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War of beach rocketeer8/17/2023 The Hercules was a monumental undertaking. During a Senate hearing on Aug(the first of a series of appearances), Hughes said: Howard Hughes was called to testify before the Senate War Investigating Committee in 1947 over the use of government funds for the aircraft. After Hughes Aircraft completed final assembly, they erected a hangar around the flying boat, with a ramp to launch the H-4 into the harbor. They moved it in three large sections: the fuselage, each wing-and a fourth, smaller shipment with tail assembly parts and other smaller assemblies. Ī house moving company transported the airplane on streets to Pier E (now Pier T ) in Long Beach, California. Hamilton Roddis had teams of young women ironing the (unusually thin) strong birch wood veneer before shipping to California. The specialized wood veneer was made by Roddis Manufacturing in Marshfield, Wisconsin. The plane was built by the Hughes Aircraft Company at Hughes Airport, location of present-day Playa Vista, Los Angeles, California, employing the plywood-and-resin " Duramold" process – a form of composite technology – for the laminated wood construction, which was considered a technological tour de force. Work proceeded slowly, and the H-4 was not completed until well after the war was over. Hughes continued the program on his own under the designation H-4 Hercules, signing a new government contract that now limited production to one example. Rearward view of the Hercules H-4's fuselage Development dragged on, which frustrated Kaiser, who blamed delays partly on restrictions placed for the acquisition of strategic materials such as aluminum, and partly on Hughes' insistence on "perfection." Construction of the first HK-1 took place 16 months after the receipt of the development contract. While Kaiser had originated the "flying cargo ship" concept, he did not have an aeronautical background and deferred to Hughes and his designer, Glenn Odekirk. It would be built mostly of wood to conserve metal (its elevators and rudder were fabric-covered), and was nicknamed the Spruce Goose (a name Hughes disliked) or the Flying Lumberyard. The final design chosen was a behemoth, eclipsing any large transport then built. Seven configurations were considered, including twin-hull and single-hull designs with combinations of four, six, and eight wing-mounted engines. The HK-1 aircraft contract was issued in 1942 as a development contract and called for three aircraft to be constructed in two years for the war effort. The original designation "HK-1" reflected the Hughes and Kaiser collaboration. It was designed to carry 150,000 pounds (68,000 kg), 750 fully equipped troops or two 30-ton M4 Sherman tanks. Kaiser teamed with aircraft designer Howard Hughes to create what would become the largest aircraft yet built. Kaiser, a leading Liberty ship builder and manufacturer. The aircraft was the brainchild of Henry J. Wartime priorities meant the aircraft could not be made of strategic materials (e.g., aluminum). 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. War Department needed to transport war materiel and personnel to Britain. Size comparison between the H-4 and a Douglas DC-3 After having been displayed to the public in Long Beach, California, from 1980 to 1992, it is now on display at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, United States. The Hercules is the largest flying boat ever built, and it had the largest wingspan of any aircraft that had ever flown until the twin-fuselaged Scaled Composites Stratolaunch first flew on April 13, 2019. The aircraft made only one brief flight, on November 2, 1947, and the project never advanced beyond the single example produced.īuilt from wood ( Duramold process) because of wartime restrictions on the use of aluminum and concerns about weight, the aircraft was nicknamed the Spruce Goose by critics, although it was made almost entirely of birch. Intended as a transatlantic flight transport for use during World War II, it was not completed in time to be used in the war. The Hughes H-4 Hercules (commonly known as the Spruce Goose registration NX37602) is a prototype strategic airlift flying boat designed and built by the Hughes Aircraft Company.
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