233 ships, killing more than 5,000 Americans. Obviously, a better way is needed to transport things safely on the big blue ship.

It was Henry J. Cather who first put forward the idea of hovercraft. Caesar ran one of the most important construction companies in modern American history, and was responsible for building quite a lot of infrastructure in the western United States at that time (including the Hoover Dam). He also created a fast and high-quality shipbuilding system, which was famous in the world during World War II.

Caesar believes that a huge hovercraft full of gills, supplies and troops can fly over the German U-submarine, which is the solution to the problem. However, he is a builder, not an expert in airplanes … but he knows who someone is.

By 1942, Hughes was already a famous figure in America. He was very rich and gained a wide reputation as a Hollywood producer at first. The most famous is that he produced and directed an epic film about the air combat in World War I, Hell's Angels, which is the most expensive film ever.

Hughes Aircraft Company was founded in 1934. A year later, he helped design and manufacture H- 1, or "racing driver" as he liked to call it. 1September, 935, he used a speed of 352.322 miles per hour. As a harbinger of the future, the plane ran out of gasoline during the flight-Hughes didn't expect it-and forced him to crash in a beet field, almost causing serious injuries.

It took him only 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds (332 seconds on average) to fly from LA to new york, breaking another land speed record (mph). 1938, he broke the world record for the fastest time to fly around the world. It only took three days, 19 hours, 14 minutes 10 seconds, which was nearly four days faster than the world record set by Willie Post 1933.

As an aviation engineer and pilot, his ability quickly earned him a reputation as one of the most innovative pilots in the world-Caesar thought this man could help the Allies win the war.

Cather and Hughes persuaded the War Production Committee to provide funds to build 500 flying boats, which was regarded by the media as "the most ambitious flight aviation plan in the history of the world".

In the past few months, old-school industrialists and pilots in the new era have made plans, which will wow,

At the end of August, they submitted the design scheme of seaplane to * *. Seaplanes have eight engines, the wingspan is longer than a football field, and the fuselage is higher than five stories.

Besides being the largest plane ever, it can transport 750 soldiers or 2 square meters of Sherman tanks. Its total weight is about 200 tons, almost three times that of other planes. Moreover, due to the limitation of wartime metals, almost all of them were built of wood. Hughes and Caesar called it the first in Hong Kong, so they naturally named it after themselves.

Although hesitant at first, the Federation gave the couple $65.438+08 million (about $250 million today) to develop and build the prototype.

It didn't go well at first. Hughes Aircraft Company is not a big company in 1942, and it is struggling in staffing, cost and construction period. Hughes himself didn't concentrate and took on too many projects, but underestimated how much attention was needed to build an airplane, which would overwhelm what anyone tried to fly. Four months later, the best part is that they built a 750-foot-high boom, which is also made of wood.

In the middle of 1943, the plane itself has started to build, but the moving speed is very slow. Facts have proved that the cooperation with timber is a huge problem, which brings various challenges, and these challenges must be overcome to build a reliable sea plane. In addition to the above-mentioned innovative hydraulic system for manipulating and controlling the surface, every piece of wood (mainly birch, not spruce, because birch is very resistant to dry rot) must be weighed and analyzed before use to ensure the quality.

In addition, every piece of paper should be labeled with waterproof glue to prevent it from being damaged by water, heat and fungi. In this process, in addition to the Duramold lamination process of purchasing right, in short, this process involves stacking formable ultra-thin wood strips and applying glue. Hughes and his team must also develop different processes for their special applications.

Near the end of 1943, the first prototype was due to * * *, but obviously this will not happen. More importantly, they spent nearly half of their budget on "engineering reprocessing". It is said that the first plane will not be completed until 1945. It turned out to be much worse,

At this point, Caesar had had enough and quit the project. On several occasions, the FBI threatened to shut down the whole thing and was willing to reduce the losses. The original contract between Hughes and Caesar was changed from 500 to 3, and finally only one was left, with the original price of $6,543,800+0,800. To 1944,

Among them, it cost $6.5438+0.3 million, but the plane is less than half. Then the war broke out, and any hope of helping the war, now known as H-4 Hercules (renamed after Caesar left the project), was dashed.

The contract between KDSP and the Federation was quickly cancelled, but Hughes was determined to finish the plane. As he said in the investigation of 1947 Senate War Investigation Committee, whether he mismanaged this project, taxpayers' money and Hercules is an immortal cause. This is the biggest plane ever. It is five stories high and its wingspan is longer than a football field. Not just the block. Now, I have devoted my life's sweat to this matter. I wrote my reputation on it. I've said it several times. If I fail, I may leave this country and never come back. I am serious.

So he finished the project at his own expense. 1June, 946, H-4 Hercules was finally completed with a capital of * * * 22 million USD. Although this figure is different from other reputable sources, according to Boeing, of the $0/8 million personal wealth owned by Hughes, $40 million (about $450 million today) is part of it. It should also be pointed out that if they decide to build a second plane, they may only need 2.5 million dollars (about 28 million dollars today).

Hughes' flight takes a little over a year. At this time, considering the huge scale, incredible weight, the fact that it is made of wood and the continuous delay, the media began to laugh at the plane and called it spruce goose-Hughes and his team hated this nickname because it belittled what was originally an engineering miracle.

However, on the decisive day of 165438+ 10, Hercules finally got his wish, which proved the mistakes of many critics.

Later, there was some debate about who really owned it. Considering Hughes' personal investment in this project, the plane took off. However, the United States finally gave up the right to it in exchange for the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum to get a part of Hughes' H- 1 racing car and spruce goose wing, and for a relatively small amount of 700,000 dollars (about 3 million dollars today). Hughes is now working on other projects, putting the plane on a hanger specially built for it. It seems that the original purpose is to fly again. In fact, in order to ensure that the plane can take off at any time, he arranged hundreds of full-time crew members at the peak of the plane. Over the years, he has paid millions of dollars for this.

Howard hughes died in 1976, and the spruce goose was immediately threatened to be dismantled because of the maintenance cost on the huge clothes rack. However, the aviation club in Southern California bought the legendary plane at 1980 and put it on the hanger next to Queen Mary in Long Beach, where the plane made its maiden voyage and last voyage.

Walter Disney Company purchased the property on 1988. After several tense years, considering that Disney wanted the plane to leave, the Evergreen Aviation Museum in mcminn, Oregon won the right to buy spruce geese. In the past 26 years,

It has been preserved here and carefully maintained. In fact, it is generally believed that it has been well maintained over the years. After some upgrades, especially the wiring and electronic components and the engine, it may fly well today. Of course, due to its historical significance, no one seriously suggested anyone to carry out these upgrades and attempts.

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What happened to the money when howard hughes died? At that time, howard hughes bought a TV station so that he could make Netflix the richest man in the 1960s. Why doesn't ury align the window with the seat of the commercial plane? The first person who died in the plane crash was the "Spruce Goose"-the "Flying Spruce Goose" of Evergreen Air and Space Museum-David Tulis's historical website "Inside the Spruce Goose", and Tim Chanetz, author of the Association of Aircraft Owners and Pilots "Henry J Kaiser (1882- 1967)". Co-pilot of Spruce Goose, written by Mina Oliver, howard hughes and Spruce Goose: H-K 1 The story of Hercules in Graham Simmons' H-4 Hercules airship-eric simonsen's Boeing when Hercules took off, Boeing's U-boat attack in Maine in World War II: Six months of secret terror in the Atlantic-New England Historical Society:/Knicks about Howard. Seven things you may not know about Hughes, Howard of Preston Lerner Historical Magazine? Ten events of Hughes, the aerospace magazine Hughes H- 1 Racing Car-Andrew Tarantola, the author of howard hughes H- 1 Racing Car is the last DIY supercar in the world, and Si Long Taylor, the author of Gizmodo, howard hughes completed the round-the-world flight in 1938.