Flying Boat Research Paper

Hughes H-4 Hercules, commonly known as the “Flying Boat” or “spruce goose” was, and still is, the largest wooden aircraft ever designed and flown5. It holds the record for having the biggest wing with a span of 320 feet, which could cover an entire football field2. Henry Fraiser was the man who first proposed the idea of the enormous flying boat based on the demand for a transport plane to support the activities of the US military during World War 24. Frasier approached the famous aircraft designer Howard Hughes and together they formed the Hughes Kaiser Corporation2. They obtained a deal in May, 1942 by the US government that approved the design and demanded the construction of three Hercules capable of carrying the weight of 4 Sherman tanks using a budget of 18 million dollars1. The sea-plane was first designated as HK-1 for Hughes and Kraiser. However, after Henry quit the project due to design and construction problems, Hughes changed the name …show more content…
Hughes and his team of engineers were worried about the difficulty and the ability of starting an engine in the water4. They decided to use an electric motor to power the aircraft. They pioneered the use of the 120-volt DC electrical system in airplanes when they designed to use it instead of the conventional 24-volt direct current (D.C.) system1. They choose the 120- volt DC instead of the 24- volt DC because it reduced the weight by 75 percent1. In addition to that, the high voltage provided a safety margin in case of electrical leakage in any of the 32 miles of wire inside the Spruce Goose. It also allowed manageable wire sizes to be used1. (A 24-volt system, the engineers calculated, would have required solid aluminum rods 2 inches in diameter in order to carry the current.1) Finally, they added two 30-kilowatt generators to provide backup electrical power, and emergency battery power consisted of ten 12-volt batteries in two