Aero Telemetry's Spruce Goose built for the movie The Aviator

The Spruce Goose flew several times over two days in the Long Beach Harbor. The first test flight took place on the afternoon of Sunday November 23, 2003.
Joe Bok's rendition of the Hughes Flying Boat made its' Hollywood Film debut on November 24, 2003. The airplane was loaded onto a barge and moved into a location near the Queen Mary.  Several vintage Navy boats were moved into a position that would align them with the camera and the model's anticipated flight path.  The Aero Telemetry Spruce Goose made several breath-taking flights that day.

 

Part of the crew launched and recovered the huge model from a floating barge, while the flight crew were positioned on a vintage World War II US Navy Patrol boat. Academy Award winning visual effects director, Rob Legato, filmed the amazing footage of the Spruce Goose as it passed by the stern of the PT boat to recreate the famous flight of the Spruce Goose.

To read more about this incredible build and flight check out the website http://www.h4hercules.com/ for all things Spruce Goose!

Design Challenges of the Spruce Goose Pt 2

Joe discusses the design challenges of the Spruce Goose they build and flew for the Academy Award winning movie The Aviator.

Design Challenges of the Spruce Goose Part 1

Joe discusses the design challenges of building the Spruce Goose for the Academy Award winning movie The Aviator.

The Hughes H-4 Spruce Goose

The Hughes H-4, or Spruce Goose, was test flown by Howard Hughes only once on November 2, 1947. It was the largest seaplane ever built at that time. The H-4 used eight of the largest and most powerful radial seaplane engines in the world. It’s 320-foot wingspan tipped the scales at more than 300,000 lbs. Joseph Bok and his Aero Telemetry team were tasked with designing and building the world’s largest flyable Spruce Goose replica. Bok’s unmanned version would have to be both large and powerful enough to take-off from the water of Long Beach Harbor, Calif. and fly steady.

Aero Telemetry provided the latest technology for the electronics and telemetry (command and control) systems needed on both the seaplane and shipboard control station. For the composite sections of the seaplane, we used carbon fiber and Hex Cell with resin to build and strengthen both the fuselage and wing structure. Our Spruce Goose required 160 Nickel Metal Hydride batteries wired together in packs to power each of the eight electric motors. Once the engines were started and run up to full throttle, they could operate for about 15 minutes of total flight time before we had to land and re-charge them. Each time the H-4 landed in the harbor, a “recovery” barge pulled alongside to swap out the battery packs located in the forward compartment of the seaplane, in addition a bilge pump was utilized to pump out seawater which got into the fuselage during extended periods in the water between flights.

DIMENSIONS

WINGSPAN: approximately 25 feet

LENGTH: approximately 25 feet

WEIGHT: 275 lbs

ENGINE: 8- electric motors with custom gear reduction propeller drive units.

ACTING ABILITY

The plane was flown several times at Long Beach Harbor, in Hughes’ original flight test area. The H-4 only flew for a little while back in 1947 but we flew our “unmanned” version (UH-4) for about an hour during all the flights. At times, we piloted the UH-4 from a converted Navy PT boat. The use of the radio controlled Spruce Goose provided The Aviator with exceptional flying sequences. The background at Long Beach Harbor provided a very realistic and historically accurate setting for the flights of the Aero Telemetry Spruce Goose, the world’s largest flyable replica of the Hughes H4 Hercules.  

Aviator H-1 Racer

The H-1B Racer

Howard Hughes built the H1-B Racer in 1935 solely to become the fastest airplane in the world. His first attempt resulted in a world record speed of 352 mph.

Originally, “The Aviator” planned on using a full-scale replica of the H-1B. Before it was filmed, however, the pilot and plane were tragically lost while flying back from an air-show. The Aero Telemetry team was already involved with the design of two of the worlds largest flying scale aircraft, the Hughes XF-11 and H-4.

The compressed time schedule necessitated the use of many carbon fiber composite structures and parts for the H-1. In addition, the engine would have to be powerful enough to propel the heavy airplane to speeds fast enough to simulate the world record speed set by the real Hughes H-1 Racer. The airplane required that the team design and manufacture from scratch a miniature high-pressure hydraulic system to actuate the retractable landing gear. In addition, we employed the use of much of our own radio electronics equipment for the command and control systems on the airplane.

DIMENSIONS

WINGSPAN: approximately 16 feet

LENGTH: approximately 16 feet

WEIGHT: approximately 350lbs

ENGINE: 2-cylinder, 2-stroke, modified to 360cc high compression, gear reduction

PROPELLER: 3-blade, carbon fiber adjustable pitch 48 diameter

 

ACTING ABILITY

The H1-B Racer was flown and filmed to simulate the World Speed Record attempt that Howard Hughes had made in 1935 at Santa Ana, California. For the film sequences of Hughes’ record attempt, the Aero Telemetry team tried to recreate something totally amazing.  The Aero Telemetry H1 Racer provided the cameras and all those who witnessed the flights with some very realistic and believable flight sequences.