Sunday, January 24, 2010
Hughes link to ‘Avatar'
The filmmaking history being made by James Cameron's "Avatar" owes a nod of a fedora to Howard Hughes. The 3D film was filmed primarily in Hughes' Playa Vista hangar where he built the flying boat. More here.
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2 comments:
Geoff,
I believe the old "Spruce Goose" hanger is still the largest wooden building in the USA if not in the World. It later became the production line for all of the various "Huey" helicopters build in the 50's forward until the helicopter company moved to Mesa Arizona in the mid 80's. Also, adjacent to the big hanger was the longest privately owned paved runway in the country.
I worked as an engineer in the hanger in the early 1970's designing the pilot/co-pilot instrument panels on the Apache Attack Helicopter. It was a rather primitive engineering work environment as we were next door to a large manufacturing room with several huge parts stamping machines that loudly went “Cha-Chunk” every 5 seconds. My immediate supervisor was Merle Coffee who was the radio operator on the one and only flight of the “Spruce Goose”. Merle took me and a few others into see the big bird in 1971. As a pilot myself, it was an awesome experience and I fell in love her.
In 1980 the Hughes estate had enforced an agreement reluctantly signed by Hughes before his death that donated the mammoth flying boat to the Smithsonian with provisions, if they couldn’t afford to build a structure to house the plane, that nine sections could be selected and cut-out for distribution to designated museums and make sawdust out of the rest. At the time, all of the museum heads had selected their desired piece and the destruction was eminent. ARCO had leased the land in the Port of Long Beach where the Goose was housed in its hermetically sealed hanger and maintained at +/- 5 degrees temperature and humidity for some 30 years. The Hughes lease was long past expired and the Port wanted the plane OUT…so ARCO could build a large cargo fuel tanker docking facility.
Myself and a handful of aviation enthusiast formed the “Committee to Save the Hughes Flying Boat” and later were enjoined by nearly every aviation, balloonist, parachutist organizations the world to stop the madness. We labored for 6 months and with the help of Senator Barry Goldwater (who was the designated Air Force inspector assigned to the Hercules in 1947) we were able to get the Hughes Flying Boat on the “National Register of Historic Places” in an unprecedented short period of time. This action stopped the cutting up process and allowed us more time wherein a deal was cut that put together the “Queen Mary Spruce Goose Exhibit” in 1983 thru 1992.
The giant plane was given to the Aero Club of Southern California. I served as their President in 1985-86. The Aero Club created the annual Howard Hughes Memorial Award banquet in 1979 that honors individuals for their lifetime contribution to aviation and aerospace. The annual dinner is still held every year on the third Thursday in January commemorating the 1937 Hughes record breaking cross country flight in his H-1 Racer. The list of recipients reads like who’s who in aviation beginning with Jack Northrop and more recently astronaut Neil Armstrong. For a list of honorees who have received the Howard Hughes Silver Medallion Award please go to:
http://www.aeroclubsocal.org/index.html
Bob McCaffery
Howard Hughes historian
www.aviatorhowardhughes.com
Thanks Robert,
Good to see someone with personal knowledge who is about TELLING the truth rather than crying, and exclaiming, "I'm taking my ball and going home!" lol
ANYTHING you may know of Hughes during the 50's and 60's that isn't public knowledge would be appreciated if you would post it. Especially the 1953-1957 period. And I promise, your word won't be questioned by me or mine.
Thanks again!
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