Nov 2 1947- Spruce Goose
The largest aircraft ever built, is piloted by designer Howard Hughes. The massive plane had only one flight. The wooden aircraft had a wingspan longer than a foot and was built as a military transport.

He personally flew the aircraft that his company built. His record breaking flight lasted three days, 19 hours, and 14 minutes.

Following the the attack on Pearl Harbor the U.S. declared war on Japan, the U.S. government ordered the Hughes Aircraft to build a large flying aircraft to move men and materials to the battle grounds. The name would become the “Spruce Goose“. Because of wartime restrictions on steel, Hughes decided to build his aircraft out of wood laminated with plastic. Birch was the main material used, but the use of spruce would later earn the aircraft the nickname Spruce Goose. It wing span is a massive 320 feet.

Development of the behemoth airplane cost a expensive $23 million and took so long to make that the war ended after the nuclear bombs had already been dropped and World War Two had ended.

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