BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Air and Space Museum -- Temporary Exhibit: Hughes H-4 Spruce Goose

DC -- Natl Air and Space Museum -- Temporary Exhibit: Hughes H-4 Spruce Goose:

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[1] SIGOOS_181229_02.JPG	[2] SIGOOS_181229_06.JPG	[3] SIGOOS_181229_08.JPG
[4] SIGOOS_181229_11.JPG	[5] SIGOOS_181229_14.JPG	[6] SIGOOS_181229_18.JPG
[7] SIGOOS_181229_20.JPG	[8] SIGOOS_181229_24.JPG	[9] SIGOOS_181229_30.JPG
[10] SIGOOS_181229_32.JPG	[11] SIGOOS_181229_34.JPG	[12] SIGOOS_181229_35.JPG
[13] SIGOOS_181229_41.JPG	[14] SIGOOS_181229_42.JPG	[15] SIGOOS_181229_45.JPG
[16] SIGOOS_181229_48.JPG	[17] SIGOOS_181229_49.JPG	[18] SIGOOS_181229_57.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. SIGOOS_181229_02.JPG: Hughes Flying Boat The largest wooden airplane ever built, the Hughes H-4 Hercules flying boat was designed to transport troops and supplies to Europe in World War II. However, the airplane was not completed until two years after the war ended. It flew only once -- for a mere 20 seconds -- but creating the huge flying boat was an achievement as colossal as the airplane itself. Nicknamed the "Spruce Goose," the Hughes H-4 Hercules now resides at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon.
2. SIGOOS_181229_06.JPG: An Aerial Freighter Increasing losses of cargo ships from German submarine attacks during the first months of World War II inspired the idea to develop large flying boats to carry supplies and troops to the European battlefront. Prominent industrialist and shipbuilder Henry J. Kaiser responded to the proposal and partnered with wealthy businessman and aviator Howard Hughes to build a 200-ton flying boat -- an aerial freighter -- designated the HK-1. Hughes H-4 Hercules Skepticism dogged the project from the outset, and in early 1944 the government contract for the HK-1 was nearly canceled. In March, Kaiser dropped out of the project, but Hughes pressed on, renaming the colossal aircraft the Hughes H-4 Hercules.
3. SIGOOS_181229_08.JPG: Howard Hughes in the H-4 Hughes oversaw every detail of the flying boat, often creating delays because of his indecision about key aspects of the design and construction. Although under pressure to scrap the costly endeavor with the end of World War II in 1945, he remained committed to completing and flying the airplane. The project ultimately consumed $18 million in government funds and $7 million of Hughes' own money.
4. SIGOOS_181229_11.JPG: It Flies! On November 2, 1947, the H-4 was launched into Long Beach Harbor in Southern California for taxi tests with Hughes at the controls. On the third taxi run, the flying boat unexpected lifted from the water, stunning all onlookers. It traveled less than a mile at a maximum altitude of 21 meters (70 feet) during its 20-second flight. Either because of concerns over the craft's structural integrity, loss of interest after successfully flying the boat, or some other reason known only to the secretive Hughes, the H-4 was placed in storage. It never flew again.
5. SIGOOS_181229_14.JPG: Building the Giant Designing and constructing such a huge aircraft was unprecedented. To avoid affecting any ongoing war production, Hughes had to use a minimum of critical or strategic materials and could not hire engineers or skilled technicians already employed by manufacturers with other government contracts. These restrictions led to the airplane's defining design characteristic: it would be built entirely of wood. The Longest Wing Ever Built Hughes built a special manufacturing facility in Culver City, California, to contract the huge flying boat. The H-4's wing, with a span of 97.5 meters (320 feet) and an area of 1,020 square meters (11,000 square feet), remains the longest ever built.
6. SIGOOS_181229_18.JPG: The Cavernous Interior Hundreds of beach balls were placed in the fuselage the wing floats to increase buoyancy in the event of flooding.
7. SIGOOS_181229_20.JPG: Installing the Tail During Finally [sic] Assembly The 34-meter (113-foot) horizontal stabilizer was longer than the wingspan of a World War II Boeing B-17 bomber.
8. SIGOOS_181229_24.JPG: (Circular thing) The Duramold Process After extensive tests to determine the best glues and construction techniques for working with wood on such a massive scale, a process known as Duramold was adapted for the H-4. Duramold utilized many thin layers of wood glued together and then cured under high heat and pressure. It produced a strong, smooth skin that could be formed into tight, compound curves. This Duramold test sample was made during the H-4's construction. Note the many layers of birch and how tightly curved the material can be formed.
9. SIGOOS_181229_32.JPG: Loft Socks Hughes required all workers who entered or worked around the flying boat to wear these cotton socks over their shoes to prevent scuffing the smooth wooden surfaces, an indication of his attention to detail.
10. SIGOOS_181229_34.JPG: Making the Parts Hughes Aircraft Company engineers laid out full-size templates of large structural members of the floor. They used the templates to create the Duramold components. This full-size template for the right aileron trim tab shows the mammoth size of even relatively small parts.
11. SIGOOS_181229_35.JPG: The Not So Spruce Goose The wooden giant came to be popularly known as the "Spruce Goose," a name Hughes detested. In fact, only the wing spars were spruce. Most of the structure was birch, which has a good strength-to-weight ratio and was readily available. This birch sample is from the remaining stock used to build the H-4.
12. SIGOOS_181229_42.JPG: How Big is Big? These models of the Hughes Flying Boat and the Douglas DC-3 airliners are the same scale. Compare the relative sizes of the models with the full-size D-3 hanging in the Hall of Air Transportation across from you.
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