Off Topic - Spruce Goose

"Wright1902Glider" wrote in message
...
There seems to be an important part of the story missing in this thread.
The
aircraft's original designation was HK-1, which stood for Hughes-Kaiser.
But
when the aircraft finally flew, it was only designated H-1. So what
happened
to our 'ol buddy Henry Kaiser? He saw the light. Without a war, a
monster-airplane is just that. And without payloads, that means a monster
hangar-queen. Which is what the H-1 eventually became. Kaiser quit the
project before it was finished. Hughes, on the other hand, kept at it.
And as
systems problems delayed to completion of the plane, questions arose. He
didn't have much of a choice when it came to finishing and flying the
plane...
he was being investigated by a Congressional committee who believed the
entire
project was nothing more than a boondoggle.

Still, it would be intresting to see what the performance numbers would
be. My
guess is that it would be very slow and very sluggish... not unlike a
certain
other famous airplane built by two brothers from Ohio. Its longest flight
lasted about as long.

Harry

Henry Kaiser talked Howard Hughes into the project in the first place. In
1942, Kaiser was building Liberty Ships which were being sunk by Hitler's
submarines at an alarming rate. Henry wanted to deliver high priority cargo
by air and avoid the subs.

175 MPH is slow for a big airplane, but it is very fast compared to a 12
knot Liberty Ship. Had the HK-1 been available in '42 it would have been
seen as a war winner.

Is it fair to say that the HK-1 was late or that the war was won sooner than
many planners thought? Had critical battles in Europe gone Hitler's way,
WW2 might have lasted until 1950, and the HK-1's fate might have been very
different.

Bill Daniels