Serge Le Huitouze sez:
>Could you tell us more about the Spruce Goose ?

First, I'd like to make it clear that the Goose is MUCH MUCH older than
me.

Howard Hughes, who was in the aircraft business before and during
the second world war, had the Spruce Goose designed
as a large transport aircraft in the early 1940s. The nickname comes
from the fact that the structural members of the airplane are made
of wood, primarily (perhaps entirely?) spruce which is relatively
strong, light, and flexes without breaking (important for airplanes).

As opposed to Doug Fir, for instance, which has great compressional
strength (i.e. a 2x4 made of Doug Fir is very difficult to bust by
pressuring the two ends), but which splinters and breaks relatively
easily when bent.

Spruce was used for the structural members of early airplanes, with
all-metal designs not being developed until the early 20s, I believe.

The airplane was really a seaplane, i.e. was designed to take off
and land in water.

Hughes Aircraft built one prototype, which Howard Hughes himself flew
on its maiden - and terminal - voyage. As it was the first test
flight it was very short.

At the time the airplane was designed, certain critical metals were
in short supply and some were not produced domestically in enough
quantity for the wartime build-up being planned in early 1942. At
the time, U-boats were sinking a lot of ships, and there were fears
that production might be pinched. Thus the reliance on wood in the
design - spruce wasn't picked due to any intrinsic merit over
a metal design, but due to the fact that at the time there was
a lot of old-growth spruce available from PNW forests and it
was thought that reliance on strategic metals might limit production.

By the time the machine was designed and the prototype built, a
large percentage of the U-boats had found a permanent home at the
bottom of the Atlantic, along with Germany's surface raiders, and
relatively little of merchant shipping to and from the US was being
sunk. Thus, the supply pinch which helped drive the design of
this critter largely disappeared during the design/build timeframe.

This airplane was also bigger than a 747 - indeed it was the world's
largest airplane for a very long time. This, along with wood construction,
was its biggest claim to fame. Well, along with the general interest
in the eccentric Howard Hughes!

Anyway, over time the plane has been the butt of a fair amount of
humor, based on its one-and-only flight and wood contruction, which
seems odd to the modern mind. But, given the situation at the
time of design, the use of wood doesn't seem all that wierd.

It isn't clear that the military of the time was organized to use
such a huge beast, either. They got along fine with off-the-shelf
DC-3s (renamed the C-47), much smaller but rugged, reliable, and
proven. And made of metal.

Evergreen Aviation, in NW Oregon, is building a museum to house the
beast (used to be in one in southern CA). Evergreen is known largely
for years of service contracting to the CIA in situations where
it would be embarrasing for government involvement to become
public knowledge. The owner of Evergreen is a bit eccentric himself,
and his entrance into the museum business has been greased with
tax dollars, of course.

-Don Baccus-