In 1942, the U.S. Department of War needed a new type of aircraft to transport men and materials long distances. The Hughes Aircraft company won the bid and aircraft designer Howard Hughes and Henry J. Kaiser began work on a prototype aircraft that was to become the Hughes H-4 Hercules, better known as the "Spruce Goose". The design team built the aircraft from wood because of the wartime restriction on metals. However, time and design overruns prevented the airplane from being finished in time for the end of the war. It was flown only one time, on November 2, 1947. The Spruce Goose remains to date the largest aircraft ever built and is housed at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, USA.
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