The Spruce Goose, or H-4 Hercules, was a wooden aircraft designed by Howard Hughes during WWII. It only made one flight and is now in an aviation museum in Oregon. The prototype was the only one funded by the US government, and it was built from birch using a revolutionary process called duramold. Hughes faced scrutiny for the project, which was delayed due to design changes and construction techniques.
The Spruce Goose is an aircraft designed by Howard Hughes and built during and after World War II. It was intended to be a military transport aircraft, although the prototype was not completed until well after the end of the war. The media called it Spruce Goose because it was made primarily of wood due to government-imposed restrictions on high-demand materials like aluminum. The Spruce Goose only made one flight, which lasted between one mile (1.6 kilometers) at an altitude of approximately 70 feet (21 meters).
The official designation of the Spruce Goose is the H-4 Hercules. It is currently in an aviation museum in Oregon in the United States. The first flight took place in California after a day of taxi tests by Hughes himself. The plane was also actually a boat, designed to take off and land from water. It is the largest aircraft boat ever built, and has the longest wingspan of any aircraft ever built; the wingspan measures 320 feet, 11 inches (97.54 meters). The wings featured eight propeller engines, four on each wing. After its maiden flight, the aircraft was stored in flight-ready condition. It remained stored in his custom hangar for three decades.
No other versions of the Spruce Goose were ever built, as the prototype was the only one funded by the United States Government, although the original contract called for three aircraft. The Spruce Goose was built from birch, not spruce as many believed. The process was called duramold, and it consisted of placing pieces of wood with the grain of each strip perpendicular to each other. A glue was applied between the layers, and the layers were heated so that they could be formed into various shapes. It was a revolutionary process at the time, and it created a product that was arguably stronger than aluminum while also saving weight over metal.
After the war ended, Hughes came under intense scrutiny because of the project, and a Senate hearing was held to determine whether the project constituted a misappropriation of funds. Hughes championed the project and even invested a significant amount of his own money in it. The project was delayed several times due to the revolutionary techniques used to build the aircraft, as well as tedious design changes that took place over the course of its construction.
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