How could you make the Spruce Goose work?

how useful an aircraft would it be if it did work?

 

Once the Battle of the North Atlantic was under control and convoys started getting through,the plane was of limited use.
It possibly could have been used for rapid deployment in the Pacific if we had air superiority.

 

i'm not an airman but watching it take off makes you want to sink in your seat. it looked too heavy overall. the rear portion of the belly is dragging a lot. that probably builds up a lot of pressure and could wreck the underside. also, it has trouble staying perfectly vertical during take-off due to the distance between the two wing pods, and their height above the water. maybe vertical stabilizers in the underside of the fuselage will help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXZQewzdWzA

 

Yes...it does look like a piece of crap. The biggest problem here is the water...too big an aircraft for such an undertaking. If it were land based it might have been useful. After the war airfields were everywhere and the need for flyingboats diminished...could still have been used in Canada or the Pacific islands...but for what? Could have been used in the Pacific war theatre, porting tanks and field pieces to the war zone...but would have been a fat and slow target for Japanese fighters, even their float planes. Could have been a troop carrier...but faces the same problem from fighters. The Japanese had the largest of flying boats and had to arm it to buggery to have a chance at survival...the Gigant was well armed and could take many hits...I suspect the Goose would have been similar. IMO

 

we were discussing flying boats before....as stated before there are many more forces on the airframe, ..plus the saltwater corrosion...and with something that big, and 1 bad landing, I would think airframe problems---as CAC states....if that's what you mean?

 

It's worth noting IMO that Howard Hughes was not known for being risk adverse yet reportedly taking off in that plane scared him.

 

When it comes to the fast disembarking of large stores, vehicles etc...a large flying boat is NOT what you want because the aforementioned stresses of sea landings and takeoffs would play hell with any airframe designed around gurt big DOORS in it!

The RAF's fleet of Sunderlands was basically killed by the Berlin Airlift, flying coal into the city and landing on lakes in Berlin. They had to unload through the crew door under the cockpit....and taking off and landing with large heavy loads overstressed the airframes and they started to develop cracks.

 

The wing pods on amphibians are intended only for low speed stability. Once the aircraft accelerates to the point that the ailerons become effective, the wing pods are no longer needed. As the aircraft accelerates, it rides on the fuselage step and the aft portion is out of the water - although spray may make it appear to be dragging. There is nothing unusual in that film for amphibious operations.

 

I think you have to look at it in the context of the time; instead of what it looks like with 75 years of hindsight. I don't think there was any other air frame or piece of military equipment, at the time, that was developed in the public eye as much as the H-4.

I think this was done to keep the espionage in check on the west coast; keep would be spies occupied with the goings on at Hughes aircraft, and what was being done with all the lumber instead of what was going on at Kaiser and Mare Island with all the concrete (Liberty Ships).

It also was a test bed for large piston engines that went on to power many of the post war long range bombers and cargo aircraft.

I think this is a more likely scenario than building a behemoth transport aircraft that would win the war, that just isn't the way the U.S. operated at the time: why build 1 coo-coo clock when you can build a thousand Timex watches?

I think this is further supported by the other projects undertaken by Hughes / Hughes Air Craft / Hughes Aerospace : Glomar Explorer and the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI / "Star Wars") .

 

I've commented on this before - the Allies' use of applied science, vs. the Nazis channelling the cutting edge of science to create "wonder weapons" that weren't - rushed into use in ones or twos without really adequate testing, or paralysed by shortages of strategic raw materials.

Whereas the Allies used the cutting edge of science to produce something like the VT proximity fuses - and produced hundred of thousands of them! - or used science in ways that streamlined production, like infrared lamps drying the paint on Shermans in a few minutes as part of the production line process, or the massive Boeing Willow Run production line for B-29s.

 

Uhmm, Willow Run was building Consolidated B-24's.
View attachment 25211

 

Quite right, my bad - but the example applies...sic!...applied science rather than the science itself.

 

I wonder how the size of the H4 coupled with the production capabilities of the US was interpreted ?