Hughes H-4 Hercules
Flying boatWikipedia
48
MENTIONS
26
EPISODES
23
PODCASTS
Search complete. 48 mentions across 26 episodes found for "Hughes H-4 Hercules".
Oct 9, 2026
CornHOST
Mammoet, Sarens based in Belgium, Emmert International, Barnhart, Challenger Motor Freight, Don Anderson Haulage, Steven Fritz Enterprises on the animal side.
CornHOST
Emmert also moved Howard Hughes Spruce Goose, which is one of those sentences that makes you realize the pitch to a client has to be extremely calm.
CornHOST
We've moved the largest wooden aircraft in history.
CornHOST
Yes, your transformer will be fine.
TaraGUEST
Um, and I literally just, like, popped in our little group chat and I was like, "Look, we've only been alive as a group for like a week or two weeks or something like that.
TaraGUEST
Is everyone going to the game on Saturday? Should we just go to the Spruce Goose," which was the pub next door to the rink, "just have a drink?" Some drinks before, before we pop in and that, which was really nice, and that was the first ever time.
TaraGUEST
I was so nervous.
TaraGUEST
I was saying to my friends, "Oh my God, what if no one turns up? Can you guys come? 'Cause what if nobody turns up? What if it's literally just me stood there?"
Ed Justice Jr.GUEST
It was unbelievable.
Ed Justice Jr.GUEST
They were going to build the Spruce Goose more than one at Thorne Shop until Congress shut it down.
Ed Justice Jr.GUEST
And then my uncle says one day they showed up and they took all the woodworking materials out of there.
Ed Justice Jr.GUEST
My uncle was a test driver on what later to become known as the Davis three-wheel car with Chet Miller, who was a Novi driver, who was also an upholsterer in Glendale.
Tail DraggerHOST
The operation runs at approximately $1 million a year for nearly 30 years, not flying it, not showing it publicly, just keeping it ready as the years pass and Hughes himself becomes more reclusive and clearly unwell.
Tail DraggerHOST
The Spruce Goose and its Long Beach hangar becomes a monument to his particular obsession.
Tail DraggerHOST
He is simultaneously building a business empire, fighting legal battles across multiple industries, and paying the monthly bills to keep a wooden flying boat airworthy in case he decides to return to it.
Tail DraggerHOST
The invoices come in from Long Beach.
Tail DraggerHOST
The Aero Club of Southern California assumes temporary stewardship.
Tail DraggerHOST
Disney eventually leases the hangar and opens the aircraft to tourists.
Tail DraggerHOST
For several years, you could pay to walk through the Spruce Goose and Long Beach, moored a few hundred yards from the Queen Mary ocean liner.
Tail DraggerHOST
It is a strange sight to try to picture.
Tail DraggerHOST
He flew test flights for military aircraft during the Second World War.
Tail DraggerHOST
He took the H-4 Hercules off the water in Long Beach, California, just long enough and just far enough to prove that it could be done, because he needed to know.
Tail DraggerHOST
He was in accidents that left him badly hurt, and he flew again anyway.
Tail DraggerHOST
The darkness that eventually consumed him was real, and it was terrible, but it came later.
Chris GasperHOST
No, I don't think, no.
Frank PeliconeHOST
Him and, him and the fucking Spruce Moose.
Frank PeliconeHOST
Like-
Chris GasperHOST
[laughs] No, sorry.
TowerHOST
For comparison, a Boeing 747 has a wingspan of 211 feet.
TowerHOST
A Spruce Goose, the Hughes H-4 that everyone said was impossible, had a wingspan of 320 feet.
TowerHOST
The Rock exceeds it by 65 feet.
TowerHOST
It's the largest aircraft in the world by that single defining measurement.
DrewAUDIENCE
And it was the largest plane in the world made out of wood, and it actually did fly, though it was very, very brief.
DrewAUDIENCE
It was called the Spruce Goose.
Dom GiordanoHOST
Thank you, Drew.
Dom GiordanoHOST
All right, Kirk, who do you like?
DrewAUDIENCE
You know, Dom, back during World War II, Howard Hughes, he was one of the richest men in the world, and he had this seaplane built.
DrewAUDIENCE
It could only take off or land on water and at the time it was built out of wood because of the restrictions on the metal and it was it was the largest plane in the world made out of wood and it actually did fly though it was very very brief it was called the spruce goose
Dom GiordanoHOST
thank you drew all right uh kirk who do you like
KirkPANELIST
uh i'm going with the david from the south carolina with the look
Brian CorsonHOST
It's the first
Brian MackHOST
appearance of the Spruce Moose.
Brian CorsonHOST
Oh, yeah, the Spruce Moose, yeah.
Brian CorsonHOST
Krusty does the late-night stand-up.
Brian CorsonHOST
Hey, anybody here got herpes? So Marge is basically spending her entire waking moment at the casino.
Brian MackHOST
Right before that, there's the...
Brian MackHOST
Smithers have designed a new plane.
Brian MackHOST
I call it the Spruce Moose, who will carry 200 passengers from New York's Idlewild Airport to the Belgian Congo in 17 minutes.
16 more episodes mention Hughes H-4 Hercules.
Create an account to see the whole feed, search across every transcript, and follow the entities you care about.