1
00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:01,920
Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

2
00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:10,840
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,

3
00:00:10,840 --> 00:00:13,440
Speaker 1: a show that shines a light on the ups and

4
00:00:13,560 --> 00:00:18,280
Speaker 1: downs of everyday history. I'm Gay Bluesier, and in this

5
00:00:18,360 --> 00:00:23,279
Speaker 1: episode we're talking about the neurotic billionaire playboy who used

6
00:00:23,320 --> 00:00:26,840
Speaker 1: cutting edge technology of his own design to help fight

7
00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:31,120
Speaker 1: the bad guys. And no, I'm not talking about Batman.

8
00:00:38,040 --> 00:00:44,879
Speaker 1: The day was November two. Howard Hughes pilots the H

9
00:00:44,880 --> 00:00:49,040
Speaker 1: four Hercules, also known as the Spruce Goose, on its

10
00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:53,120
Speaker 1: first and only flight. At the time, it was the

11
00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:57,040
Speaker 1: largest aircraft ever built, with a wingspan longer than a

12
00:00:57,080 --> 00:01:01,120
Speaker 1: football field, it was designed to carry more than seven

13
00:01:01,160 --> 00:01:05,039
Speaker 1: hundred soldiers into battle. To accommodate that kind of weight

14
00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:09,640
Speaker 1: and to work around wartime restrictions on steel, Hughes built

15
00:01:09,640 --> 00:01:13,560
Speaker 1: the plane out of wood, more specifically out of laminated

16
00:01:13,640 --> 00:01:18,280
Speaker 1: birch and spruce, hence the nickname. It may have flown

17
00:01:18,440 --> 00:01:22,080
Speaker 1: just one brief time, but the story behind that flight

18
00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:25,000
Speaker 1: and the man who flew it have left a far

19
00:01:25,080 --> 00:01:29,880
Speaker 1: more enduring legacy. Howard Hughes was born on Christmas Eve

20
00:01:30,120 --> 00:01:34,240
Speaker 1: in nineteen o five in Houston, Texas. The son of

21
00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:39,160
Speaker 1: a prominent oil drill manufacturer, Hughes inherited immense wealth when

22
00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:42,320
Speaker 1: he took over the family business at the age of eighteen.

23
00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:47,120
Speaker 1: Three years later in ninety six, he put some of

24
00:01:47,160 --> 00:01:52,880
Speaker 1: that fortune into a passion project producing movies. The first

25
00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:56,320
Speaker 1: film he produced was an epic World War One action

26
00:01:56,400 --> 00:02:00,880
Speaker 1: film called Hell's Angels. It was released to critical acclaim

27
00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:04,480
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty and was praised in particular for its

28
00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:10,760
Speaker 1: elaborate and expensive aerial fight scenes. Hughes was heavily involved

29
00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:14,440
Speaker 1: in the stunt design for these sequences. In fact, when

30
00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:17,760
Speaker 1: the film's lead stunt pilot objected to the danger of

31
00:02:17,800 --> 00:02:21,680
Speaker 1: the final scene, Hughes stepped in to fly the plane himself.

32
00:02:22,639 --> 00:02:25,600
Speaker 1: It didn't go so well, though, he wound up crashing

33
00:02:25,600 --> 00:02:31,080
Speaker 1: and was severely injured. Undeterred, Hughes continued flying planes and

34
00:02:31,200 --> 00:02:34,840
Speaker 1: producing movies. He soon made a name for himself as

35
00:02:34,880 --> 00:02:38,560
Speaker 1: a Hollywood playboy, and was seen around town with actresses

36
00:02:38,600 --> 00:02:43,760
Speaker 1: such as Ava Gardner, Ginger Rogers, and Katherine Hepburn. Around

37
00:02:43,760 --> 00:02:47,800
Speaker 1: the same time, he founded the Hughes Aircraft Company and

38
00:02:47,880 --> 00:02:51,480
Speaker 1: began designing his own planes. He tested many of the

39
00:02:51,520 --> 00:02:55,960
Speaker 1: cutting edge aircraft himself sometimes setting records in the process.

40
00:02:56,720 --> 00:03:00,400
Speaker 1: For example, in ninety seven, Hughes broke the record for

41
00:03:00,440 --> 00:03:04,840
Speaker 1: the fastest transcontinental flight, and in nineteen thirty eight he

42
00:03:04,960 --> 00:03:09,320
Speaker 1: flew around the world in record time three days, nineteen hours,

43
00:03:09,440 --> 00:03:14,320
Speaker 1: and fourteen minutes. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

44
00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:17,560
Speaker 1: in nineteen forty one, Hughes lent his talent as a

45
00:03:17,600 --> 00:03:21,840
Speaker 1: designer to the US war effort. The government commissioned his

46
00:03:21,880 --> 00:03:25,639
Speaker 1: company to build a giant flying boat that could transport

47
00:03:25,720 --> 00:03:30,400
Speaker 1: hundreds of troops and supplies to remote areas. There was

48
00:03:30,440 --> 00:03:34,280
Speaker 1: a great need for a massive flying transport because in

49
00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:39,160
Speaker 1: nineteen forty two German submarines began sinking hundreds of Allies

50
00:03:39,200 --> 00:03:42,480
Speaker 1: ships as they made their way across the Atlantic Ocean.

51
00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:47,880
Speaker 1: The original concept for the aircraft was conceived by Henry Kaiser,

52
00:03:48,320 --> 00:03:52,960
Speaker 1: an industrialists and shipbuilder. He chose Hughes to design and

53
00:03:53,040 --> 00:03:56,160
Speaker 1: build it with him, but due to numerous quarrels and

54
00:03:56,240 --> 00:04:00,520
Speaker 1: disagreements between the two of them, Kaiser withdrew from the project,

55
00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:05,320
Speaker 1: in leaving Hughes and his small team to finish it

56
00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:09,240
Speaker 1: on their own. The plane was originally called the h

57
00:04:09,360 --> 00:04:12,880
Speaker 1: K one because it was to be the first aircraft

58
00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:16,760
Speaker 1: built by Hughes and Kaiser. When the latter bowed out

59
00:04:16,760 --> 00:04:19,880
Speaker 1: of the project, Hughes changed the name to the H

60
00:04:19,880 --> 00:04:24,480
Speaker 1: four Hercules, marking it as the fourth Hughes aircraft and

61
00:04:24,560 --> 00:04:27,839
Speaker 1: likening its immense strength to that of a Greek god,

62
00:04:28,360 --> 00:04:32,359
Speaker 1: or at least a demigod. Much to hughes dismay, the

63
00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:35,880
Speaker 1: press didn't get on board with his lofty designation and

64
00:04:35,960 --> 00:04:40,800
Speaker 1: instead insisted on calling the huge wooden plane the spruce goose.

65
00:04:41,720 --> 00:04:45,520
Speaker 1: Hughes disliked the name not only because it sounded less tough,

66
00:04:46,040 --> 00:04:49,280
Speaker 1: but because it wasn't even accurate. The plane was made

67
00:04:49,279 --> 00:04:53,359
Speaker 1: almost entirely of birch, not spruce, though to be fair,

68
00:04:53,560 --> 00:04:57,800
Speaker 1: the birch bird wouldn't have sounded any tougher. The plane's

69
00:04:57,839 --> 00:05:02,440
Speaker 1: final design featured would laminated with plastic and covered with

70
00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:06,680
Speaker 1: a whitish gray fabric, which furthered its comparison to a goose.

71
00:05:07,480 --> 00:05:10,480
Speaker 1: It was powered by eight propeller engines and had a

72
00:05:10,520 --> 00:05:14,640
Speaker 1: massive wingspan of three hundred and twenty ft. The Hughes

73
00:05:14,760 --> 00:05:19,400
Speaker 1: flying boat cost an unprecedented twenty three million dollars, and

74
00:05:19,480 --> 00:05:23,159
Speaker 1: by the time it was finished in the war, was

75
00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:27,960
Speaker 1: already over. When the Allies victory was in sight, it

76
00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:30,839
Speaker 1: was clear the Spruce Goose would no longer be needed,

77
00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:34,760
Speaker 1: but Howard Hughes kept working on it anyway, largely to

78
00:05:34,839 --> 00:05:39,120
Speaker 1: satisfy the press and his own sense of pride. Hughes

79
00:05:39,360 --> 00:05:43,120
Speaker 1: and his plane definitely had their fans, but they had

80
00:05:43,120 --> 00:05:46,480
Speaker 1: a good deal of detractors as well. Chief among them

81
00:05:46,560 --> 00:05:51,000
Speaker 1: was Congress, which eventually launched an investigation into whether Hughes

82
00:05:51,080 --> 00:05:54,640
Speaker 1: had squandered government funds on a plane that may not

83
00:05:54,800 --> 00:05:59,080
Speaker 1: have even been airworthy. So, with pressure mounting, Hughes decided

84
00:05:59,160 --> 00:06:02,159
Speaker 1: to clear his good name by proving he had built

85
00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:05,640
Speaker 1: a plane that was fit to fly. On November two,

86
00:06:07,640 --> 00:06:12,200
Speaker 1: Howard Hughes took the Hercules prototype for an unannounced flight test.

87
00:06:12,960 --> 00:06:16,080
Speaker 1: He sailed the aircraft into Long Beach Harbor in southern

88
00:06:16,080 --> 00:06:20,919
Speaker 1: California as thousands of spectators gathered to watch. A short

89
00:06:20,960 --> 00:06:24,920
Speaker 1: time later, Hughes managed to get the hulking plane airborne.

90
00:06:25,839 --> 00:06:28,920
Speaker 1: It was a successful maiden flight, but not a very

91
00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:33,160
Speaker 1: extensive one. The plane only flew seventy feet above the

92
00:06:33,160 --> 00:06:36,599
Speaker 1: water and only for about a mile over the course

93
00:06:36,640 --> 00:06:40,640
Speaker 1: of one minute before landing. Still, it was enough to

94
00:06:40,720 --> 00:06:44,800
Speaker 1: satisfy critics that Hughes had indeed built a functional aircraft,

95
00:06:45,240 --> 00:06:48,280
Speaker 1: even if some opponents still doubted it could support its

96
00:06:48,320 --> 00:06:52,680
Speaker 1: own weight during a longer flight. As you probably surmised,

97
00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:56,800
Speaker 1: the Spruce Goose never went into production, and following an

98
00:06:56,880 --> 00:07:01,760
Speaker 1: unrelated but highly traumatic plane crash, Hughes himself wasn't seen

99
00:07:01,839 --> 00:07:06,040
Speaker 1: much either. He retreated from the public eye, preferring to

100
00:07:06,080 --> 00:07:10,080
Speaker 1: manage his various film and aircraft ventures from a distance.

101
00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:14,320
Speaker 1: By the nineteen sixties, he was living in seclusion on

102
00:07:14,360 --> 00:07:17,320
Speaker 1: the top floor of the Desert Inn in Las Vegas

103
00:07:17,760 --> 00:07:21,600
Speaker 1: and was rarely seen outside of his hotel suite. It's

104
00:07:21,640 --> 00:07:24,920
Speaker 1: believed that Hughes suffered from brain trauma due to his

105
00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:29,080
Speaker 1: past accidents, as well as a debilitating case of obsessive

106
00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:32,960
Speaker 1: compulsive disorder, both of which may have been worsened by

107
00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:37,080
Speaker 1: drug abuse. He did eventually leave Las Vegas in the

108
00:07:37,080 --> 00:07:41,680
Speaker 1: early nineteen seventies, first moving to a hotel in Nicaragua,

109
00:07:41,760 --> 00:07:45,040
Speaker 1: and then to a resort on Grand Bahama Island, where

110
00:07:45,040 --> 00:07:48,320
Speaker 1: he would spend the remainder of his life. As for

111
00:07:48,360 --> 00:07:52,280
Speaker 1: the Spruce Goose, Hughes never gave up on the project.

112
00:07:52,840 --> 00:07:56,040
Speaker 1: In fact, he kept the prototype ready for flight in

113
00:07:56,080 --> 00:08:00,160
Speaker 1: a gigantic climate controlled hangar at a cost somewhere are

114
00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:03,880
Speaker 1: between three hundred thousand and a million dollars each year.

115
00:08:04,920 --> 00:08:09,480
Speaker 1: This continuous maintenance was kept up for almost thirty years

116
00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:16,640
Speaker 1: from nineteen forty seven until Hugh's death in nineteen seventy six. Today,

117
00:08:17,040 --> 00:08:20,320
Speaker 1: visitors can see the massive plane for themselves at the

118
00:08:20,400 --> 00:08:25,840
Speaker 1: Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon. It stands as the

119
00:08:25,920 --> 00:08:31,400
Speaker 1: museum's centerpiece, a monument to aviation history, to human innovation,

120
00:08:32,240 --> 00:08:37,640
Speaker 1: and to one man's personal pride. I'm Gabe Lousier and

121
00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:41,319
Speaker 1: hopefully you now know a little more about history today

122
00:08:41,400 --> 00:08:45,199
Speaker 1: than you did yesterday. If you enjoyed the show, consider

123
00:08:45,320 --> 00:08:48,920
Speaker 1: following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t D

124
00:08:49,080 --> 00:08:52,800
Speaker 1: i HC Show. You can also rate and review the

125
00:08:52,800 --> 00:08:55,880
Speaker 1: show on Apple Podcasts, or you can write to us

126
00:08:56,120 --> 00:09:00,320
Speaker 1: at this Day at i heart media dot com. Thanks

127
00:09:00,360 --> 00:09:03,200
Speaker 1: to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank you

128
00:09:03,240 --> 00:09:06,160
Speaker 1: for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow for

129
00:09:06,200 --> 00:09:18,680
Speaker 1: another day in History class. For more podcasts for my

130
00:09:18,679 --> 00:09:21,360
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

131
00:09:21,440 --> 00:09:23,160
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,