The Spruce Goose or the Google Goose?
In a word, yes.
On November 2, 1947, the Hughes H-4 Hercules, otherwise known as the "Spruce Goose," took both its inaugural and final flight. Built to transport troops and cargo during WWII, the plane was the largest wooden (actually made of birch, not spruce) aircraft ever built, weighing over 300,000 pounds with a wingspan longer than a football field.
It was, in some ways, a vanity project of Howard Hughes, a prototype built in Playa Vista, CA and now on display in the North American Aerospace Museum located in McMinnville, OR.
A few weeks ago, I went to Playa Vista to attend a meeting at the headquarters of Google. When I entered the main building, I was struck by the cavernous interior. Above my head was a contemporary sculpture consisting of 2,800 steel balls suspended from the lobby's ceiling. From most vantage points, it appears simply as an abstract work of art. But from just the right angle, the balls congeal to form the outline of Hughes' legendary plane.
What I later learned was that I had been standing in the same space used to build the famed Spruce Goose. The artistic centerpiece, "The Ghost of the Goose," remains an homage to the former hangar's original purpose...
"I believe the only thing that really matters in life is to leave behind a legacy." - Howard Hughes
