Video: 'COLOR FOOTAGE OF HOWARD HUGHES' SPRUCE GOOSE FLIGHT 1947 34620'

(Sunday, November 2, 1947, 3:08 p.m. PST) — Howard Hughes piloted his huge wooden flying boat, the Hughes H-4 Hercules (derisively dubbed the Spruce Goose by detractors), on its only flight, which lasted about a minute today over Long Beach Harbor in California.

The 200-ton plywood colossus rose seventy feet in the air for a distance of a mile on the third of three test runs.

The Hercules is the largest flying boat ever built, and it has the largest wingspan of any aircraft that has ever flown.

Video: 'Howard Hughes - H-4 Hercules - A.K.A Spruce Goose.'