Editing Howard Hughes (section)

====H-4 Hercules====
{{Main|Hughes H-4 Hercules}}
[[File:H-4 Hercules 2.jpg|thumb|The [[Hughes H-4 Hercules]] with Hughes at the controls]]
The [[War Production Board]], a civilian government agency that supervised war production from 1942 to 1945, originally contracted with [[Henry J. Kaiser|Henry Kaiser]] and Hughes to produce the gigantic HK-1 Hercules flying boat for use during [[World War II]] to transport troops and equipment across the Atlantic as an alternative to seagoing troop transport ships that were vulnerable to German [[U-boat]]s. The military services opposed the project, thinking it would siphon resources from higher-priority programs, but Hughes' powerful allies in Washington, D.C. advocated it. After disputes, Kaiser withdrew from the project and Hughes elected to continue it as the H-4 Hercules. However, the aircraft was not completed until after World War II.<ref>Parker 2013, pp. 49–58.</ref><ref>Herman 2012, pp. 277–280.</ref>

The Hercules was the world's largest flying boat, the largest aircraft made from wood,<ref>[http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/design/q0188.shtml "Largest Plane in the World."] ''Aerospaceweb.org'' . Retrieved: March 18, 2009.</ref> and, at {{convert|319|ft|11|in|m}}, had the longest [[wingspan]] of any aircraft (the next-largest wingspan was about {{convert|310|ft|m|0|abbr=on}}). (The Hercules is no longer the longest nor heaviest aircraft ever built - surpassed by the [[Antonov An-225 Mriya|Antonov An-225 ''Mriya'']] produced in 1985.)

The Hercules flew only once for {{convert|1|mi|km|spell=in}}, and {{convert|70|ft|m}} above the water, with Hughes at the controls, on November 2, 1947.<ref>{{cite book|last= Parker|first= Dana T.|title= Building Victory: Aircraft Manufacturing in the Los Angeles Area in World War II|page= 58|location= Cypress, California|date= 2013|asin= B00HVPF23W}}</ref><ref name=Noah/>{{rp|209–210}}

Critics nicknamed the Hercules the ''Spruce Goose'', but it was actually made largely from [[birch]] (not [[spruce]]) rather than from aluminum, because the contract required that Hughes build the aircraft of "non-[[strategic material]]s". It was built in Hughes' [[Westchester, California]], facility. In 1947, Howard Hughes was summoned to testify before the [[Senate War Investigating Committee]] to explain why the H-4 development had been so troubled, and why $22 million had produced only two prototypes of the XF-11. General Elliott Roosevelt and numerous other USAAF officers were also called to testify in hearings that transfixed the nation during August and November 1947.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} In hotly-disputed testimony over [[Trans World Airlines|TWA]]'s route awards and malfeasance in the defense-acquisition process, Hughes turned the tables on his main interlocutor, Maine senator [[Owen Brewster]], and the hearings were widely interpreted{{by whom|date=August 2020}} as a Hughes victory. After being displayed at the harbor of Long Beach, California, the Hercules was moved to [[McMinnville, Oregon]], where {{as of | 2020 | lc = on}} it features at the [[Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum]].<ref>[http://www.evergreenmuseum.org/the-museum/aircraft-exhibits/the-spruce-goose/ "Spruce Goose."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150927201715/http://evergreenmuseum.org/the-museum/aircraft-exhibits/the-spruce-goose/ |date=September 27, 2015 }} ''Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum''. Retrieved: December 14, 2011.</ref><ref name=Noah/>{{rp|198–208}}

On November 4, 2017, the 70th anniversary of the only flight of the H-4 Hercules was celebrated at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum with Hughes' paternal cousin Michael Wesley Summerlin and Brian Palmer Evans, son of Hughes radio technology pioneer Dave Evans, taking their positions in the recreation of a photo that was previously taken of Hughes, Dave Evans, and [[Joe Petrali]] on board the H-4 Hercules.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.evergreenmuseum.org/events/?eventSearch=1&eventSearchDateFrom=April%2011,%202017&eventSearchDateTo=April%2011,%202018&eventSearchText= |website=Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum |title=McMinnville Oregon over the 65 limit |language=en |access-date=December 27, 2017}}</ref>