Spruce Goose

The largest wooden airplane ever constructed, the Spruce Goose was actually made from birch.  In the face of staggering losses to German U-boats in 1942, the steel magnate and shipbuilder Henry Kaiser asked Howard Hughes to design and build a massive flying transport.

Specifications:  

 crew: 3
 length 218 feet
 wingspan 320 feet
 height 79 feet
 Pratt and Whitney R-4360 radial engine, 4000 HP
 cruising speed 250 mph
 range 3000 miles
 ceiling 20,900 feet

 

The  airplane flew only once on November 2, 1947. With Hughes at the controls, the Spruce Goose flew just over one mile at an altitude of 70 feet for one minute.

After Kaiser withdrew from the project, Hughes retained a full crew to maintain the Spruce Goose in a climate-controlled hangar up until his death in 1976.

 

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