And the reason it was made from wood, you ask? It was built during the war, so almost all metal was reserved for factory use in order to build ships, planes and other machines of the war. Hughes picked Spruce because it was a light wood and he though that would help the weight. The Goose was supposed to be a cargo plane for civilian companies. Unfortunately it was still too heavy. Even without cargo, the Goose only flew for a few seconds and never got more than a few feet of the water (the Goose was designed as a water take-off craft). Jason -----Original Message----- From: Charles A. Wyly [mailto:wyly1@juno.com] Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 1999 9:30 PM To: TXERATH-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [ERATH] Howard HUGHES & the "Blue Goose" Hi, It was called The Spruce Goose because much of it was made from layers of pressed and laminated Spruce wood. When I worked at Convair Fort Worth ,1950-57, the B 36 from fully loaded on the ground to in flight at 60,000. feet the wingtips with 6 gas - 28 cylinder Pratt & Whitney pusher engines and 4 jet engines flexed 23 feet. The Spruce Goose was supposed to be more flexible than the B- 36. Take care Charles Wyly On Tue, 1 Jun 1999 10:16:30 -0500 "Monte Neece" <lontour@flash.net> writes: >Don't know about Hughes' genealogy, but his plane is the "Spruce >Goose," not >the Blue Goose. If you do a search for Howard Hughes you get several >sites. >If you search Howard+Hughes+Genealogy you get several more, but I >don't know >if any are the same HH you are looking for. > >Monte Neece > >-----Original Message----- >From: KLPaints@aol.com <KLPaints@aol.com> >To: TXERATH-L@rootsweb.com <TXERATH-L@rootsweb.com> >Date: Sunday, May 30, 1999 1:20 PM >Subject: [ERATH] Howard HUGHES & the "Blue Goose" > > >>Re: Howard HUGHES ......... originator of the airplane "Blue Goose". >Is >there >>a web page or a web site that has his genealogical chart? >> >>Karen in CA >> >> >