Fascinating story. My understanding is that, in addition to his many contributions to posterity (The Hercules airplane, The Glomar Explorer- a CIA ship with a huge claw that grabbed Russain submarines like the James Bond movie- only it was real) Howard Hughes was a primary innovator of the underwire bra and the seamless bra for Jane Russell, later sold as the “18 hour bra”.
Fascinating. Anybody see it yet?
Hey man, it flew… Besides, it isn;t like the idea didn’t go away. The Germans built and used an airplane called the Me 323 Gigant in World War II three of which were deployed operationally (and subsequently shot down over the Mediteranean).
And then there is this:
Was the Hercules the Spruce Goose? I know it wasn’t the C-130 Hercules. although they seem to have been around for the same number of years. Now that is an awesome machine, what a warhorse. I guess you must have been thrown around the back of one of those in your infantry days, Tom?
The Hercules is the real name of the Spruce Goose, Hughes abhored that name as a reference to his Hercules aircraft.
As you know, the C-130 Hercules (Civilian L-100 I think) is made by Lockheed and is one of the most successful aircraft in history.
I have indeed had many, many thrilling rides in C-130’s, including the incredible MC-130E Combat Talon special operations version.
Among other things the C-130 is distinguished by its ability to back up while taxing under its own power on the ground. Very, very few aircraft can do that.
And there is the AC-130 Spectre, your best friend on a dark, lonely night in a bad neighborhood. With a Spectre overhead help is just a phone call away.
Is that the same one? I guess Spruce Goose was the nickname and the Hercules the real name then?
Ha, I posted just as I got the alert of your incoming, doh! I never cease to be amazed by their stol departures, pretty incredible to see such manoverability from such a large a/c. Only surpassed by my standing by the runway when the last operational Vulcan delta wing bomber left on its last flight back in the early 83 after the Falklands conflict.
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Although you Tom, will probably remember it from Thunderball!!
The aviator , was a bit disappointing,
2 There is maybe 15 minutes of flying, in the whole film. Mostly junk biplane footage.
4 Great close ups ,of made up women, The actress playing, Katherine Hepburn was the star of the film ,great job.
5 They had the spruce goose up to about 60 feet in the air and showed guys grinding (sparks) on the spruce goose while under construction, that’s where I mumbled bullshit.
If you like old cars , Movies stars from the 30 - 60s, glitzy fashion of that period, you will love it.
If you like aircraft is was a bit lacking , It down played his flying skills, focused on TWA and buy outs, bribes, senators, hearings
The show him going down hill , pissing in milk bottles. And just sort of ends . Nothing about his death or getting hauled around in a lear jet up from mexico.
As far a cussing there are about 100 GODDAMITS and one “f@@k” used in the film , only 3 or 4 minutes of lusty groping " they should have porned it up a bit "
No russian sub , No hughes 500 helicopters , No CIA , glowmar . ZIP NADA , NIX ,
Spike TV ran one of your favorites - a Bond - a - thon!
I just have to drag this, to the top of the list again ,to save people some money.
Right on!
I saw it last weekend, and it was about 3 hours too long.
I much preferred Mr. Burns’ rendition of Hughes (was it the BoBo episode)- quite brief and told the same story.