On This Day - November 2nd - Howard Hughes Flies the Largest Aircraft Ever Built

On This Day - November 2nd - Howard Hughes Flies the Largest Aircraft Ever Built

On this day in 1947, Howard Hughes manages to fly the biggest airplane ever built in the history of aviation. Howard Hughes manufactured a large airplane out of wood. This is how the airplane got the nickname "Spruce Goose" which Howard Hughes hated. The large aircraft was built because he was commissioned by the U.S. government to build a large boat like aircraft that could carry U boats during World War II. Howard Hughes was forced to build the large airplane out of wood because of a shortage of steel. The airplane cost about $23 million and the construction of the plane hadn't even finished by the time the war came to an end.

The United States Congress was angered at Hughes for spending so much money on this large aircraft and wanted Howard Hughes to prove that it could actually fly and during a series of press conferences held against Hughes by a congressmen, Howard Hughes threatened to leave the country and never return if the plane did not fly. On November 2nd, 1947, Howard Hughes brought the plane to Long Beach Harbor in California. There he managed to fly the airplane for several minutes before landing it. During his lifetime, Hughes made many great achievements in the field of aviation. Flying the Spruce goose was one of his greatest accomplishments. As he aged, the eccentric billionaire went into recluse because of obsessive compulsive disorder. Today the Spruce goose sits in a museum in McMinnville, Oregon.

Click here to see a picture of the Spruce Goose.