Evergreen Aviation Museum (McMinnville, Oregon)

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500 NE Captain Michael King Smith Way
McMinnville, Oregon 97128
503-434-4810
www.evergreenmuseum.org/

Home of the Spruce Goose
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spruce_goose

Hughes Flying Boat H-4 (HK-1) Hercules (“Spruce Goose”)

Introduction - Move to Oregon - Description

Introduction
The centerpiece or "crown jewel" of the Evergreen Aviation Museum is a plane known around the world as the "Spruce Goose." In July 1942, the world was at war. America had just lost 800,000 tons of her supply ships to German U-boats. Henry Kaiser, famed industrialist and builder of “Liberty” ships, proposed a fleet of flying transports to safely move troops and materiel across the Atlantic. Kaiser approached Howard Hughes with his idea. Together they formed the Hughes Kaiser Corporation and obtained an $18,000,000 government contract to construct three flying boats.

Howard Hughes had an international reputation as an oil and businessman, movie producer, aeronautical engineer and world-class aviator. Henry Kaiser partnered with Hughes because of Hughes' aircraft design and construction expertise. Hughes and his team of skilled engineers designed a single hull flying boat capable of carrying 750 troops. The plans called for eight 3,000 horsepower engines, a mammoth fuel storage and supply system, and wings 20 feet longer than a football field. They called the prototype aircraft the HK-1, standing for the Hughes Kaiser design number one.

Encountering and dealing with tremendous design and engineering problems, the Hughes team developed new concepts for large-scale hulls, flying control surfaces, and complex power boost systems. Hughes engineers created the first "artificial feel system" in the control yoke, which gave the pilot the feeling he was flying a smaller aircraft, but with a force multiplied two hundred times. For example, for each pound of pressure exerted on the control yoke by the pilot, the elevator received 1,500 pounds of pressure to move it.

Adhering to the government mandate not to use materials critical to the war effort (such as steel and aluminum), the Hughes team constructed the Flying Boat out of wood. Hughes perfected a process called "Duramold" to create almost every part of the plane. Originally developed by Fairchild Aircraft Company, Howard Hughes purchased the rights to use Duramold in large aircraft. The Duramold process is a plywood-like series of thin wood laminations, with grains laid perpendicular to each other. Workers permeating the laminations with plastic glue, then they shaped and heated the pieces until cured. The result is a material that many engineers agree is both lighter and stronger than aluminum.

All of the research and development that went into the new seaplane delayed the construction process. In mid 1944, Henry Kaiser withdrew from the project, and Hughes took personal responsibility for all facets of the flying boat's design and production. He renamed the gigantic seaplane H-4, representing his aircraft company’s fourth design.

After the war’s end in 1945, criticism of the project mounted. The Flying Boat prototype had exceeded the government’s funding allowance and the U.S. Senate formed an investigation committee to probe alleged misappropriation of funds. Hughes invested $7,000,000 of his own into the project to keep it going. While Hughes testified before the investigative committee in Washington, D.C., the Hughes team assembled the Flying Boat in the Long Beach dry dock. After his interrogation, Hughes was determined to demonstrate the capability of his Flying Boat. He returned to California and immediately ordered the seaplane readied for taxi tests.

On November 2, 1947, a crowd of expectant observers and newsmen gathered. With Hughes at the controls, the giant Flying Boat glided smoothly across a three-mile stretch of harbor. From 35 miles per hour, it cruised to 90 during the second taxi test when eager newsmen began filing their stories. During the third taxi test Hughes surprised everyone as he ordered the wing flaps lowered to 15 degrees and the seaplane lifted off the water. He flew her for a little over a mile at an altitude of 70 feet for approximately one minute. The short hop proved to skeptics that the gigantic craft could fly!

After the flight, Hughes placed the Flying Boat in its custom built hangar and ordered her maintained in flight-ready condition. She remained in “hibernation” for 33 years at a cost of approximately one million dollars per year. In 1976, after Hughes' death, his holding company - Summa Corporation - made plans to disassemble the historic seaplane into nine pieces for various museums unless a non-profit organization stepped forward to adopt her.

At the last minute Summa made arrangements to donate the aircraft to the non-profit Aero Club of Southern California, which then leased it to the Wrather Corporation, headed by entrepreneur Jack Wrather and his wife, Bonita Granville Wrather. Wrather Corporation moved the Flying Boat to a temporary location while they built a custom dome to place her on exhibit. On October 29, 1980, the Flying Boat emerged from seclusion and into the world’s spotlight. The world's largest floating crane, Herman the German, lifted her onto the dock of the temporary storage area. After sixteen months, the new dome was ready. Floating by barge the Flying Boat moved across Long Beach Harbor then gently eased into her new home, adjacent to the RMS Queen Mary. The Flying Boat exhibit opened to the public in 1983. In the late 1980s, after the deaths of Jack and Bonita Wrather, the Disney Corporation purchased the former holdings of the Wrather Corporation. In March 1990, Disney informed the Aero Club of Southern California of its intention to discontinue the dome exhibit, leaving the Flying Boat looking for yet another home.

The Aero Club requested proposals for custody and preservation of the aircraft based on two specific criteria. The winning organization would have access to land on which to house the Flying Boat and the funding necessary to move and care for her.

Evergreen International Aviation’s plan, as envisioned by Captain Michael King Smith, proposed to not only preserve and protect her, but also to display her as the central exhibit in a living museum. On July 9, 1990, the Aero Club voted unanimously to award custody of the Hughes Flying Boat to Evergreen Aviation, located in McMinnville, Oregon.

Open Daily 9:00AM to 5:00PM. Close Easer, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.

ADMISSION
Adults (18-64): $11.00
Children (5 and under) Free
Students (with I.D.: $7.00
Seniors (65+), Vets, Active Duty Military, Reservists and Immediate Family Members: $10.00

The Hughes H-4 Hercules ("Spruce Goose") is an aircraft which was designed and built by Howard Hughes' Hughes Aircraft company. Its first and only flight took place in 1947. Hughes himself detested the nickname "Spruce Goose". The nickname arose as a way of mocking the Hercules project due to Hughes' alleged misuse of government funding to build the aircraft. The Hercules is the largest flying boat, and still holds the record for the largest wingspan of any aircraft in history. Only one was ever built.

Due to wartime restrictions on the availability of metals, the H-4 was built almost entirely of laminated birch, not spruce as its nickname suggests. The aircraft was a technological marvel of its time. It married a soon-to-be outdated technology, flying boats, to a massive airframe that required some truly ingenious engineering innovations to function.

Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Claims
3 On screen
4 Specifications (H-4)
5 External links
6 Related content

[edit] History

Hercules at Evergreen Aviation MuseumIn 1942, the U.S. Department of War was faced with the need to transport war matériel and personnel to Britain. Allied shipping in the Atlantic Ocean was suffering heavy losses to German U-boats, so a requirement was issued for an aircraft that could cross the Atlantic with a large payload.

The aircraft was the brainchild of Henry J. Kaiser, who directed the Liberty ships program. He teamed with aircraft designer Howard Hughes to create what would become the largest aircraft built or even seriously contemplated at that time. When completed, it was capable of carrying 750 fully-equipped troops or two M4 Sherman tanks.

To conserve metal for the war effort, it would be built mostly of wood; hence, the "Spruce Goose" moniker. It was also referred to as the Flying Lumberyard by critics who believed an aircraft of its size physically could not fly.

Development dragged on and was not completed until well after the war was over. There were many reasons for this, not least of which was Hughes' mental breakdown during development. In 1947, Howard Hughes was called to testify before the Senate War Investigating Committee over the usage of government funds for the aircraft, as Congress was eliminating war-era spending to free up federal funds for domestic projects. Though he encountered scepticism and even hostility from the committee, Hughes remained unruffled. During a break in the hearings, he returned to California, ostensibly to run taxi tests on the H-4. On the 2nd of November in 1947, with Hughes at the controls, the Hercules lifted off from the waters off Long Beach, remaining airborne 70 feet (20 m) off the water at a speed of 80 mph (130 km/h or 70 knots) for just under a mile (1.6 km). At this altitude, the plane was still experiencing ground effect and some critics believe it lacked the power necessary to climb above ground effect.

Hughes had answered his critics, but the justification for continued spending on the project was gone. Congress ended the Hercules project, and the aircraft never flew again. It was carefully maintained in flying condition until Hughes' death in 1976.

[edit] Claims

Rearward view of the H-4's fuselage.
Size comparison between H-4 and a DC-3Hughes had his entire reputation wrapped up in the H-4 and often said that if the Hercules did not fly he would probably leave America and never return. In a transcript of a Senate hearing, Hughes said the following:

“ The Hercules was a monumental undertaking. It is the largest plane ever built. It is over five stories tall with a wingspan longer than a football field. That's more than a city block. Now, I put the sweat of my life into this thing. I have my reputation all rolled up in it and I have stated several times that if it's a failure I'll probably leave this country and never come back. And I mean it. ”

In 1980, the Hercules was acquired by the California Aero Club, who successfully put the aircraft on display in a large dome adjacent to the Queen Mary exhibit in Long Beach, California. In 1988, The Walt Disney Company acquired both attractions. Disappointed by the lackluster revenue the Hercules exhibit generated, Disney began to look for another organization to take the exhibit off its hands. After a long search for a qualified buyer, the plane was acquired by the Evergreen Aviation Museum in 1993, who disassembled the aircraft and moved it by barge to its current home in McMinnville, Oregon (about an hour southwest of Portland) where it has been on display since.

By the mid-1990s, Hollywood converted the former Hughes Aircraft hangars, including the one that held the Hercules, into sound stages. Scenes from movies such as Titanic, What Women Want, and End of Days have been filmed in the 315,000 square foot (29,000 m²) airplane hangar where Howard Hughes created the legendary flying boat. The hangar will be preserved as a structure eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Buildings in what is today the housing development Playa Vista.

Though the project was a failure, the H-4 Hercules, in some senses, presaged the massive transport aircraft of the late 20th century, such as the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, the Antonov An-124 and the An-225. The Hercules demonstrated that the physical and aerodynamic principles which make flight possible are not limited by the size of the aircraft, even if the viability of the airplane itself is, mainly due to the lack (at that time) of strong enough engines.

News story on the Spruce Goose (file info)
[edit] On screen
The construction and flight of the Hercules was featured in the 2004 Hughes biopic The Aviator. Motion control and remote control models, as well as partial interiors and exteriors, of the aircraft were reproduced for this scene. The motion-control Hercules is on display at the Evergreen Aviation Museum, next to the real Hercules.

The Hercules was also the subject of a Yogi Bear movie entitled "Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose"

In the animated television series TaleSpin, there was an aircraft called the "Spruce Moose".

A model of the Hercules is featured in a scene of The Rocketeer.

It was parodied in The Simpsons in the episode $pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling), where Mr. Burns shows a model aircraft to Mr. Smithers he calls the "Spruce Moose". Also, in Midnight Rx he owns a plane called the Plywood Pelican. He summarized its history as "I flew it at an altitude of six feet for a distance of four and a half feet. We later learned that rain makes it catch fire. Then the Führer fired me." Later in the episode he used it to smuggle in massive amounts of prescription drugs from Canada.

[edit] Specifications (H-4)

General characteristics
Crew: 3
Length: 218 ft 8 in (66.65 m)
Wingspan: 319 ft 11 in (97.54 m)
Height: 79 ft 4 in (24.18 m)
Fuselage height: 30 ft (9.1 m))
Loaded weight: 400,000 lbs (180,000 kg)
Powerplant: 8× Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major radial engines, 3,000 hp (2,240 kW) each
Propellers: 8x four-bladed Hamilton Standard, diameter 17 ft 2 in (5.23 m)) each
Performance
Cruise speed: 220 mph (320.05 km/h)
Range: 3,000 mi (4,800 km)
Projected endurance (cruise): 20.9 hrs)
Service ceiling: 20,900 ft (6,370 m)

[edit] External links
Evergreen Aviation Museum, McMinnville, Oregon, home of the plane.
Spruce Goose: Where Is It Now?: A history of the plane following Hughes' death.
The Aviator (2004) Biography/drama movie about Howard Hughes with H-4 Hercules Spruce Goose episode.

[edit] Related content

Comparable aircraft
Dornier Do X
Blohm + Voss BV 238
Boeing Pelican

The museum has one of only 19 surviving SR-71A Blackbirds, #61-7971

More photos here: obsidianarchitecture.com/evergreen-aviation-mcminnville...