Me Inside “The Spruce Goose” (Hughes Flying Boat, H-4 Hercules)
Hey Steemit Family ,
This is me Flying the Spruce Goose “Ha-Ha”, so if you know anything about this air plane you know that is not true. The Spruce Goose has only flown once and that was in 1947, and it was flown by Howard Hughes not me.
This is what it really looked like out the windows. Not so impressed any more, are you?
This is my buddy and I, we just happen to have a good friend that worked at the museum, she set us up with a personal tour of the Spruce Goose and photos in the cockpit, Wow what a great time.
The cockpit without us pretending to fly.
Close up of the cockpit, a lot of controls it was overwhelming.
We pull up to the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, OR. which is about an hour Southwest of Portland, and we see these three giant buildings they looked like they where made of Windows, in the first building there is one of the biggest air planes you have ever seen. It looked like it could start up and come right thru the windows.
When you get inside it's the first thing you see right in the middle of the room is this massive air plane “The Spruce Goose” it dwarfed everything around it. I wish I had a wide enough lens to get the whole plane in one shot.
The thing is huge, 218 feet long, 320 feet wide, and 79 feet high.
The museum is amazing besides the Aviation Museum there is a Space Museum, IMAX Theater and an indoor water park. If you’re in the area you must plan on spending a day or two there it is just amazing. My friend no longer works at the museum so I can’t hook you up with a free tour of the plane sorry about that, but if you tell them at the front desk that Mark sent you, they will give you a free tour of the restroom LOL.
Inside the cabin, looking towards the cockpit, the desk and office chair are bolted down.
Inside the cabin look towards the tail.
Here’s a little history about the Spruce Goose, first thing it is made totally out of wood (birch), I guess they thought Spruce Goose sounds better than Birch Goose. It was designed and built by Howard Hughes for World War II to fly the troops across the ocean, but it only flew once for about a mile at 70 feet off the water, on a test flight by Howard Hughes. If the plane where to fly it could go 250 mph at 20,000 feet for 3,000 miles, according to Wikipedia. When Hughes died in 1976 the plane was donated and eventually ended up at the Evergreen Aviation Museum.
This is a shot down the wing, I thought it was wild that you could actually fit in the wing.
Howard Hughes had beach balls stored in the cargo bay for flotation devices, in case the plane crashed. If you look you can see a military dressed manikin in the back I’m not sure what he's for, maybe he hands out the beach balls.
There are 4 - 3,000 hp engines in each wing, that’s 8 at a total of 24,000 hp WoW. The diameter of each 8 propellers is 17 feet.
“The Spruce Goose” - is the air plane that was the Start of the movie “The Aviator” I know Leonardo DiCaprio might not agree with me but it’s true. IMO LOL, by the way this is a must see movie.
Here I took some notes for you:
1. Go to the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, OR.
2. Watch the movie “The Aviator”
3. Comment and let me know what you think about this blog
4. Vote for this post
5. "Follow Mark"