Many years ago I had the honor to guard Mr. Hughes. We talked and when I told him I was in the USAF and was a crew chief on F-4 fighters we talked aircraft. Later I told him I had watched the film of him in the cockpit of the goose and asked him if he took the aircraft into the air on purpose, he just smiled at me and had a sparkle in his eye. I admired him for his many contributions to aviation and many other endeavors. I never saw him in his later years and I remember him for what he was, a great man with great ideas.
@@arlenbell4376 You are possibly reading this message now through one of the modern satellite systems today built from his aerospace company... this guy was a visionary extraordinaire that designed, built and flew his own racing planes, developed military aircraft and moonlighted as a Hollywood playboy. If one could choose being Edison, Tesla, Hughes or even a modern-day Musk... the life of Hughes would be the easiest choice for non-stop adventure and accolades for innovation. Howard lived the dream- when the technology made the dream worth doing. These other guys were boring by comparison. Hughes definitely will be remembered well.
I assure you that my cousin flew it deliberately. He did it as a big middle finger to Sen. Brewster and the farce hearings in congress. In our family, don't dare tell us we can't do something....our attitude is "Bullshit. Fucking watch me."
Paul My name is Mark and I was a Corporate Pilot for about 35 years. Back in 1986 I accompanied my new wife to LA on her first trip to LA working for a new company. She was young nervous. We took a drive over to Long Beach on a Sunday morning and I saw the Spruce Goose just sitting there. She didn’t know anything about the SG. I quickly explained to her all about it. No one was around so we both went into the ship and I was amazed. We went the cockpit and the right wing entry and I was I amazed At what we saw. A few minutes later the security people came and asked us to leave. But to this day it was an amazing experience for me and hopefully for my now EX Wife
Was very lucky to be able to spend two hours upstairs. Was a slow day and the docents sat back as we explored and discussed the systems ( the four of us old farts are real plane nuts) They said they were enjoying our discussions and said they were learning things themselves....lol. No other tour groups so they said carry on as they sat back in the chairs and relaxed. Really got our monies worth that first time down. Been their many times since. Bankruptcy time was scary as so many private aircraft got hauled out by owners but looks to be most of it back. Now that covid is over next year is planned out. And Reno air races also.
I work in St Louis, Rockwell international, an my Boss had an original pre taxi, and flight CK list from the only flight of it, signed by Howard Hughes. He made copies for all of us on the inspection team
Fun Fact: Howard Hughes bailed my grandfather out of jail for street racing in Santa Ana because Hughes had been dating my grandfather's sister. Grandfather went on to be AHRA champion some time later.
My dad worked on the Spruce Goose when it was being built. He said he would be inside the Tail fin gluing pre-formed plywood bracket and water proof glue. I still have scrap pieces of the wood (Duramold).I miss you Dad. Thanks for posting this video.
Not many folks know about Duramold. My godfather George Allward was the chief process engineer for all the Duramold construction on the Hercules. He started with Fairchild F-46 NX19131 until Howard bought them out.
My grandfather was a master craftsman in wood and cabinetry. His proudest achievement was working on the tail and wings of the spruce goose. He did not share much, about himself, and I was young. He was proud to speak about his work on the plane. I'm sure that I could learn more details, with researching. He was contracted under an airplane manufacturing company stationed at Lambert Field, in St Louis, Mo.. One of his stories was about how they had to work inside of the wings while they were testing engines, and the harsh conditions. Our relatives, likely, worked together.
Hughes was one of my Dad’s schoolmates at Prosso, a private school in Houston run by my Dad’s stepfather. When Hughes started the Spruce Goose project, he hired Dad on the quality control team. Your Dad and mine probably knew each other.
I was in the Coast Guard '77-'83 and did facility inspections at the Port of LA/LB for some time. We went to the geodesic dome that housed the Spruce Goose. Security there said we where not allowed entry. ....uh, yes we are. After informing them that we were USCG and Federal Law Enforcement Officer we went in. Went all through the Goose. Ironically, I ended up working for Hughes for a number of years in Fullerton, CA.
I have seen the enormous Hughes flyingboat twice. In 1992 in Long Beach, and 25 years later in Oregon, west of Portland. It is wonderful that she has not been heartlessly scrapped. Congratulations to the dedicated people of the aero museum.
Howard Hughes was an incredible man. I remember the stories on the tv in the 70s about his illness, and about his incredible achievements. You cant help but have huge respect for the man.
Thats awesome I had the privilege of whinessing and photographing the last flights of both the a12 and sr7i taking off and landing on thier last flights In palmdale at the end of the runway at plant 42("the skunk works") When both were "retired " and are now there as static displays in the "blackbird air park" at plant 42
My dad was a fighter pilot in WWII. He was still stationed out west after the war when the taxi test was done. He checked out a Corsair and was circling the harbor during the taxi test. He got to witness the lone "flight" of the H-4 Hercules from above.
My old neighbor Frank in Culver City California was an electrician that worked on the wiring in the wings. He told me that you could walk 2/3 the way out with ever having to bend over to clear your head the insides of the wings were huge. None of the bosses wanted to climb over all the spars to check on you so you could take a nap out there if you dared. He said he did. Just thought that was an interesting fact.
@@scottw550 No I never saw Howard but the prototype shop at Hughes Radar Systems was immaculate and paid well. The only downfall was there wasn't a tool and cutter grind shop to make special cutting tools....we had to make them ourselves. This was 1980's when the men were men and the sheep were nervous. 😄
My grandfather was an air force vet who spent the last decade or so of his life volunteering at this museum. He was part of the team that relocated the goose to evergreen museum, and he and my dad were both part of the team that relocated the SR-71 Blackbird up there as well. I have great memories and particularly great aviation memories with him, and a great summer hanging out here with him. Thanks for the video!
Wonderful man...knew more than all the experts put together...he was not mad...highly intelligent...people jealous....what an asset to aviation...sadly lost...and people laughed....sad on you...he lived how he wanted...again..people jealous....God bless howard...or Mr Hughes....r.i.p.....sadly missed..xx
I worked on the first 747 in Everett Wa and was amazed at the size of the aircraft. Then in 2012 while in Oregon my girlfriend took me to the museum in McMinville Oregon. I had no idea the Spruce Goose was there. Seeing it up close was overwhelming! It almost takes your breath away when you see it in person. Plan a trip to Oregon to see it, believe me you won't be disappointed.
Thanks for sharing! My great uncle was Glenn Odenkirk, the co-designer of the H-4 Hercules and Howard Hughes right hand man. Super cool to see a part of my family history up close :)
A few years ago i had the Honor of caring for one of the Ladies who helped build this awesome machine I will miss you Betty wish I had met you 20 years sooner, she passed away new years day 2020 she was 93
Went and saw this museum in 2016 and as a fan of aviation I have to say it’s absolutely incredible. I could spend a whole year there without any complaints. I remember seeing the b-17 next to the spruce goose and it looked like a miniature model in comparison. They also had an sr-71 blackbird display and also one of its engines alone on the side. A very special place indeed
I saw the Spruce Goose at that museum. It is hard to describe just how large it is. Looking back into the tail, from the portal provided at the museum, it is truly cavernous. And the space inside is wide open, quite unlike boarding a wide body such as the 747. But what impressed me more was the highly creative use of wood. Truly noteworthy, like carbon fiber composites of today. Hughes was a great business leader. For a time I worked for Hughes Aircraft in a portion of its electronics business. It was a top-flight organization.
My wife and I have a photo of us sitting in the pilot and co-pilot seats hanging on our wall. We have visited it a total of three times, although we live in central CA. .
Several years ago I had the privilege and great pleasure to be given nearly complete freedom to rove around inside this plane with a design engineer friend (I knew a docent). We spent hours examining and analyzing all the systems. There was an awful lot of control system redundancy. I was able to sit for quite awhile in the pilot's seat and my friend was in the copilot's seat. We marveled at the forward thinking design and I also popped my head out of the overhead hatch - what a view. We were possibly most impressed with the lamination of the fuselage structure. It definitely was a peak experience.
I'll never forget seeing this when it was in Long Beach, CA. A gentleman dressed as Howard Hughes who was part of the tour took his keys out of his pocket and said "Hey kid, let's go take this thing for a spin"
I hated to see it moved. Long Beach was convenient and how it was presented - in a darkened hangar and appearing to float in the water, was very dramatic. I understand the reason for the move and glad it found a home. I’ve visited it at its new home and it’s just not the same😕
I remember the first time I went in, and didn't know the Goose was there, it took a while for me to notice it. It's just so big, I assumed it was part of the roof and didn't look again until I noticed the engines a few minutes later.
@@ErraticAim haha, now that is funny, great comment. As for the OP comment, I'd guess that anyone would say; ''unbelievable'', seeing it for the first time, I mean who wouldn't say that, I sure would.
Wow! I'm surprised you were even able to FIND McMinnville, Oregon. Great Job! WHAT A MONSTER! I worked for Hughes for a short time. One war story: I gave a presentation at one of Hughe's company locations in Southern California. I was told Howard had come there for a visit several years before. He drove one of his VERY EXPENSIVE cars and parked it outside. After the meeting he was offered a ride back to L.A. His car sat there in the parking lot FOR YEARS! He evidently forgot he had left it there...and probably didn't care!
@@jkull173 Working for Hughes was almost like working for a myth in LA. I was in lots of Hughes workplaces as well as "Hughes Research" in Malibu up the hillside. His airport at Marina Del Rey for decades had experimental planes parked on the tarmac; you could see them from the boulevard at a distance over the estuary. Development looms on that incredibly valuable piece of property by the "Summa" Corporation, Hughes corporate holding "vehicle". NO IDEA who controls it; it's private. !! Working for Hughes is probably like this generations "working for Elon Musk"; almost a myth, or about to become one.
I have a Family member that spoke about this aircraft and taught me a lot when I was a child of This particular Aircraft….…so I am quite happy to see this vid. Thankyou.
When the H4 was in Long Beach I was called in to discuss putting a mechanical variable speed drive and control system in one of the engine nacelles so that they could spin the prop. To inspect the mounting location we walked through the wing (there was a small work shop in the wing for in flight repairs) and I saw how the wing had been constructed and was very impressed. The engine nacelle looked like they had cut off the front half of a A1 Skyraider and bolted it to the wing.
I got to walk around it when it was hangared in Santa Barbara 50 years ago! I have never seen such a sight since. Now I live near Evergreen and plan to go visit The Spruce Goose again this summer1
I saw this in the dome, when I was just 7 years old, on my first and only family trip to the US. Sadly, due to a head injury I sustained in my late teens, I have no memories of this beautiful machine. I hope, one day, before I am too old to travel, I'll be able to afford to make my way back across the pond, and I'll get to make some new memories. What a fantastic job these people have done, bringing the old girl back to her glory days. It genuinely brings a tear to my eye.
Wow! 8 engines each with 28 cylinders is a lot of moving parts! 3000 hp per engine equals 24,000 horsepower total! What a sound it would make with throttles opened up. All all this back in the 1940's! Very impressive. Some good videoing and commentary as usual Paul!
Great vid. Howard Hughes is one of my favorite historical figures. Was lucky enough to stick my head in his 1953 Buick Roadmaster when it was part of Ron Pratte's collection and it was MIND blowing...he had an entire climate control and filtering system installed in the thing (as well as a bunch of other crazy mods) and, because it was all sealed up, the inside smelled...like...I dunno...like the 50s, I guess. It was incredible. That car actually sold at Barret Jackson in 2014 and set a record. So amazing.
It was announced today that the Spruce Goose is coming to Microsoft Flight Simulator! I'm beyond ecstatic! She will fly again!.....virtually, of course.
Nice.. I toured the Spruce Goose back in 1984 and it was unforgettable. In your selfie, if you look carefully, you will see a window in the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer. An engineer stood there keeping an eye on things during the famous test flight.
Just massive. I've said it before, how hard it is to judge scale of anything in pictures and video, but when you see the tiny matchbox toy planes and I did see a car in there, against this massive flying boat, it really does show the magnitude of it. Even though it didn't really fly and became more about show and just how eccentric and a bit mad Hughes really was, it really must have been a sight to see. And still is. Another outstanding video.
@@glenac05 if it did 20 feet, it could have done 200 and 2,000 just the same. He wasn't supposed to get it out of the water, but he did it anyway because he wanted it
@@CP-ux9zd I didn't know that. How do you know that? History shows it as a failure and a result of a rich man with too much money and with some clear mental issues. But, if you know better than anyone else, it must be the case.
@@glenac05 Increasingly I've been wondering if that was the point. Over the years, there have been other projects that employ what is called the "ground effect," where a large craft is intended to fly at a very low level and exploit the additional lift gained by doing so. ua-cam.com/video/D_WsYnzifDs/v-deo.html Think of the so-called "Caspian Sea Monster" for another example. The Japanese actually had an even bigger aircraft under construction called the KX-03 at the time the Hercules was conceived though it was never completed. It strikes me that a big low-flying craft like that was a possible viable option for cargo carrying while evading submarines back in the 1940s. Though the KX-03 was just insane, if completed it would have been about twice the size of the Hercules.
Used to be regulars with my dad at this museum until he died in October 2021. The Goose really is indescribable, and an amazing feat of engineering for the time.
I went with my father to see this marvel of engineering. They were just bringing the pieces of the airplane together setting up the display. Something I won't soon forget. Peace freind.
We would be absolutely nowhere in the aviation world without Howard Hughes. This aircraft is a perfect example of the entire understanding of the world at the time wrapped up in one beautiful masterpiece.
Back then, large planes had to be flying boats. Modern landing gear technology hadn't arrived yet. I've worked landing gear on the C-5, even with all of our modern technology, the landing gear on the C-5 still has its challenges and is very unforgiving of misuse, either by ground crews or pilots. But yes, this plane was absolutely pioneering in a whole lot of ways. It only flew once, it's amazing that it flew at all, plenty of detractors said it couldn't.
Nowhere without Howard Hughes? That's ridiculous. Hughes contribution can never be overestimated but nowhere? Clearly you have discounted the important contributions made by the aircraft industries located in many other countries around the world that contributed to the accumulated knowledge of aviation. You seem not to be aware that a big world exists of invention and innovation outside the borders of the United States. The Internet can reveal much and it's a valuable tool of learning.
@@brucegibbins3792 I agree. If the inventor of the can opener died before putting out his product, would it still have been invented? I think the answer is yes. There was a need to fulfill. If Howard Hughes had died as a child, we'd still have modern aircraft now, somebody else would've stepped in.
Don't get me wrong, for I have visited this museum and have photos of both my wife and myself sitting in the cockpit seat, but....please explain just what practical purpose did the building of this basically unflyable monstrocity attain? I might also add...this museum is less the ten miles from where I grew up in nearby Carlton.
Hi I was fortunate to have a non guided tour of the goose while working with Wrather Port Properties. I still have a pic of me at the controls and retain my thoughts of how massive it is and wondered what it would be like to fly in it. I was thru every available area including the ladder to the massive tail, the flight engineers fireproof capsule that was for each engine and just looking into the gigantic interior. Standing on the outside was just a thrill and now a great memory.
I saw this plane in the early 1980's while it was still in Long Beach. I recall walking on the platform and looking into the cockpit. Where there was a mannequin seated. And made up to resemble Mr. Hughes. Very impressive. Thanks for the reminder.
I used to live in Long Beach.. Saw the H-4 in its dome there which was a fantastic way to display the aircraft. You walked down the ramp in darkness, and the lighting pointed on the A/C was turned up and this gigantic thing just suddenly looms out of the dark! I saw it again years later in McMinnville and feel that the building is about 1/4 the size it need to be to properly display this plane. You can't get far enough away to properly appreciate it.
I saw this thing and walked thru it when it was in Long Beach years ago. What an amazing aircraft. I also was sent overseas in a C5, another massively huge and amazing flying machines. WOW, I just realized that I've been inside two of the three largest aircraft in the world!
When you showcased the view of engine no. 4, it took a second for my brain to come to terms with the fact that we were looking at the port side. Just incredible...
My grandfather was a ww2 vet and obsessed with the spuce goose and anything having to do with trains. I was on the spuce goose in the late 80s in long Beach. It was outside when i boarded it. I believe before the dome was finished. I was very young and hardly remember, so seeing this video was amazing
Glad you got to see it Paul. I live about 90 minutes from there. Wish there was a way to share it, I have a picture of my Grandfather and Grandmother holding my Mother in front of the Goose, while they were transporting her to the water to test it. I sent a copy of it to the museum. Thanks for posting.
I worked on the C5M RERP program. I was a functional flight yest mechanic. I've been in every area where a person can be in a C5. The H-4 looks huge in comparison. 😮 awesome video!
Hughes always took his ideas beyond what was thought possible and without his vision and work it’s difficult to believe that aviation and in fact space travel would have been as advanced as it is today! The amount of thought and work that has gone into this aircraft alone is mind boggling, and yet they tried to bring him down….unbelievable!
@@pyrox7x Elon Musk is a bit more tricky. He talks about all the things that shouldn't be happening, but behind the scenes he's the one that's Developing them. I think this time he has bitten off more than he can chew with Twitter, About free speech.
I had the privilege I’m going to this museum and boarding that aircraft. Spruce goose and the black bird we’re both bucket items on my list. To sit in the very seat that Howard Hughes sat in to grab the controls that he did on the history making flight. Wow what a incredible time and incredible of museum
This is a great video, I’ve just recently became very interested in the spruce goose . Through a very rare coincidence. My wife and I bought a vintage RV and doing research on the vehicle we found that the RV was built and a owned by MR. Chalmer Bowen. He was Howard Hughes #1 test pilot. And he was the chief engineer on the spruce goose . I’ve been fascinated by the story . Mr Bowen was a very interesting man as well .
I had the privilege of servicing the fire protection in it , not the planes system but the facility system in the plane , this thing is even more massive and majestic than you can see on film I have so many pics and none of them seem good to me because it has to be seen in person!! Awesome video!!
Former Boeing Everett.... this is the best POV (point of view) tour of this remarkable aircraft I have seen. Although it's hard to really take in the immense scale, you did an outstanding job showing it. I am used to 'big' from Boeing Everett, big aircraft, big factories, big turbofan engines. The H-4 Hercules is more on the scale of the Antonov An-225 Mira. Your explanation of the rear horizontal stabilizers being wider than the wingspan of a B-17 was effective. You could park entire smaller aircraft on each. Today, 4 engines power really large aircraft; B747, A380, military cargo transports. Most aircraft have 2 engines. B-52 has 8, An-225 has 6, H-4 has 8. We have all heard of fly by wire. The H-4 was fly by hydraulic tubes, first use of power multiplier from pilot input to control surface movement. It's really a shame that the war ended before the H-4 could be put into service. It would have been a real game changer. It's only weakness was size and speed. Without fighter escorts across ocean, it would have been an easy target for enemy aircraft. Thank you for producing this video of the amazing H-4 Hercules. Now we know why it was called 'Hercules'.
My wife and I toured the Spruce Goose back in the mid-eighties when it was in Long Beach California and during those times it was painted white. I was amazed how big it was and I would tell anybody if you get the chance to go see it definitely go see it. It's spectacular and beautiful.
An excellent video, sir. Very steady and detailed. The cut-away engine on display was impressive to see in motion. The VIP tour is great! Those distinguished gentleman working as tour guides are a wealth of knowledge. I took my wife, son and Dad to the Evergreen museum last summer. A VERY impressive facility. I have pictures of my ten year old son in the pilot's seat of the H4, wearing the Fedora. We spent so much time in the aviation building that we needed to hurry through the space building next door.
I remember seeing a 747 up close for the first and being a bit underwhelmed. It was much smaller in person than I had imagined, but the spruce goose is absolutely MASSIVE in person. Despite them being nearly the same size dimensionally, this plane just feels far more impressive and awe inspiring.
Back in the early 2000s me and my father used to live in McMinnville he was an electrician who did a lot of the surveillance and security systems in the aviation center. He took me to work with him one day when the center was closed to the public and me and him had the entire museum to ourselves. I even got to go inside of the Spruce goose. Very cool experience
Saw the H4 years ago when it was still in Long Beach. I once met a man who was a carpenter on the vertical stabilizer. The government had hired several aircraft companies to build prototypes for this mission, but Hughes was the only one to complete a working prototype. The others took the money and produced nothing of note.
I live in downtown lbc and cruise out of it. And go thru the big hanger it use to hang in to get on the cruise ships. Lots of pics and models of it is around to show it. Very cool
7:36 I can't get over the massive size of those two electric hydraulic pumps, especially when you consider the engine driven and electrical hydraulic pumps on most of todays airliners are not much bigger than a foot ball.
Glad you made it out to our little town! Hope you had a nice time while you were here. I try not to take for granted that this amazing airplane and museum is less than a 10 minute drive away for us.
My great grandpa knew Howard personally and they worked together and he even had the privilege to help design and make the spruce goose with him along with the Bell helicopter and a few other I remember him telling golfing stories or going to restaurants. I still have all of the photos too. I think Hughes was a good engineer and really pushed the limits to get us to where we are now.
@@slowery43 well I’m sorry you don’t take stories like that interesting but I appreciate your opinion and glad you were able to find the time to share it with me.
I grew up in Oregon and visited this museum a few times as a kid and recently again as an adult last march. The size of the tail on the Goose is absolutely out of this world. You are right that the video doesn't do it justice. It's completely illogically large.
Great video 👍 I’m a docent in the Evergreen Space Museum across the parking lot. You could probably make several videos with all the cool things Evergreen has in its collection. I know they inspire me a lot.
In 2010 before moving from the southwest, I took a road trip from Albuquerque to McMinnville (1,399 miles) to see the Spruce Goose, specifically. What an impressive airplane.
@@jslade60 I bought a t-shirt from that museum, and it says "Spruce Goose." If you are that passionate about the name, feel free to give the museum a call, and start a petition to change the name.
Wow. What a privilege to sit in the very same seat Howard Hughes sat in!! This was so interesting. Thank you for bringing this to us. This plane is phenomenal. I just wished someone rescued the AN225 before it was destroyed. They would have looked great at the Evergreen museum together.
The An-225 Mira is only aircraft similar in scale to the H-4. I'm former Boeing Everett and used to really big things. The H-4 redefines 'really big'. To think this was built in the 40's makes it even more amazing.
@@CP-ux9zd Not sure if it can be rebuilt after war. There are some spares and a 2nd 225 was 1/2 complete. Aviation supporters will gladly pay billion dollars to help. Region is still under attack. Russia is send cruise missiles to Kyev and beyond. 225 rebuild will have to wait.
Very happy to see someone visiting my local museum, what a delightful place that deserves more attention. I am also quite jealous as I didn't have a tour booked and wasn't allowed into the upper deck
I was there back in May of 21 and I loved McMinnville. I believe there was some type of wine testing event going on. Would have loved to have joined in but I had a long drive back to Wilsonville. I am from the mid west so I felt right home there, beautiful country side..
I'm from Botswana and had the pleasure of walking into the lower section of this iconic aircraft. That was in Long Beach Calif. In 1983, around September. Back then if I'm not mistaken, it floated on 3 patches of water. The plywood skin was rather lumpy, having sat in Long Beach until early 1983 when it was first unveiled to the public. I walked through the lower section allowed to visitors and up the outside stairs to the cockpit where a "wax model" of Mr Hughes sat in pilots seat with cigar in mouth or hand? Mouth I think?? It was in the "DOME" Opposite the Queen Mary ship. Strangely, I was repelled by the ship??? Never mind. In the Dome was a Hughs racer. An amazing little record breaker. There were excellent displays of Hughes aviation achievements and design drawings of the Goose as well as a myriad of other paraphernalia of great interest. I spent about 6 hours there with an RAF helicopter pilot who I met and travelled there with. Great day!! I had been to Oshkosh Wisconsin EAA air show before this, 1983, and seen Bob Hoover fly his yellow Mustang and his Aero Commander many times over 4 days. There were plenty other aviation greats but Bob Hoover in Oshkosh, and Howard Hughes Spruce Goose display in LA area were tops in my tour!! I had previously done 5 years service in the Rhodesian Air Force from 1973 to 1978 as aircraft engine mechanic and gained a glider pilots license and PPL. 160 hrs and 2000 hrs to date. So I'm a huge fan of all great aviation achievements, especially in USA, the world leader. Please patriots, get your FAA back into line as advisory instead of spying police. The patriots changing the known world for the better are paving the way. Now's your chance, and your work will pave the way for global freedom with assistance from FAA, instead of interference from them. While their intentions Might be good, they are mostly full of shi#.
My dad was a mechanical engineer in the early days of the aerospace program. His boss was Bill Hubert, Bill designed the fuselage of the H4 and was onboard during the test flights... monitoring the stress gauges. Howard was actually the one who promoted my dad from Class C Draftsman to Class B Engineer while working at Culver City. Dave Grant (aka the professor) - my wife got to meet and worked at Hughes Radar Systems Group.... a very nice, smart gentleman! Over the years, my dad was also one of the engineers who worked on special programs involving the H4 while it was "in storage" at Long Beach. Although the aircraft sat "idle", it's purpose did not as it was a test-bed for a variety of aeronautical tests- and it was very well maintained which included a complete A/E mechanics to maintain its readiness. As a side note....Bill never like flying, he would rather drive than take a flight. He told my dad later (when they were flying to Tuscan, AZ) that when they had completed the 2nd to last test run in the H4, and "Pappy" (aka Hughes) was exceptionally interest in the data... when he decided to make 1 more run. Although he never told any of the crew (or press for that matter), Bill and everybody else knew when he kept requesting the stress data in detail and kept throttling up higher... that he was going to lift the H4 up. Know one knows for sure, but Dave Grant later said the look on Howards face said that although he was confident it would fly, the amount of lift generated, and the response of the controls was much greater than even Hughes expected. Side note...Bill was also the one who found the "gent" at Magnavox (yes the TV company) who had figured out how to bond wood together - as Magnavox had just come out with a TV cabinet that was beautiful but looked like a "Butcher's Block". They hired him away from Magnavox.
Recently, In July 2024. My wife and I went to visit her Brother John and his bride Lisa for a weeks vacation. They live in Newberg. Oregon is beautiful. We did many things such as go to Oceanside beach to go fishing off the shore. Pick blueberries. Visit Bonneville Dam with its power turbines producing electricity and fish hatchery on the Columbia river where you can see Washington State across the river. We saw Multnomah falls. Our last day there did not prepare us for what we saw next. We were driving around McMinnville when we were driving past an aviation museum named Evergreen Aviation. We decided to go in and look around. I was not prepared to see what we saw next when we walked into a huge hangar and saw the Spruce Goose H-4 Hercules in all its glory. It was massive. An awesome engineering feet. I had no idea it had been relocated there in my Brother in laws backyard ( only 10 miles away). It was a totally unexpected visit and put a big smile on my face. I purchased a NASA Flight Jacket for my wife and I to remember it by. A truly memorable day indeed.
Interesting tour. Visitor access was strictly limited when we visited the Goose not long after she was put on display at Evergreen!😊 Her size is very impressive
I took that tour and sat in Howard's left seat. It was awesome! Dont do "selfies" but tour guide was nice enough to use my good DSLR to get few pics. Two things you dont mention; Hughes was a disciple of redundancy; *everything* on that plane had either a backup or better a "hot spare" which was always in service so if something failed the spare was then used. Even twin APUs you noted which are DC motors and musta produced some serious noise when spinning. Second, most critical thing, was MAIN reason it didnt fly except long enough to get off the water and get airworthiness certificate (posted in the airplane) was there were problems during flight. He had multiple people stationed throughout the aircraft who communicated by an intercom system seen in video. A few seconds into the flight, guy in the alt section advised Hughes of sounds indicating serious structural issues, possibly leading to catastrophic failure, were being heard and advise him not to climb any more than he did. The tail section was reinforced, which you can see outside the aircraft, after that initial flight. When you look at early part of vid, the massive tail section vs relatively smaller x-section of the tail structure makes me think that a pretty good call. And last, while mostly made of birch, it is also made of spruce in parts; the load-bearing structural parts being laminated birch and skin yes, of spruce. TAKE THE TOUR WHEN YOU GO. Its cheap ($25) and goes to a great cause.
Such a beautiful aircraft. I grew up seeing the Long Beach dome relatively often, but find it rather regretable that I never got the chance to tour this aircraft while it was still so close and accessible (And in the original museum habitat the outer hull was modified to suit, no less) While yes this beaut still exists, you really can't just take access to these artifacts for granted. If it's nearby, visit it and experience it while you can do so easily.
I was glad to find this video, because I went down to Long Beach to see the plane when tours were first avialable and all they has for a tour was a ramp up to where you could walk straight through the plane, from left to right, surrounded by plexiglass where the reflection limited visibility.
I too remember the Spruce Goose in Long Beach and when my dad too me to see it either in the late 70’s or 80’s, as I don’t exactly remember that far back anymore. Good video.
I was there about a year ago, I think it was $40 for a group of up to 6 to get a guided tour inside the Goose…totally worth it and a tiny price to pay to experience this amazing aircraft.
I saw this plane in Long Beach once, and a few years ago while I was in Portland on a business trip, I made the drive to Go see it again. I took the guided tour as shown here, and was very impressed. What is not discussed well in this video is the construction entirely of laminated wood-very impressive. Joe
This is one of the best videos I've seen on UA-cam in a long time. Thanks for showing how big it is. I was thinking about going for a walking tour in my neighborhood just to map out the dimensions. Thanks for a job well done.
![The Giant Airliner With Cabins In Its Wings | Junkers G38 [Aircraft Overview #19]](/img/n.gif)
Many years ago I had the honor to guard Mr. Hughes. We talked and when I told him I was in the USAF and was a crew chief on F-4 fighters we talked aircraft. Later I told him I had watched the film of him in the cockpit of the goose and asked him if he took the aircraft into the air on purpose, he just smiled at me and had a sparkle in his eye. I admired him for his many contributions to aviation and many other endeavors. I never saw him in his later years and I remember him for what he was, a great man with great ideas.
Tremendous
He should be remembered for all his accomplishments and not for his eccentricities in his later years.
@@arlenbell4376 You are possibly reading this message now through one of the modern satellite systems today built from his aerospace company... this guy was a visionary extraordinaire that designed, built and flew his own racing planes, developed military aircraft and moonlighted as a Hollywood playboy.
If one could choose being Edison, Tesla, Hughes or even a modern-day Musk... the life of Hughes would be the easiest choice for non-stop adventure and accolades for innovation.
Howard lived the dream- when the technology made the dream worth doing. These other guys were boring by comparison.
Hughes definitely will be remembered well.
I assure you that my cousin flew it deliberately.
He did it as a big middle finger to Sen. Brewster and the farce hearings in congress.
In our family, don't dare tell us we can't do something....our attitude is
"Bullshit. Fucking watch me."
#Aloha
Paul
My name is Mark and I was a Corporate Pilot for about 35 years.
Back in 1986 I accompanied my new wife to LA on her first trip to LA working for a new company. She was young nervous. We took a drive over to Long Beach on a Sunday morning and I saw the Spruce Goose just sitting there. She didn’t know anything about the SG. I quickly explained to her all about it. No one was around so we both went into the ship and I was amazed. We went the cockpit and the right wing entry and I was I amazed At what we saw. A few minutes later the security people came and asked us to leave. But to this day it was an amazing experience for me and hopefully for my now EX Wife
Most women don't appreciate this type of thing, very nice story
Hopefully ex-wife? I am certain you would know by now.
@@mustang19msdon't be sexist, there are plenty of women who are interested in this very thing.
@@joellenrhodes456 don't be a woke idiot and look at reality as it is, there are always exceptions ofc
Wives come and go.....But ex's are forever!
Was very lucky to be able to spend two hours upstairs. Was a slow day and the docents sat back as we explored and discussed the systems ( the four of us old farts are real plane nuts) They said they were enjoying our discussions and said they were learning things themselves....lol. No other tour groups so they said carry on as they sat back in the chairs and relaxed. Really got our monies worth that first time down. Been their many times since. Bankruptcy time was scary as so many private aircraft got hauled out by owners but looks to be most of it back. Now that covid is over next year is planned out. And Reno air races also.
I work in St Louis, Rockwell international, an my Boss had an original pre taxi, and flight CK list from the only flight of it, signed by Howard Hughes. He made copies for all of us on the inspection team
Fun Fact: Howard Hughes bailed my grandfather out of jail for street racing in Santa Ana because Hughes had been dating my grandfather's sister. Grandfather went on to be AHRA champion some time later.
wow, how long can some family tales last
No 1curr
AHRA? HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. What is that?
@@genespell4340American Hot Rod Association. It predates the NHRA by a while.
My dad worked on the Spruce Goose when it was being built. He said he would be inside the Tail fin gluing pre-formed plywood bracket and water proof glue. I still have scrap pieces of the wood (Duramold).I miss you Dad. Thanks for posting this video.
The Hercules
Not many folks know about Duramold. My godfather George Allward was the chief process engineer for all the Duramold construction on the Hercules. He started with Fairchild F-46 NX19131 until Howard bought them out.
My grandfather was a master craftsman in wood and cabinetry. His proudest achievement was working on the tail and wings of the spruce goose. He did not share much, about himself, and I was young. He was proud to speak about his work on the plane. I'm sure that I could learn more details, with researching. He was contracted under an airplane manufacturing company stationed at Lambert Field, in St Louis, Mo.. One of his stories was about how they had to work inside of the wings while they were testing engines, and the harsh conditions.
Our relatives, likely, worked together.
Hughes was one of my Dad’s schoolmates at Prosso, a private school in Houston run by my Dad’s stepfather. When Hughes started the Spruce Goose project, he hired Dad on the quality control team. Your Dad and mine probably knew each other.
I was in the Coast Guard '77-'83 and did facility inspections at the Port of LA/LB for some time. We went to the geodesic dome that housed the Spruce Goose. Security there said we where not allowed entry. ....uh, yes we are. After informing them that we were USCG and Federal Law Enforcement Officer we went in. Went all through the Goose. Ironically, I ended up working for Hughes for a number of years in Fullerton, CA.
I have seen the enormous Hughes flyingboat twice. In 1992 in Long Beach, and 25 years later in Oregon, west of Portland. It is wonderful that she has not been heartlessly scrapped. Congratulations to the dedicated people of the aero museum.
It would be awesome to see it fly.
I also saw it in Long Beach and we also took a tour of the Queen Mary? Ship
Howard Hughes was an incredible man. I remember the stories on the tv in the 70s about his illness, and about his incredible achievements. You cant help but have huge respect for the man.
I know this is trivial, but my dad was one of the few who saw the Goose fly. It was one of the highlights of his life
I bet it was. Would have loved to see that aircraft airborne. At the time it would have been a miracle to see something so huge leave the water!
Thats awesome
I had the privilege of whinessing and photographing the last flights of both the a12 and sr7i taking off and landing on thier last flights
In palmdale at the end of the runway at plant 42("the skunk works")
When both were "retired " and are now there as static displays in the "blackbird air park" at plant 42
That's not trivial. That generation was amazing.
I'll bet it wasn't trivial for him. :)
I bet it was. Hughes was my great great uncle too!
My dad was a fighter pilot in WWII. He was still stationed out west after the war when the taxi test was done. He checked out a Corsair and was circling the harbor during the taxi test. He got to witness the lone "flight" of the H-4 Hercules from above.
wow, blessed man
I met and talked to Chuck Jucker who flew on the Spruce Goose that day and his account was so amazing to hear. Very nice man.
wow what an experience that would have been!
My old neighbor Frank in Culver City California was an electrician that worked on the wiring in the wings. He told me that you could walk 2/3 the way out with ever having to bend over to clear your head the insides of the wings were huge. None of the bosses wanted to climb over all the spars to check on you so you could take a nap out there if you dared. He said he did. Just thought that was an interesting fact.
Working as a machinist for Hughes was amazing. We were treated like truly respected craftsmen.
Not by Howard.
@@bobjimenez4464 do you have Howard’s famous blue cheese recipe?
@@georgiabigfoot I do it's blue cheese and other bits 🤔😊
My Dad worked at the Houston Plant as a machinist for 28 years. A great job.
@@scottw550 No I never saw Howard but the prototype shop at Hughes Radar Systems was immaculate and paid well. The only downfall was there wasn't a tool and cutter grind shop to make special cutting tools....we had to make them ourselves. This was 1980's when the men were men and the sheep were nervous. 😄
My grandfather was an air force vet who spent the last decade or so of his life volunteering at this museum. He was part of the team that relocated the goose to evergreen museum, and he and my dad were both part of the team that relocated the SR-71 Blackbird up there as well. I have great memories and particularly great aviation memories with him, and a great summer hanging out here with him. Thanks for the video!
You're welcome! The SR-71 there was also great to look around and I thoroughly enjoyed my day there
Wonderful man...knew more than all the experts put together...he was not mad...highly intelligent...people jealous....what an asset to aviation...sadly lost...and people laughed....sad on you...he lived how he wanted...again..people jealous....God bless howard...or Mr Hughes....r.i.p.....sadly missed..xx
I worked on the first 747 in Everett Wa and was amazed at the size of the aircraft. Then in 2012 while in Oregon my girlfriend took me to the museum in McMinville Oregon. I had no idea the Spruce Goose was there. Seeing it up close was overwhelming! It almost takes your breath away when you see it in person. Plan a trip to Oregon to see it, believe me you won't be disappointed.
Thanks for sharing! My great uncle was Glenn Odenkirk, the co-designer of the H-4 Hercules and Howard Hughes right hand man. Super cool to see a part of my family history up close :)
A few years ago i had the Honor of caring for one of the Ladies who helped build this awesome machine I will miss you Betty wish I had met you 20 years sooner, she passed away new years day 2020 she was 93
Went and saw this museum in 2016 and as a fan of aviation I have to say it’s absolutely incredible. I could spend a whole year there without any complaints. I remember seeing the b-17 next to the spruce goose and it looked like a miniature model in comparison. They also had an sr-71 blackbird display and also one of its engines alone on the side. A very special place indeed
I saw the Spruce Goose at that museum. It is hard to describe just how large it is. Looking back into the tail, from the portal provided at the museum, it is truly cavernous. And the space inside is wide open, quite unlike boarding a wide body such as the 747.
But what impressed me more was the highly creative use of wood. Truly noteworthy, like carbon fiber composites of today.
Hughes was a great business leader. For a time I worked for Hughes Aircraft in a portion of its electronics business. It was a top-flight organization.
My wife and I have a photo of us sitting in the pilot and co-pilot seats hanging on our wall. We have visited it a total of three times, although we live in central CA. .
Wood is a natural composite material, so its properties are somewhat similar to artificial ones.
Several years ago I had the privilege and great pleasure to be given nearly complete freedom to rove around inside this plane with a design engineer friend (I knew a docent). We spent hours examining and analyzing all the systems. There was an awful lot of control system redundancy. I was able to sit for quite awhile in the pilot's seat and my friend was in the copilot's seat. We marveled at the forward thinking design and I also popped my head out of the overhead hatch - what a view. We were possibly most impressed with the lamination of the fuselage structure. It definitely was a peak experience.
I'll never forget seeing this when it was in Long Beach, CA. A gentleman dressed as Howard Hughes who was part of the tour took his keys out of his pocket and said "Hey kid, let's go take this thing for a spin"
That must have been hilarious - and quite exciting for a kid.
Nice
I hated to see it moved. Long Beach was convenient and how it was presented - in a darkened hangar and appearing to float in the water, was very dramatic. I understand the reason for the move and glad it found a home. I’ve visited it at its new home and it’s just not the same😕
I also saw it at Long Beach. The actor was also there. Loved seeing it there.
I saw it at Long Beach the first week it was open. Impressive.
I'm 70 this year and I have known about Howard and this plane all my life. Truly beautiful and amazing. Thank You so much for this wonderful tour.
You’re welcome! :)
I remember going to this museum last summer. This plane was HUGE in real life, it was actually unbelievable.
I remember the first time I went in, and didn't know the Goose was there, it took a while for me to notice it. It's just so big, I assumed it was part of the roof and didn't look again until I noticed the engines a few minutes later.
@@ErraticAim haha, now that is funny, great comment.
As for the OP comment, I'd guess that anyone
would say; ''unbelievable'', seeing it for the first
time, I mean who wouldn't say that, I sure would.
@@ErraticAim exactly, I walked under what I thought was a ceiling but it was the gooses wing haha
the location is at The Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum.
@@mrconcorde4590 The plane is relatively intact because the wood has a lot of chemicals coating in.
I went for the first time last Sept of 22. Just missed you. Im hoping to go back on 2-8-23 cant wait!
Wow! I'm surprised you were even able to FIND McMinnville, Oregon. Great Job! WHAT A MONSTER! I worked for Hughes for a short time. One war story: I gave a presentation at one of Hughe's company locations in Southern California. I was told Howard had come there for a visit several years before. He drove one of his VERY EXPENSIVE cars and parked it outside. After the meeting he was offered a ride back to L.A. His car sat there in the parking lot FOR YEARS! He evidently forgot he had left it there...and probably didn't care!
What did you do for Hughes? Cool story
@@jkull173 Working for Hughes was almost like working for a myth in LA. I was in lots of Hughes workplaces as well as "Hughes Research" in Malibu up the hillside. His airport at Marina Del Rey for decades had experimental planes parked on the tarmac; you could see them from the boulevard at a distance over the estuary. Development looms on that incredibly valuable piece of property by the "Summa" Corporation, Hughes corporate holding "vehicle". NO IDEA who controls it; it's private. !! Working for Hughes is probably like this generations "working for Elon Musk"; almost a myth, or about to become one.
I’ve been there - twice! And sat in the pilot’s seat. Can’t wait to go back again.
Thanks for taking us on the tour. It's an incredible engineering marvel.
I have a Family member that spoke about this aircraft and taught me a lot when I was a child of This particular Aircraft….…so I am quite happy to see this vid.
Thankyou.
I can't imagine throttling up all 8 engines...all i can say is it must have been amazing..
@@ProFlightAviation unless it's a B-52..
When the H4 was in Long Beach I was called in to discuss putting a mechanical variable speed drive and control system in one of the engine nacelles so that they could spin the prop. To inspect the mounting location we walked through the wing (there was a small work shop in the wing for in flight repairs) and I saw how the wing had been constructed and was very impressed. The engine nacelle looked like they had cut off the front half of a A1 Skyraider and bolted it to the wing.
Wow a work shop inside of the plane...man I wish this bird could fly again
@@redneckswitwheels About 20 - 30 years ago the TOMORROW SHOW did 1 episode from the exhibit. It was quite fascinating.
Excellent video Paul. The one question I have is how was it brought over from Long Beach? It certainly wasn't flown!
@@Socaman In pieces apparently, Wikipedia mentions re-assembly at the museum.
I got to walk around it when it was hangared in Santa Barbara 50 years ago! I have never seen such a sight since. Now I live near Evergreen and plan to go visit The Spruce Goose again this summer1
You definitely should!
I saw this in the dome, when I was just 7 years old, on my first and only family trip to the US. Sadly, due to a head injury I sustained in my late teens, I have no memories of this beautiful machine. I hope, one day, before I am too old to travel, I'll be able to afford to make my way back across the pond, and I'll get to make some new memories. What a fantastic job these people have done, bringing the old girl back to her glory days. It genuinely brings a tear to my eye.
Wow! 8 engines each with 28 cylinders is a lot of moving parts! 3000 hp per engine equals 24,000 horsepower total! What a sound it would make with throttles opened up. All all this back in the 1940's! Very impressive. Some good videoing and commentary as usual Paul!
Would make plug changes fun, especially on a flying boat.
ua-cam.com/video/MWg_0vLlMIU/v-deo.html
It was in fact way under powered. It would have cruised fully loaded at barely 100mph.
@@thelandofnod123 two plugs per cylinder, 56 on each engine, 448 total.
@@ostrich67 I would have loved to have had the contract of supplying the spark plugs!
Great vid. Howard Hughes is one of my favorite historical figures. Was lucky enough to stick my head in his 1953 Buick Roadmaster when it was part of Ron Pratte's collection and it was MIND blowing...he had an entire climate control and filtering system installed in the thing (as well as a bunch of other crazy mods) and, because it was all sealed up, the inside smelled...like...I dunno...like the 50s, I guess. It was incredible. That car actually sold at Barret Jackson in 2014 and set a record. So amazing.
It was announced today that the Spruce Goose is coming to Microsoft Flight Simulator! I'm beyond ecstatic! She will fly again!.....virtually, of course.
That’s cool!
I saw the Spruce Goose back in 1986 in Long Beach California, along with the Queen Mary. Really amazing to see as a 10 year old!
Nice.. I toured the Spruce Goose back in 1984 and it was unforgettable. In your selfie, if you look carefully, you will see a window in the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer. An engineer stood there keeping an eye on things during the famous test flight.
Don't call it the spruce goose Howard hated that name!
Just massive. I've said it before, how hard it is to judge scale of anything in pictures and video, but when you see the tiny matchbox toy planes and I did see a car in there, against this massive flying boat, it really does show the magnitude of it. Even though it didn't really fly and became more about show and just how eccentric and a bit mad Hughes really was, it really must have been a sight to see. And still is. Another outstanding video.
From what I understand it did fly. Not very high or far but definately airborne.
@@shawnstephens1251 Well it got off the water, about twenty feet off the water. I really wouldn't call that flying.
@@glenac05 if it did 20 feet, it could have done 200 and 2,000 just the same. He wasn't supposed to get it out of the water, but he did it anyway because he wanted it
@@CP-ux9zd I didn't know that. How do you know that? History shows it as a failure and a result of a rich man with too much money and with some clear mental issues. But, if you know better than anyone else, it must be the case.
@@glenac05 Increasingly I've been wondering if that was the point. Over the years, there have been other projects that employ what is called the "ground effect," where a large craft is intended to fly at a very low level and exploit the additional lift gained by doing so. ua-cam.com/video/D_WsYnzifDs/v-deo.html Think of the so-called "Caspian Sea Monster" for another example. The Japanese actually had an even bigger aircraft under construction called the KX-03 at the time the Hercules was conceived though it was never completed. It strikes me that a big low-flying craft like that was a possible viable option for cargo carrying while evading submarines back in the 1940s. Though the KX-03 was just insane, if completed it would have been about twice the size of the Hercules.
Used to be regulars with my dad at this museum until he died in October 2021. The Goose really is indescribable, and an amazing feat of engineering for the time.
I went with my father to see this marvel of engineering. They were just bringing the pieces of the airplane together setting up the display. Something I won't soon forget. Peace freind.
We would be absolutely nowhere in the aviation world without Howard Hughes. This aircraft is a perfect example of the entire understanding of the world at the time wrapped up in one beautiful masterpiece.
Back then, large planes had to be flying boats. Modern landing gear technology hadn't arrived yet. I've worked landing gear on the C-5, even with all of our modern technology, the landing gear on the C-5 still has its challenges and is very unforgiving of misuse, either by ground crews or pilots. But yes, this plane was absolutely pioneering in a whole lot of ways. It only flew once, it's amazing that it flew at all, plenty of detractors said it couldn't.
Nowhere without Howard Hughes? That's ridiculous. Hughes contribution can never be overestimated but nowhere? Clearly you have discounted the important contributions made by the aircraft industries located in many other countries around the world that contributed to the accumulated knowledge of aviation. You seem not to be aware that a big world exists of invention and innovation outside the borders of the United States. The Internet can reveal much and it's a valuable tool of learning.
@@brucegibbins3792 I'm not illiterate on the spectrum of aviation. It was an over exaggerated statement. Chill out
@@brucegibbins3792
I agree. If the inventor of the can opener died before putting out his product, would it still have been invented? I think the answer is yes. There was a need to fulfill. If Howard Hughes had died as a child, we'd still have modern aircraft now, somebody else would've stepped in.
Don't get me wrong, for I have visited this museum and have photos of both my wife and myself sitting in the cockpit seat, but....please explain just what practical purpose did the building of this basically unflyable monstrocity attain?
I might also add...this museum is less the ten miles from where I grew up in nearby Carlton.
Hi I was fortunate to have a non guided tour of the goose while working with Wrather Port Properties. I still have a pic of me at the controls and retain my thoughts of how massive it is and wondered what it would be like to fly in it. I was thru every available area including the ladder to the massive tail, the flight engineers fireproof capsule that was for each engine and just looking into the gigantic interior. Standing on the outside was just a thrill and now a great memory.
I saw this plane in the early 1980's while it was still in Long Beach. I recall walking on the platform and looking into the cockpit. Where there was a mannequin seated. And made up to resemble Mr. Hughes. Very impressive. Thanks for the reminder.
I used to live in Long Beach..
Saw the H-4 in its dome there which was a fantastic way to display the aircraft. You walked down the ramp in darkness, and the lighting pointed on the A/C was turned up and this gigantic thing just suddenly looms out of the dark!
I saw it again years later in McMinnville and feel that the building is about 1/4 the size it need to be to properly display this plane. You can't get far enough away to properly appreciate it.
I had the opportunity to see the plane about 13 years ago, very impressive. Mr Hughes does not get the credit he truly deserves as an innovator.
I saw this thing and walked thru it when it was in Long Beach years ago. What an amazing aircraft. I also was sent overseas in a C5, another massively huge and amazing flying machines. WOW, I just realized that I've been inside two of the three largest aircraft in the world!
Very cool. Thanks for sharing this.
When you showcased the view of engine no. 4, it took a second for my brain to come to terms with the fact that we were looking at the port side. Just incredible...
My grandfather was a ww2 vet and obsessed with the spuce goose and anything having to do with trains. I was on the spuce goose in the late 80s in long Beach. It was outside when i boarded it. I believe before the dome was finished. I was very young and hardly remember, so seeing this video was amazing
Glad you got to see it Paul. I live about 90 minutes from there. Wish there was a way to share it, I have a picture of my Grandfather and Grandmother holding my Mother in front of the Goose, while they were transporting her to the water to test it. I sent a copy of it to the museum. Thanks for posting.
I worked on the C5M RERP program. I was a functional flight yest mechanic. I've been in every area where a person can be in a C5. The H-4 looks huge in comparison. 😮 awesome video!
I am so glad they put this aircraft in Flight Simulator. Flying it in VR is incredible.
Hughes always took his ideas beyond what was thought possible and without his vision and work it’s difficult to believe that aviation and in fact space travel would have been as advanced as it is today! The amount of thought and work that has gone into this aircraft alone is mind boggling, and yet they tried to bring him down….unbelievable!
Like Elon Musk....
@@pyrox7x
Elon Musk is a bit more tricky.
He talks about all the things that shouldn't be happening, but behind the scenes he's the one that's Developing them.
I think this time he has bitten off more than he can chew with Twitter, About free speech.
I had the privilege I’m going to this museum and boarding that aircraft. Spruce goose and the black bird we’re both bucket items on my list. To sit in the very seat that Howard Hughes sat in to grab the controls that he did on the history making flight. Wow what a incredible time and incredible of museum
This is a great video, I’ve just recently became very interested in the spruce goose . Through a very rare coincidence. My wife and I bought a vintage RV and doing research on the vehicle we found that the RV was built and a owned by MR. Chalmer Bowen. He was Howard Hughes #1 test pilot. And he was the chief engineer on the spruce goose . I’ve been fascinated by the story . Mr Bowen was a very interesting man as well .
Interesting the amount of work, craftsmanship & engineering to go into a project, with only one flight.. One hit wonder that still exists. 🎉
I had the privilege of servicing the fire protection in it , not the planes system but the facility system in the plane , this thing is even more massive and majestic than you can see on film I have so many pics and none of them seem good to me because it has to be seen in person!! Awesome video!!
OH MY GOD IT'S A SINGLE PILOT AIRCRAFT I CANT CONCIEVE THE NUMBER OF CUSTOM PARTS JUST FOR THIS AIRCRAFT.
Former Boeing Everett.... this is the best POV (point of view) tour of this remarkable aircraft I have seen. Although it's hard to really take in the immense scale, you did an outstanding job showing it. I am used to 'big' from Boeing Everett, big aircraft, big factories, big turbofan engines. The H-4 Hercules is more on the scale of the Antonov An-225 Mira.
Your explanation of the rear horizontal stabilizers being wider than the wingspan of a B-17 was effective. You could park entire smaller aircraft on each. Today, 4 engines power really large aircraft; B747, A380, military cargo transports. Most aircraft have 2 engines. B-52 has 8, An-225 has 6, H-4 has 8.
We have all heard of fly by wire. The H-4 was fly by hydraulic tubes, first use of power multiplier from pilot input to control surface movement. It's really a shame that the war ended before the H-4 could be put into service. It would have been a real game changer. It's only weakness was size and speed. Without fighter escorts across ocean, it would have been an easy target for enemy aircraft.
Thank you for producing this video of the amazing H-4 Hercules. Now we know why it was called 'Hercules'.
My wife and I toured the Spruce Goose back in the mid-eighties when it was in Long Beach California and during those times it was painted white. I was amazed how big it was and I would tell anybody if you get the chance to go see it definitely go see it. It's spectacular and beautiful.
Don’t think it was ever painted white.
@@markpirisky2281 I've got pictures of my wife and I touring the thing in 1985 and it was white.
Visited here. Even got to sit in the pilot seat. Just super aweGreat museum. I highly recommend it.
An excellent video, sir.
Very steady and detailed. The cut-away engine on display was impressive to see in motion. The VIP tour is great! Those distinguished gentleman working as tour guides are a wealth of knowledge.
I took my wife, son and Dad to the Evergreen museum last summer. A VERY impressive facility. I have pictures of my ten year old son in the pilot's seat of the H4, wearing the Fedora. We spent so much time in the aviation building that we needed to hurry through the space building next door.
I actually never knew this plane was still around!!!!...
Great video.
Massive !
That's an understatement !
It's amazing that such a big plane could be built out of wood, considering the technology of the era !
Massive waste of time and money.
When you're walking around on the ground filming it appears as an diorama with everything as a perfect models. WOW thank you for this opportunity 😀
I remember seeing a 747 up close for the first and being a bit underwhelmed. It was much smaller in person than I had imagined, but the spruce goose is absolutely MASSIVE in person. Despite them being nearly the same size dimensionally, this plane just feels far more impressive and awe inspiring.
I think a big difference is the interior. A 747 passenger jet has decks, seats, overhead bins, etc. The H-4 is just this MASSIVE cavern of a fuselage.
Back in the early 2000s me and my father used to live in McMinnville he was an electrician who did a lot of the surveillance and security systems in the aviation center. He took me to work with him one day when the center was closed to the public and me and him had the entire museum to ourselves. I even got to go inside of the Spruce goose. Very cool experience
Saw the H4 years ago when it was still in Long Beach. I once met a man who was a carpenter on the vertical stabilizer. The government had hired several aircraft companies to build prototypes for this mission, but Hughes was the only one to complete a working prototype. The others took the money and produced nothing of note.
I live in downtown lbc and cruise out of it. And go thru the big hanger it use to hang in to get on the cruise ships. Lots of pics and models of it is around to show it. Very cool
Unbelievable. That's all I can say, I've been fascinated by the Hercules since childhood. I've only ever seen pictures of the inside great video.
I have been to the museum and took the full tour. Well worth the time and money.
It is really unbelievable how large the plane is.
7:36 I can't get over the massive size of those two electric hydraulic pumps, especially when you consider the engine driven and electrical hydraulic pumps on most of todays airliners are not much bigger than a foot ball.
Great video! I remember seeing this aircraft when it was in its previous location at Long Beach and being astonished at how big it was...
Thanks a lot!
Glad you made it out to our little town! Hope you had a nice time while you were here. I try not to take for granted that this amazing airplane and museum is less than a 10 minute drive away for us.
My great grandpa knew Howard personally and they worked together and he even had the privilege to help design and make the spruce goose with him along with the Bell helicopter and a few other I remember him telling golfing stories or going to restaurants. I still have all of the photos too. I think Hughes was a good engineer and really pushed the limits to get us to where we are now.
you seem to think others find that remotely interesting... wow. Not a sole is intersted or impressed
@@slowery43 well I’m sorry you don’t take stories like that interesting but I appreciate your opinion and glad you were able to find the time to share it with me.
I grew up in Oregon and visited this museum a few times as a kid and recently again as an adult last march. The size of the tail on the Goose is absolutely out of this world. You are right that the video doesn't do it justice. It's completely illogically large.
Got to see this as a 12 year old. Grandpa knew Hughes. Was very memorable.
He knew my cousin?
Great video 👍 I’m a docent in the Evergreen Space Museum across the parking lot. You could probably make several videos with all the cool things Evergreen has in its collection. I know they inspire me a lot.
In 2010 before moving from the southwest, I took a road trip from Albuquerque to McMinnville (1,399 miles) to see the Spruce Goose, specifically. What an impressive airplane.
Don't call it the spruce goose Howard hated that name!
@@jslade60 I bought a t-shirt from that museum, and it says "Spruce Goose." If you are that passionate about the name, feel free to give the museum a call, and start a petition to change the name.
Everyone should take tour Evergreen if you're in the area. It's well worth the price of admission.
Wow. What a privilege to sit in the very same seat Howard Hughes sat in!! This was so interesting. Thank you for bringing this to us. This plane is phenomenal. I just wished someone rescued the AN225 before it was destroyed. They would have looked great at the Evergreen museum together.
Glad you enjoyed it!
The An-225 Mira is only aircraft similar in scale to the H-4. I'm former Boeing Everett and used to really big things. The H-4 redefines 'really big'. To think this was built in the 40's makes it even more amazing.
they were planning to get the 225 out of harms way, but just didn't act quick enough.. terrible thing
@@CP-ux9zd Not sure if it can be rebuilt after war. There are some spares and a 2nd 225 was 1/2 complete. Aviation supporters will gladly pay billion dollars to help. Region is still under attack. Russia is send cruise missiles to Kyev and beyond. 225 rebuild will have to wait.
Been there twice. The docents were amazing and made us very welcome. One visit is nowhere near enough. Cheers from Downunder
👍🇦🇺
Very happy to see someone visiting my local museum, what a delightful place that deserves more attention. I am also quite jealous as I didn't have a tour booked and wasn't allowed into the upper deck
I was there back in May of 21 and I loved McMinnville. I believe there was some type of wine testing event going on. Would have loved to have joined in but I had a long drive back to Wilsonville. I am from the mid west so I felt right home there, beautiful country side..
I'm from Botswana and had the pleasure of walking into the lower section of this iconic aircraft. That was in Long Beach Calif. In 1983, around September. Back then if I'm not mistaken, it floated on 3 patches of water. The plywood skin was rather lumpy, having sat in Long Beach until early 1983 when it was first unveiled to the public. I walked through the lower section allowed to visitors and up the outside stairs to the cockpit where a "wax model" of Mr Hughes sat in pilots seat with cigar in mouth or hand? Mouth I think?? It was in the "DOME" Opposite the Queen Mary ship. Strangely, I was repelled by the ship??? Never mind. In the Dome was a Hughs racer. An amazing little record breaker. There were excellent displays of Hughes aviation achievements and design drawings of the Goose as well as a myriad of other paraphernalia of great interest. I spent about 6 hours there with an RAF helicopter pilot who I met and travelled there with. Great day!! I had been to Oshkosh Wisconsin EAA air show before this, 1983, and seen Bob Hoover fly his yellow Mustang and his Aero Commander many times over 4 days. There were plenty other aviation greats but Bob Hoover in Oshkosh, and Howard Hughes Spruce Goose display in LA area were tops in my tour!! I had previously done 5 years service in the Rhodesian Air Force from 1973 to 1978 as aircraft engine mechanic and gained a glider pilots license and PPL. 160 hrs and 2000 hrs to date. So I'm a huge fan of all great aviation achievements, especially in USA, the world leader. Please patriots, get your FAA back into line as advisory instead of spying police. The patriots changing the known world for the better are paving the way. Now's your chance, and your work will pave the way for global freedom with assistance from FAA, instead of interference from them. While their intentions Might be good, they are mostly full of shi#.
My dad was a mechanical engineer in the early days of the aerospace program. His boss was Bill Hubert, Bill designed the fuselage of the H4 and was onboard during the test flights... monitoring the stress gauges. Howard was actually the one who promoted my dad from Class C Draftsman to Class B Engineer while working at Culver City. Dave Grant (aka the professor) - my wife got to meet and worked at Hughes Radar Systems Group.... a very nice, smart gentleman! Over the years, my dad was also one of the engineers who worked on special programs involving the H4 while it was "in storage" at Long Beach. Although the aircraft sat "idle", it's purpose did not as it was a test-bed for a variety of aeronautical tests- and it was very well maintained which included a complete A/E mechanics to maintain its readiness. As a side note....Bill never like flying, he would rather drive than take a flight. He told my dad later (when they were flying to Tuscan, AZ) that when they had completed the 2nd to last test run in the H4, and "Pappy" (aka Hughes) was exceptionally interest in the data... when he decided to make 1 more run. Although he never told any of the crew (or press for that matter), Bill and everybody else knew when he kept requesting the stress data in detail and kept throttling up higher... that he was going to lift the H4 up. Know one knows for sure, but Dave Grant later said the look on Howards face said that although he was confident it would fly, the amount of lift generated, and the response of the controls was much greater than even Hughes expected.
Side note...Bill was also the one who found the "gent" at Magnavox (yes the TV company) who had figured out how to bond wood together - as Magnavox had just come out with a TV cabinet that was beautiful but looked like a "Butcher's Block". They hired him away from Magnavox.
Dont know why, but I got wolfenstein vibes! 😂 Awesome video!!
Recently, In July 2024. My wife and I went to visit her Brother John and his bride Lisa for a weeks vacation. They live in Newberg. Oregon is beautiful. We did many things such as go to Oceanside beach to go fishing off the shore. Pick blueberries. Visit Bonneville Dam with its power turbines producing electricity and fish hatchery on the Columbia river where you can see Washington State across the river. We saw Multnomah falls. Our last day there did not prepare us for what we saw next. We were driving around McMinnville when we were driving past an aviation museum named Evergreen Aviation. We decided to go in and look around. I was not prepared to see what we saw next when we walked into a huge hangar and saw the Spruce Goose H-4 Hercules in all its glory. It was massive. An awesome engineering feet. I had no idea it had been relocated there in my Brother in laws backyard ( only 10 miles away). It was a totally unexpected visit and put a big smile on my face. I purchased a NASA Flight Jacket for my wife and I to remember it by. A truly memorable day indeed.
I used to live in Long Beach, California and took tours through it several times in the 1980s. The cockpit looked futuristic even then!
Interesting tour. Visitor access was strictly limited when we visited the Goose not long after she was put on display at Evergreen!😊 Her size is very impressive
Don't call it the spruce goose Howard hated that name!
I took that tour and sat in Howard's left seat. It was awesome! Dont do "selfies" but tour guide was nice enough to use my good DSLR to get few pics. Two things you dont mention; Hughes was a disciple of redundancy; *everything* on that plane had either a backup or better a "hot spare" which was always in service so if something failed the spare was then used. Even twin APUs you noted which are DC motors and musta produced some serious noise when spinning. Second, most critical thing, was MAIN reason it didnt fly except long enough to get off the water and get airworthiness certificate (posted in the airplane) was there were problems during flight. He had multiple people stationed throughout the aircraft who communicated by an intercom system seen in video. A few seconds into the flight, guy in the alt section advised Hughes of sounds indicating serious structural issues, possibly leading to catastrophic failure, were being heard and advise him not to climb any more than he did. The tail section was reinforced, which you can see outside the aircraft, after that initial flight. When you look at early part of vid, the massive tail section vs relatively smaller x-section of the tail structure makes me think that a pretty good call. And last, while mostly made of birch, it is also made of spruce in parts; the load-bearing structural parts being laminated birch and skin yes, of spruce. TAKE THE TOUR WHEN YOU GO. Its cheap ($25) and goes to a great cause.
Such a beautiful aircraft. I grew up seeing the Long Beach dome relatively often, but find it rather regretable that I never got the chance to tour this aircraft while it was still so close and accessible (And in the original museum habitat the outer hull was modified to suit, no less)
While yes this beaut still exists, you really can't just take access to these artifacts for granted. If it's nearby, visit it and experience it while you can do so easily.
I was glad to find this video, because I went down to Long Beach to see the plane when tours were first avialable and all they has for a tour was a ramp up to where you could walk straight through the plane, from left to right, surrounded by plexiglass where the reflection limited visibility.
A marvel of engineering, without doubt.
I too remember the Spruce Goose in Long Beach and when my dad too me to see it either in the late 70’s or 80’s, as I don’t exactly remember that far back anymore. Good video.
I was there about a year ago, I think it was $40 for a group of up to 6 to get a guided tour inside the Goose…totally worth it and a tiny price to pay to experience this amazing aircraft.
I visited this plane at the evergreen air museum. The plane is VERY impressive, but the rest of the museum was great too! My family and I had a blast
That view of the wingspan from the cockpit is wild.
I saw this plane in Long Beach once, and a few years ago while I was in Portland on a business trip, I made the drive to Go see it again. I took the guided tour as shown here, and was very impressed. What is not discussed well in this video is the construction entirely of laminated wood-very impressive. Joe
This is one of the best videos I've seen on UA-cam in a long time. Thanks for showing how big it is. I was thinking about going for a walking tour in my neighborhood just to map out the dimensions. Thanks for a job well done.