SoCal Trip: Spruce Goose

10 March 1985

After our time aboard the Queen Mary, we spent time getting to know the Spruce Goose, more formally — the H-4 Hercules.  At the time, the plane was on display in a giant white dome in Long Beach.

The Spruce Goose and Queen Mary ... when they were both in Long Beach.
February 11, 1982: The Spruce Goose being prepared for the final move into her new home.
Howard Hughes’ spruce goose arrived safely after a five-mile (8 km) ocean voyage by barge.
[scanned from postcard]

Spruce Goose with Howard Hughes at the controls.

At 400,000 pounds (181,437 kg), the Spruce Goose is the biggest aircraft the world has ever seen.  It’s 320-foot (98 m) wingspan is longer than a football field.  It has a tail broader than a Boeing 727, and it is taller than an eight-storey building.  It took the world’s largest self-propelled crane to lift her when she was moved to Long Beach.  The Goose was once housed in the world’s largest self-sustaining aluminum dome.

(Click the size-comparison chart of the Spruce Goose to see a larger version.  For more information about the Goose, click here.)

Howard Hughes, an American aviator, engineer, industrialist, film producer, director, philanthropist, and one of the wealthiest people in the world, convinced President Franklin Delano Roosevelt that giant air transports were essential to winning the war.  At a time when Liberty ships were being summarily sunk by German u-boats, Hughes claimed that a fleet of flying boats would overfly them.  He won a contract to build a single aircraft.  Undaunted when Congress prohibited him from using any strategic materials, Hughes designed a mammoth structure that would be built from laminated birch and would carry 750 combat-ready troops … or two Sherman tanks … or seven amphibious tractors with 156 troops … or eight helicopters.

Collage of photographs from the brochure we picked up at the exhibit.

On November 2, 1947, Hughes made history flying the world’s largest ever airplane at an altitude of 70 feet (21 m), and for a distance of over one mile.  That was the one and only time the Spruce Goose flew.

[scanned from postcard]

After Disney’s decision in 1990 to discontinue the dome exhibit where the Spruce Goose was housed, the Hughes Flying Boat was transferred to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, located in McMinnville, Oregon.

SoCal Trip: Queen Mary

10 March 1985

We spent the day at two of California’s icons that are/were based in Long Beach.  One of them, the Queen Mary (aka the Long Beach Hotel) is still there.

This post covers our visit to the ship, which earned the moniker, The First Lady of the Sea, following her 1936 maiden voyage.

Queen Mary and the Spruce Goose … when they were both in Long Beach.
[scanned from postcard]

At 1,237 gross tons, the Queen Mary (QM) was once the world’s largest passenger ocean liner afloat.  1,019 feet (311 m) long, the ship made 1,001 transatlantic crossings.  Built with all the pride of Britain’s centuries of seafaring tradition, the QM presented to the world a standard of craftsmanship unequalled in shipbuilding history.

During WWII, the Queen Mary was drafted into military duty, gaining the moniker, The Gray Ghost.  She transported more than 750,000 troops and travelled almost 600,000 miles (965,000 km).  On one record-breaking trip, she transported 15,998 troops.  No wonder Hitler was obsessed with sinking the QM — he offered a quarter of a million dollars and the Iron Cross as a reward.  Although the u-boats tried and tried, they never came close — the Queen was the fastest ship at sea.

The Gray Ghost
“The famous British liner, Queen Mary, arrives in New York Harbor, June 20, 1945,
with thousands of US troops from European battles.”
[Photo from the public domain]

For more information about the Queen Mary, click here (the Long Beach Hotel website) or here (Wikipedia article).  And here’s a website authored by a maritime historian.

Welcome aboard the QM.

First Class Boarding Lobby (L) and First Class Main Lounge.

Long Beach Marina from the aft deck.

The QM had sufficient lifeboat capacity for its passengers.

The QM held the Blue Riband from 1936–1937 and 1938–1952.

QM’s Spic & Span Engine Room.

Shaft Alley is 30 feet (9 m) below the waterline.  The shafts connect
each of the four engines to the four giant propellers.

the Emergency Steering Station was never used over the million miles
the Queen logged at sea.

Propeller securing nut (R) and the fairing cone that covers the nut.