Go to ground.news/mentour to get worldwide coverage on Boeing, aviation safety and more. Subscribe through my link for 40% off unlimited access this month.
Soviet Union’s supplies through the “land lease” amounted to about 5% of the total equipment and other supplies used for the war… So as much as the western propaganda tries to claim that they had any significant role in the war against the brown plague - it really didn’t.. (I mean Standard Oil also supplied the Luftwffe with kerosine at the same time) And the only reason why the Normandy landing took place is because the Soviets were about to crash the na.. is and the Americans wanted to occupy at least some part of Europe… That is why for the long 3 years (1941-1944) all the calls to the British and Americans to open the second front fell on deaf ears… coz in reality they actually wished that the Germans won 🤷♂️
In the end , Hughes was a debilitated, senile wreck. This often happens to those who are handed everything- including access to any woman one chooses. He led an interesting but sad life.
@@vanzell1912 yeah everyone goes senile before death. Shocker. But sure, use the guy to try and reinforce your judgemental and petty world views, why don't you.
And why would ships traditionally moored on the 'port' side? Because before they had central rudders, ships had steering oars hanging out from one side which had to be kept away from the pier to avoid entangling or breaking it. That oar was known as the 'steer board'. One side of the ship became the 'steer board side' and the other the 'port side'' and later became 'starboard' and 'port'.
I assume that steer board is right side because almost everyone is right-hand dominant. Makes sense. Thanks for the info, man. The things we learn everyday 😄
My father worked for Hughes Aircraft. He was employee number 32 or 33. He graduated from Carnegie Tech as a Aircraft structural engineer. He had numerous involvements with Howard himself, including related to the Spruce goose, the lead engineer for the structural design of the fuselage. he also was the Hughes representative at Fairchild when they built the wings and tail section of the twin engine recon aircraft. He taught Howard structural engineering one night in Howards kitchen, and said that it was scary how fast he picked up the ideas. After that overnight session, you couldn’t pull any wool over his eyes on structural design. My mother was the secretary for the production manager to Hughes Aircraft . Howard paid for their honeymoon when, almost without any warning, he sent five people to do the design for the flying boxcar for another company. When my father was in New York working on the reconnaissance job, my mother couldn’t get to New York from LA because she had two cats. Hughes put her, the cats and a servant on a i’m a railroad carriage. He had numerous other interactions with Hughes until he finally resigned about three months before World War II ended. To do that he had to get permission from Hughes to resign and Hughes flow him from New York to LA and put him up with the cottages at the I forget the name of it restaurant hotel in Hollywood.
My great uncle was Glenn Odekirk. I don't know if he even had an "employee #" but if he did it would have been 1 or 2 as he was Howard's right hand man. I'm afraid to tell you that your story sounds very exaggerated which for whatever reason is very common when it comes Howard Hughes. It seems like many people have some story to tell.
@@diablouser I worked for Hughes employee #108331. I was a supervisor of an employee that was taken out of the lab to go to Long Beach because he knew how to remove the H-4 wings for transport to Oregon
I saw the spruce goose as a child and my sense of its size may have been affected by my own small size but it seemed massive. For some reason years later when I saw the Vasa, also made of wood, it made me think of the Spruce Goose
I got to touch the Vasa - with gloves. The perks of being blind are few, but I'll take my wins where I can. Luckily back then I had enough vision to appreciate it visually as well.
Hughes may not have produced any series airplanes, but they did produce helicopters which are still being produced by three companies today - Boeing (Apache and Little Bird), MD Helicopters (the commercial models spun off by Boeing after acquiring McDonnell Douglas), and Schweizer RSG.
I grew up and lived in Long Beach the first 34 years of my life, and the spruce goose was a regular part of life. Most schools had field trips to see it and many families went on a regular basis. I always thought it was awesome.
I've sat in the cockpit pilot's seat of THIS airplane. It is in the Evergreen Air & Space Museum. You can, too! It is truly something to behold... I can't type it all out here. You have to make the trip to go see it in person for yourself. (While you're there, there's also MiGs and an actual SR-71!)
@willykang1293 There's not... I know... because I literally spent the entire day there - from the minute they opened, until 5-10 minutes past closing! 😄 And I went to almost every building, but we rushed through the final chunk because they were closing. I took over 1000 photos! 😄
Saw it many times next to the queen mary in long beach. Hughes was a unique man. Thanks howard for many amazing things. This plane, glomar explorer. I sat in the captains seat several times in awe.
Your series on historic planes is better than high cost production on television. These are exceptionally well-made short documentaries. Love your analysis of accidents as I’m a pilot however I really love the series of these historic planes and keep the videos coming! Thx petter
I visited the Evergreen Air Museum and found it amazing how all of the other aircraft were so completely dwarfed by it. After spending time observing all of the other aircraft I had the strange sensation that it wasn’t even there. It was as though it was part of the whole structure of the building. Being a woodworking hobbyist I found the wood structure and joinery fascinating too. It’s worth a visit.
I actually met an old man who had been an engineer on the Hercules project. After we spoke for a few hours about aviation, he excused himself for a few minutes and returned with a concept drawing of the HK-1. He gave it to me and I charished for years before losing it to a house fire. In that fire I also lost a historic issue of Radio Electronics, and Altair 8800, and many model aircraft I had built growing up. The concept drawing had the signatures of many of the engineers and I was told that when the project ended, everyone who had worked on the project took all the momentoes they could carry because they all knew they had worked on something extremly special.
In the 1980's I saw the Spruce Goose in Long Beach, Ca, it was impressive. Hughes wood technology ideas would eventually succeed with companies like Trus Joist who manufacture wood "I" floor joists and other products. Hughes was interesting, an oil man, aviator, movie director, aircraft designer, manufacturer and more than this.
It should be mentioned that this aircraft pioneered the use of power boosted control surfaces. There were technical developments for this aircraft that were new for this time period.
I have, indeed been to visit the Spruce Goose, it bears mentioning that the museum she lives in was in its own way the product of an aviation lover whose businesses ran into trouble, yet took a loss in his business to be sure the museum stayed alive. and it has a lot more of aviation and space exploration represented than just the Goose.
I was fortunate enough to have visited the Spruce Goose back in 1984, when it was still in Long Beach, California, in its giant display dome, next to the RMS Queen Mary ocean liner. Very impressive.
When I used to work for McDonnell Douglas Helicoper, I used to work in Bldg 15, which was the building where the Spruce Goose was built in Culver City, CA when Hughes developed the property. The building was constructed using the same lamination techniques. At one time it was the biggest free standing structure in the world. The building is now owned by Google. I loved this video. Please keep them coming.
I personally consider it a huge success. Hughes managed to create a unique and groundbreaking aircraft under war time conditions in a remarkably short time frame. The fact that the need for it disappeared is not the fault of Hughes.
I got to sit in the pilots seat of the H4 back in 2014. The Evergreen air and space museum was by far the best aviation museum I've visited. Definitely worth the 4 hour drive from Seattle.
Funny story, was still a PPL Student when I was on a Cross Country flight with my Instructor from BC, Canada to California. One of our over night stays was McMinnville Oregon, right across the airport was this Air and Space museum, we thought it'd be cool to check out before we went to the hotel. Imagine the shock we had when we realized the Spruce Goose was at the museum. Was an awesome experience, tons of pictures, funny how those things just happen
I am privileged to live 10 minutes away from the Evergreen Aviation Museum, in McMinville, OR, where the Goose resides. What an amazing piece of engineering and craftsmanship. If you are ever in the area, definitely check it out.
My grandfather saw the Spruce Goose fly when he was in med school down in California after WWII. I've seen it in person in Oregon and can't even fathom how impressive it would have been to see it fly in person.
I had a chance to visit the Spruce Goose and visit the cockpit in 1990 when it was in Long Beach. My father, who was present when the first flight took place (he worked at Los Angeles Harbor in San Pedro) was there also. It was impressive to walk around inside of.
As a kid, trips to Long Beach were triply fun, as I could see the Spruce Goose, go next door to the Queen Mary and then visit the Long Beach Naval Shipyard where my father worked. Sadly, only the Queen remains there, though it’s good that she’s receiving some love.
I got to see the Spruce Goose on a field trip in elementary school. It was in a gigantic white dome next to the Queen Mary in Long Beach. It was a magical day for a kid.
WE WANT THE CARBON GOOSE..!!!! 😊 Howard was a "special" type of person. OCD can be a helping or hindering affliction, i know. His obsessions, especially with what i believe he saw as his most complex challenge and therefore truly his "child," could be costly but extremely rewarding. Amazing man. Weird but amazing 😊
I have seen the Spruce Goose in McMinnville. I am not sure what was more fascinating to me, the plane itself or seeing my Dad in his late 70's being giddy like a kid getting to see it for the 1st time. I always knew he was an aviation buff, but had no idea how much it captured his imagination when he was growing up. Tho I have to admit, seeing the SR-71 setting by it caught my attention too!
I had a chance to see it in Long Beach before it was moved to it's current home. It truly was an amazing piece of engineering that helped kick off my interest in Aerospace and the Engineering field and I hope it continues to inspire every kid that sees it.
I saw it in Long Beach when I was little. I couldn't understand why something so marvelous and perfect had only been allowed to fly one brief flight, and then had been hidden away and left to languish. The adult world never seemed stranger to me.
Great weekend to highlight a flying boat... saw the srpuce goose years ago in the museum... This weekend saw the Martin Mars Hawaii flown to Victoria for retirement into the BC Aviation Museum
I’d never really thought much about aviation and now am obsessed! - I’m so grateful to have discovered you! Your channels are absolutely superb, your style hypnotic and it’s all done so well 💯❤✈️
This is a beautiful big bird. I am lucky enough to have sat in the Captain's chair of the spruce goose at it's current (and likely final) place of residence in Oregon. It is truly a massive beast.
@@paullaurencesweeney5255 Sadly they died out when airports actually got better then a strip of dirt in most places...unless in some special cases, like firefighters plane. But i dont think you can get to those.
I lived in Oregon when the Goose was moved. It was shipped down the Willamette River on barges. The tail barely fit under several of the bridges. The Evergreen Aviation museum prides itself on maintaining the air worthiness of all of the planes in its collection. The Goose dwarfs all of the other aircraft in the collection. It's an hour south of Portland and worth the drive. I hope to make it to the museum on a day to the engines are tested. The television show Leverage featured the Goose in one of their episodes.
It definitely is worth seeing in person, and you can get tours to go inside and sit down in the cockpit. It's incredible how dozens of fighter jets are on display under the H-4 and it just dwarfs them. It's one of those things that is so big it is hard to appreciate even when viewing it in person. The museum is on par with the National Air and Space Museum in DC and you can easily spend all day just looking at planes, helicopters, space craft and watching an IMAX film. You can easily fly into Portland and drive to McMinnville, OR. There is also an wonderful indoor waterpark next door which included a retired cargo 747.
My grandpa's company did the wiring for the museum that it currently is stored in. I Remember going with my grandpa to work one day as a kid and seen this massive plane. It was moved in five parts. Each Wing was broken into two separate parts and the fuselage was another
I watched the Aviator and thought it was very well done. The movie ends with the flight of the Hercules. I appreciate the history shown here including flying boats and the connections. Also, the modern "Hercules" is also an after thought to most people, despite the durability and very long use. That is the C-130 in US terms. Nowhere near the size, similar by name only to honor Hughes.
Hughes may have been an eccentric but he had great vision and was a huge influence on air travel today. He proved his plane would fly when many said it wouldn't.
I have sat in the Pilots seat in this plane. To say that it's BIG is just nuts, it's GINOURMOUS! The detail they went through to build it is incredible and it still looks awesome today!
Many times I prowled around, and in the Spruce Goose. It is amazing to see a DC-3 tucked neatly beneath the stbd wing, a MIG nearby, and the Goose looming over many more planes, its wings almost like a protective mother.
We have been on this plane and the size is next level the cockpit has steps up to the pilot seats, it has access in the wings where they would be able to work on the engines in flight
I've seen this plane in person in the museum in Oregon and it is really something. It's hard to really grasp the enormous scale of the machine without standing beneath it. Truly amazing, it saddens me that it only ever flew once.
not only did i get to see it and walk around inside last year, when i was at the Evergreen Air and Space Museum, they were bringing in an F-117 through the parking lot and into the building. so freaking cool.
I've seen the Spruce Goose, both when it was in Long Beach, CA and also at the Evergreen Museum in Oregon. That was cool, but what was really cool was seeing the other plane Peeter mentions, the Stratolauncher, a couple of years ago. My son and I were driving to LA from Reno and decided to spend the night in Mojave, CA to charge our car. The Stratolauncher was located near our hotel at The Mojave Air and Space Port, so we drove on base the next morning and we were lucky to see the Stratolauncher being prepped outside of its huge hanger. Such a cool sight that few have seen!
I had the pleasure of seeing the Spruce Goose, when I was working in Oregon last year. It was an amazing experience! Thank you for doing another interesting and informative video, Petter!
Yes I've seen it! Amazing!! I lived in McMinnville when the Aviation Museum was built. It was a big thrill when the Spruce Goose was reassembled and we could see it. Most of my family has seen it too.
Howard Hughes was a genius! To see this beauty in person, pictures & video don't do it justice. He took "Imagination is more important than knowledge."- AE, to the next level in all his endeavors.
I saw it in Long Beach in the 1980s. It and the Queen Mary Atlantic ocean liner were the two attractions there. It was very impressive, and seemed a mixture of disappointment that it never saw service, and a joy that it remained extant at all.
What a fascinating story! I didn't know nothing about Spruce Goose until I saw it myself in McMinnville, Oregon in March of this year. I thought it was a super big model of a smaller plane. Couldn't believe its really capable of flying until someone told me so at the museum! Wish I can share my pics here. Also they have a B747 at this museum.
The Goose! I love it! I went to visit it when I was a kid and got to go inside it :) The Evergreen Museum is great, they have a building for Airplanes and a building for Space, and I hear now they have a water park as well lol.
The Hercules/Spruce Goose is amazing to see up close and personal! Thanks for reminding me. I have a friend who has never seen it and we have been putting together a trip to the area around where the plane currently resides. I used to go see it in its former location.
Although I knew some of the history of the Spruce Goose, your explanation of it was wonderful as usual! Especially the extras of how boarding ships and airplanes is always on the left side! Good stuff!
Honestly enjoyed the more informal setting. A nice change from the very professional setting we have all got used to. Maybe try it out now and then every so and often
I love your Chanel. I Remember when I used to be your cabin crew and it feels a bit like family. Wish you all the best. Your videos are each time more interesting. Keep on rockin ❤
I visited the Spruce Goose along with the Queen Mary a year or so before it was moved out of L.A. the most memorable thing was the emense amount of exposed wood. It was breathtaking or mesmerizing to see a plane with nothing covering the walls of the interior. The wood was pristine as though it was just constructed.
I got to see the Spruce Goose when it was in Long Beach, CA and McMinnville, OR. I truly love the museum in Oregon. My totally awesome wife drove me around to a half dozen or so airplane and military museums last October while we were on vacation.
Flying boats were special. At least to me, they were. I learned to fly in a Grumman Goose. That was 40 years ago and I can still close my eyes and hear the roar of her radials.
Never flown a real plane, but I spent many hours in a Grumman Goose on Microsoft FSX. I used to love taking off from my local airport, and flying over to a lake up in a mountain area about half an hour (flying time) away.
I have had the privilege of sitting at the controls of this aircraft and touring her insides. As one of the people who donated heavily to help fund her relocation from Long Beach CA to McMinnville OR, the museum sent me a swatch of the flight control fabric, which was original and on the aircraft when it flew that one time, when they decided to replace all that fabric with unused and carefully stored 'new old stock' fabric. I have done a lot of research regarding this plane, although I don't think of myself as a true expert, but I have read all of the papers and such I can find about her. One thing that is often repeated about her sole flight is that, "well, she never really flew because she was in ground effect the whole time". First, that is nonsensical because she was developing lift greater then her weight, got off the 'ground' under her own power, and was under control the whole time. If that definition was good enough fro the Wright Brothers, it ought to apply to the Goose. Second, the aircraft has been repeatedly modeled in software at universities and other places, and 'flown' in simulation, and from that it seems pretty certain that she was basically airworthy. She flew, and could have flown more if Hughes had decided to then, or on possible later flights. Of greater concern is whether she was structurally sound for sustained flight, under the planned cargo loading, and in adverse weather, etc. Certainly the designers at Hughes thought so based on their material tests and aviation engineering talent and skill, which was considerable. Yet, during the one flight, spotters near the tail reported that the fuselage structure back there, where it is narrow, was twisting back and forth a lot. Maybe this was within design limits, maybe Hughes averted a disaster by setting it down quickly. But also keep in mind, this flight was conducted in a harbor that was not all that large, and unless Hughes took it to much higher altitude, he would run into something. A lot of "ifs". I encourage everyone with a love of aviation to make a trip to see the Goose at her museum; it is just a fairly short drive west of Portland, Oregon, and also not far off of the Pacific coastal highway; isolated but not too much so.
If you're even in Oregon, the museum the Spruce Goose is at is amazing! So much Mercury, Gemini, Apollo space stuff there also. Really worth stopping by!
That camera shot at 21:18 with the setting sun shining through the formerly Jumbo Jet Turbofan engines is amazing! Also Notice the 747 windshields used for the cockpit of the aircraft with the largest wingspan ever to be built.
Another good dive into history. Liberty ship build had as much to do with the logistics requirements to supply Europe and the Pacific theaters, both had multiple fronts. I have been to the Museum in Oregon, fantastic as are the many other aircraft on display.
I visited McMinnville three times after reading the account of how the Spruce Goose was disassembled, transported, stored and finally reassembled at Evergreen’s facility. The aircraft is enormous. So large, in fact, it sits in a huge pit inside the museum building. Never got a chance to tour the inside of the aircraft. I guess the tours of the interior came later. The museum has lots of other planes to see - definitely worth the trip. If you go to McMinnville, it’s not too far from the NAS Tillamook where the Navy housed blimps during WWII. The blimps are gone and only one of the huge hangers survive. The second hanger burned down years ago. They were amazing structures, gigantic to match the scale of the blimps, with clear span construction. The first hanger (I think it is the surviving structure) took quite a few months to build as the Oregon winter when it was built was uncharacteristically terrible. The second structure was built in about a single month. Unbelievable even today. When we visited Tillamook there were a good number of planes on display but the hanger is so huge it seemed almost empty. And there were used parts lying all over the place, including a 3420 Twin Allison V-24 engine. Dirty, oily, & just lying there. Great stuff for a mechanical engineer on holiday. If your wife is with you, be sure to drive up the highway to the Tillamook Cheese factory & take the tour. You get samples. Good stuff.
Great video as ever and it's good that you acknowledge the contribution of the GBR towards the war effort. Thank goodness I am too young to have experienced this - but you are adding documentary to our history. Thank you
I saw the H4 a few years back at evergreen, the cutaway Wasp engine next to the H4 is really neat. I went there to see the SR-71 and was blown away with the whole collection and curation at evergreen. Well worth the trip.
Back in 2012 I happened to go to that museum while me and my family were driving from California up to Washington, being able to stand next to that plane and Even the small area that they let you walk into it was really cool to see.
I've heard other analysis of the Spruce Goose over the years. It's too bad Hughes never got to try retrofitting Jet Turbines are full jet engines to it - as good as the radials were, many stories I've read over the years say they were under powered and have claimed that's why Hughes never brought the Goose out of ground effect. Thank you for keeping this so factual and interesting at the same time. Edit: I found what I believe is the origin of the claims it was under powered. See comment in the replies if you care.
Isnt the takeoff when a piston engine aircraft needs the most power? If it was underpowered should it have even left out of the water at all for as long as it did? Im just finding it hard to believe this was being built under a government contract for military purposes and no math was done to figure power requirements for its intended purpose. Im sure Howard and his people probably ran the numbers for all of that before the first board was ever cut or screw turned. The stories about it being underpowered are probably just that...stories.
@@gearhead762 Engine type makes no difference to an aircraft on takeoff other than power to weight ratio. All aircraft need to accelerate to takeoff and this is usually when they need the most power. As to the stories, yes they are just that. I decided to track down where they came from and found a couple issues of Popular Mechanics from decades ago that point to the likely source. Sen. Owen Brewster said it was a "flying lumber yard" that would never get off the water. From the article, the Goose took off at just 60 mph with 15 degrees of flap, having already taxied at 80mph, so it was definitely capable of flight. This source was from the November 1981 issue of Popular Mechanics. I also found another interesting article from November 1977. I think both are worth a read. You can look them up on Google Books for free. I still think that Hughes would have loved to replace the 8 radials with four jet engines. It would have been an absolute rocket then.
@gearhead762 Except not. Even in the modern days of computational fluid dynamics done by super computers on commercial airplanes that must make a profit (vs being bottomless cost-plus-fee defence contracts), we’ve produced underpowered planes. The Airbus A340 is a prime example of a modern underpowered aircraft. Yes, it flies, and it even flies safely. But it has large limitations in runway length, temperatures, payload, altitude (takeoff and cruising as well as climb rate), range, and engine out scenarios. And the root cause is the same for both of them.. lack of a suitable engine and the engines that they used were at the absolute limits of their development-meaning there was no room for growth or to account for airframe and power plant degradation over time. The Martin Mars was the same too. Underpowered by R-3350s, then adequately powered by the same R-4360s the Spruce Goose used.. but they were too expensive and failure prone to be used in commercial operations so it was swapped back to R-3350s. This meant that the Mars was slow and took an extremely long time to transit and took up valuable airspace for a long time over a forest fire. Even the mighty P6M Seamaster was underpowered. This is why Pratt & Whitney developed the J58-by far the most powerful jet engine of the time. But US Navy priorities moved away from flying boats and it was never used… instead sitting idle until the CIA needed an off-the-shelf engine with the thermodynamic power to propel a twin engine aircraft past Mach 3.
I viewed the Spruce Goose and the other exhibits at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, OR. It is a must if you are in the area. In fact, it is one of the best aviation museums I have visited.
In 1959 my dad drove us out to Victoria Airport just north of the city of Victoria to show us the Mars flying boats sitting on the tarmac still painted in grey. Four of them were eventually converted into water bombers operating out of Sproat Lake on Vancouver Island. Last night the last of these four, the Hawaii Mars, made it's last flight from Sproat Lake to Patricia Bay just north of Victoria where it will be stored as a museum piece. It's last flight overflew much of the east coast of Vancouver Island accompanied by the Snowbirds aerobatic team. The last leg took it over Victoria and right over my house at low level. Damn it was loud. I can't imagine how loud the Spruce Goose would have been if it had ever flown overhead.
