Spruce Goose flew 72 years ago today

The Antonov An-225 Mriya has a wingspan of 290 feet, is 276 feet long, and weighs 628,300 pounds.

The Hughes H-4 Hercules has a wingspan of 321 feet, is 218 feet long, and only weighs 250,000 pounds.

So it depends on how you define "big."
 
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Ron Wanttaja
 
The plane is big. Its wingspan was finally exceeded when the Stratolaunch flew earlier this year. It will be a long time before another eccentric billionaire becomes obsessed with aviation enough to build something that big again.

Flight deck:
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Flight engineer:
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Engines as far as the eye can see:
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Reportedly, the autopilot control stick:
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Clip4 said:
Never got out of ground effect.
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It technically wasn't even supposed to fly that day. But could it get out of ground effect? Probably, at least lightly laden, but it was quite underpowered for its size.
 
iamtheari said:
The plane is big. Its wingspan was finally exceeded when the Stratolaunch flew earlier this year. It will be a long time before another eccentric billionaire becomes obsessed with aviation enough to build something that big again.
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Yeah, 'cuz Musk went with rockets, instead.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
It technically wasn't even supposed to fly that day. But could it get out of ground effect? Probably, at least lightly laden, but it was quite underpowered for its size.
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Not really. Big props could (and still can) deliver a lot of thrust at relatively low airspeed. The C-124 had 4 R-4360's and a max takeoff weight of 194K lbs. The B-36 had 6 of those engines, plus 4 jets and a MGTOW of 410,000 lbs. Both of those airplanes performed reasonably well for the day, given their intended missions.

The Spruce Goose had 8 R-4360 engines, a listed MGTOW of 400,000 lbs and a lower wing loading than the C-124 or B-36.
 
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I'm familiar with the plane but not any of the stories around it. How come it never officially flew
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I'm familiar with the plane but not any of the stories around it. How come it never officially flew
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It had turned into an ego project for him and once he got it off the ground, that satisfied his ego and he moved on to other projects. By 1947, there was no commercial market for a huge flying boat, particularly a wooden one, so there was no reason for him to proceed.
 
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Visited the museum that houses the Goose, got the hat and the T-shirt.
 
Wonder how long the annual would take on that plane :p
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I'm familiar with the plane but not any of the stories around it. How come it never officially flew
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WWII had ended. No market. Lots of controversy about the development costs.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I'm familiar with the plane but not any of the stories around it. How come it never officially flew
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Good summary here:


(Looks like you have to go to YT to watch it. The segment on the Spruce Goose starts at the 24 minute mark.)

The Don Smith interviewed in this segment was one of the crewmen aboard when it flew, and was the father of a lawyer I shared office space with many years ago.
 
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Favorite line from the movie the Aviator:

"You've gotta make a choice, you want to be bankrupted by the big plane or by the big airline?"
 
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