• 1947 – In California, designer Howard Hughes performs the maiden (and only) flight of the Hughes H-4 Hercules ( also known as the "Spruce Goose" ), the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built until Scaled Composites rolled out their Stratolaunch in May 2017.

Hughes' H-4 Hercules Flies! (1947) | 4k Up-scaled

Alex the Historian
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37,154 views Sep 20, 2022
Footage of the famous flight of Howard Hughes's flying boat, the H4 Hercules! It flew for about a mile at an altitude of 70 feet over Long Beach Harbor. Hughes wanted to prove his airplane was no "Spruce Goose" ...that it really could fly. And indeed, he shocked the world when he pulled back on the yoke that day. The Hercules maintained itself as the airplane with the largest wingspan until the Stratolaunch was unveiled in 2019! But it still holds the record as the world's largest flying boat.

This video was made by taking a soundless newsreel and combining it with the audio from another newsreel.