I'd like to wish everyone a very happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year! Just by chance I happened to look today at a video about the Spruce Goose that flew 62 years ago. It is said to be one of the 7 engineering wonders of the world. Actually it wasn't made of Spruce, but made of Birch, the same wood as the Mosquito bomber was made of during WWII. It had eight radial engines and a 320 foot wingspan, similar to a 747. It had hydraulic control boost just like modern large and high-speed aircraft Howard Hughes was the chief engineer on the project and 96% of it was made of wood because of shortage of other materials during the war. Remarkably the thing was glued and nailed together with (I think the video said) 7,000 pounds of nails that were removed when the glue was dry. Henry Kaiser was the big shipbuilder during the war and was given $18,000,000 to build 3 seaplanes. Hughes was accused of wasting government money. Although I believe the video said Hughes put $9,000.000 of his own money in it too. The idea was to produce troop transports that would carry troops free from the hazard of U-Boats that were sinking liberty ships right and left The thing got a lot of bad press and many journalists didn't believe the thing would fly, but Hughes knew it would, and proved it to them and the whole world that it would too. A link to the video is shown below. http://www.aero-tv.net/?videoid=9967662a-c4cc-4141-af65-ce4c310dfce3
