When Howard Hughes conceived the Hercules, it was the world’s largest wooden aircraft, which is why it was nicknamed the Spruce Goose—but don’t let Mr. Hughes hear you say that! This aerial photo, taken circa October 1947, shows how just how enormous the plane was. It had been built in Playa Vista, north of L.A. International Airport, then transported to Long Beach for its only flight later that year, on November 2.
Aerial photo of Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose wooden aircraft in Long Beach, California, circa October 1947
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Pretty Impressive.
It is necessary to note that the aerial shot of the Howard Hughes H-4 Hercules is where the airplane’s sub-assemblies were put together after being transported overland from the Hughes airport factory at what is now known as Playa Vista ( north and below Loyola University ). A house moving company was hired to transport the airplane on streets to Pier E in Long Beach, east of the Navy Yards ( now Terminal Island ). They moved it in three large sections: the fuselage, each wing—and a fourth, smaller shipment with tail assembly parts and other smaller assemblies. A slipway was built so that the readied H-4 would be floated away from the assembly area and out to the Los Angeles harbor for the one-time flight after a series of taxi tests conducted on November 2, 1947 with Hughes at the controls.
After the tests and brief non-intentional lift-off, a sealed climate-controlled hangar was constructed around the H-4 Hercules and was maintained in a ‘ flight ready ‘ condition until after Howard Huges passing in 1976. In 1980, the H-4 was acquired by the Aero Club of Southern California and later moved the aircraft for display in a large geodesic dome next to the Queen Mary in Long Beach. For over a decade the Hughes H-4 Hercules was on display within the dome, then in ’92, given to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in exchange for payments and a percentage of the museum’s profits. The aircraft was transported by barge, train, and truck to its current home in McMinnville, about 35 miles southwest of Portland Oregon. The aircraft arrived in McMinnville on February 27, 1993, after a 138-day, 1,055-mile trip from Long Beach. There it was reassembled by Contractors Cargo Company and is currently on display in a purpose built display building / museum.
Hi Richard, and thanks for this great info. The caption on this photo was Playa Vista, but I was kind of surprised because I didn’t think the H-4 was built so close to the water. So this photo was actually taken in Long Beach *after* it had been disassembled, transported from Playa Vista to Long Beach, and then assembled again prior to its one and only flight.
Actually, there was no final buildup of the sub-assemblies prior to the move to Long Beach except for joining the two wing halves at the Hughes plant. The wing halves were separated again prior to being transported.
I have a photo in my files found online of the H-4 in the slipway at Pier E with the wings being attached on the hull, and the tail group still not on the airplane. The photo is looking towards the tail mounting bulkhead, and generally the view is South-East.
Been following the history of the H-4 Hercules from my Dad’s interest in the ’50s, aviation history, being a part of the initial exhibit from the opening of the Dome in Long Beach through the ’90s, and now living in a Portland suburb, regular visits to McMinnville.
Okay, so with the H-4 transported to Long Beach in mid-June 1946, and the flight taking place on November 2, from what you’ve said, do you think we can safely say that this photo was taken in Long Beach circa October? It looks fairly put together to me, so I’d imagine (aka guessing) this photo was taken as they were prepping the aircraft to its flight.
Shift the year to 1947 and the answer is yes. Final construction of the H-4 at the Hughes plant ( Playa Vista ) was accomplished during the Senate Hearings, and the transport of the sub-assemblies to Long Beach was in June of ’47. With assembly complete, the taxi tests were done in November, and the so said ‘ unintentional ‘ liftoff and flight on November 2nd, 1947.
Link to site I found on the Hughes H-4 Hercules that documents the events with a factual timeline as well as many fine photos with attributes. Many of my personal file photos on the airplane are sourced from here . . .
https://mashable.com/archive/howard-hughes-plane#qYvHIkZtGkkR
Last year I visited the “Spruce Goose” at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville. I was sorry we in Southern California lost the plane to Oregon, but I must admit that they have done a great job preserving the plane at the museum. It’s kind of out of the way, but if you are in the area, you should visit it. Be sure to take the cockpit tour which gets you inside the plane to truly appreciate the wonder of it.
Yes, I did the tour when the Spruce Goose was still down here in SoCal. I know it was a long time ago! I second the recommendation for the cockpit tour — that was almost the most memorable thing about it.
Pretty sure this is a picture of the final assembly, which took place in Long Beach. Date also would indicate this, as the plane was moved from the hangar (now Google building) in Playa Vista in 1946.
Thanks Bernard
Yeah, Playa Vista is close the the coast, but it’s not right on the water.
About 2 miles inland from the beach at Playa del Rey, where you lucky dogs can probably still get a beer and Shackburger (or the Kahuna) at The Shack. The blueprints for the Flying Lumberyard were tossed away into a dump site around Glendale in the ’70’s but were quickly found and recovered IIRC. A few years later a big commotion occured when a Hughes Aerospace desk with an internal phonebook was also trashed, but it was soon dismissed as an irelevant breach. To move the fir slug, some of the trolley wires of the electric railways had to temporarily be taken down and reconnected after the passing. An GM, notoriously involved in the scandalous affair of ending municipal railway systems, took control of Hughes by those later days. Now the burnished bird resides smack in the area where Red Electrics once ran before many of them were transferred to SoCal. Round, and round.
Martin, Your caption is to me misleading. This not Playa Vista this must be where the Goose took off in Long Beach. Playa Vista sits on the 1,047 acre parcel Howard Hughes purchased in Jan. 1941 to move from the Glendale airfield to Ballona Valley to create his own runway (2 miles long) and airplane building and ordnance testing facilities. The man who put together the Hughes parcel was Mesmer, who eventually became Hughes’ VP of Real Estate. In the late 19th Century 1884 he orchestrated the AT&SF to build a line down Culver Blvd. to Playa del Rey to be LA’s Port. After Long Beach won the Port site, Mesmer continued his domination of Ballona Valley. Culver City named a street after Mesmer (probably where he had his office.) Hughes built his modern day offices into the Westchester Bluffs just below the horizon to protect it from a DTLA nuclear blast. (east side of Lincoln Blvd. near top.)
Santa Fe was the first with plans for a port near PdR, but their line actually cut across from the south diagonally…Hawthorne Branch IIRC. SP aquired the Santa Monica wharfs by absorbing a startup road. PERy ran lines through Culver City including the branch to Playa del Rey where there was a junction with the line down from Venice. In old fractured flickers, one can see the Santa Fe station that survived after they had pulled backwards to that point.
I had a friend in high school who lived on Mesmer. I always assumed it was the old 19th c. guy who hypnotised people!
Indeed a mesmerizer, probably the most successful real estate developer of Santa Monica Bay frontage ever: LA’s 1st Pier 1884, Howard Hughes’ private airfield 1941, these were grandiose real estate efforts. The 1,047 acre parcel he put together for Hughes ran from Lincoln to Centinela; and in 1913, thanks to Japanese immigrants Venice grew the world’s Best Celery. Mesmer convinced all these Ballona Valley people to sell to him and he sold it all to Howard, took the County two days to digest the transaction. For years I incorrectly thought the purchase was the result of WWII and Hughes rushing in to buy the Japanese owned farmland from those property owners who were being sent to “Relocation” camps.” The Mesmer land transaction took place 11 months before Pearl Harbour. Even before Pearl Harbour US business interests were supplying the Lend-Lease program (Hitler was bombing England so Hughes probably anticipated a surge in the armament industry.