Aircraft 3: Hughes (HK1) H-4 Hercules

Aircraft 3: Hughes (HK1) H-4 Hercules ('Spruce Goose')


“You'll never know.” - Howard Hughes replying to his chief designer, who asked if he had meant to take the H-4 out of the water on it's flight.

Nationality: American
Year of Production: 1947
Number built: 1 (3 planned)
Weight (empty): N/A (180 tons for fully laden aircraft)
Wingspan: 97.5 metres
Length: 66.65 metres
Height: 24.2 metres
Speed: 354 to 407 kph (projected, actual attained speed was approximately 217 kph)
Engine: 8x Pratt and Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major engines, developing 4000 hp each. (32000 hp in total)
Armament: Unarmed.

Background: The U-boat wolfpacks were impeding America's attempts to supply Britain. Obviously, something had to be done to avoid this problem, either by blowing them out of the water, or by flying the equipment and men in by air, since a torpedo is a very poor anti-aircraft weapon.

This is an example of the latter, a brainchild of a Henry Kaiser, who led the former idea in the form of Liberty ships, which was a program to quickly get more ships into the water, and prevent submarines and surface raiders from being too much of a nuisance.

Mr Kaiser consulted the eccentric Howard Hughes in 1942 to build a massive flying boat, which could carry 750 fully equipped soldiers, or one Sherman tank. The aircraft was to be delivered, along with it's siblings, in two years, but it had to be made out of wood, since steel was in short supply for rifles, ships, bombs, monocles for bad impressions of German officers, etc.

Construction of the first Hughes-Kaiser collaboration (HK-1) started 16 months after the contract was given by the US government, at which point Kaiser left, since Hughes was an obsessive perfectionist, and the plane probably wasn't going to be built in time for it to be of any actual use for the war.

Hughes rebranded the plane the H-4, and signed a new contract that now left his company with permission to build one example.

The aircraft was finished in 1947, which was a pity since the war ended two years beforehand. The US government was so pleased at how quickly the thing had been built that it called him before the Senate War Investigating Committee to ask what the hell taxpayer money had been put into this thing for.

Why should I be afraid of it? And what was it for?

“The Hercules was a monumental undertaking. It is the largest aircraft ever built. It is over five stories tall with a wingspan longer than a football field. That's more than a city block.” - Hughes, before the Senate War Investigating Committee, 6th of August, 1947.

Alright, so it wasn't armed with a giant death cannon that played 'The Star Spangled Banner' at 180 decibels, but it could transport 750 armed troops, and that would be a bad thing to come face to face with, or it could deliver a tank, which may or may not be as bad to face. That, and the thing was massive. And unwieldly.

During a break from being questioned by politicians, Hughes went to California to perform tests on his toy, which had more wood in it then most forests. November 2, the aircraft began to undergo tests, consisting of three taxi runs. The crew and press, for 32 in total, were on the aircraft at the time. The first two were mostly the plane showing how well it went as a giant boat, but on the third test run...

The aircraft took to the skies, reaching a staggering 21 metres above sea level at a speed of 217 kph, for over 1.5 kilometres.

And that was it. It demonstrated it's amazing lifting capacity, carrying 32 men, including the crew, 21 metres above sea level, before never being used again, thus ensuring that no other aircraft in the world, except for damn near all of them, could match that amazing, nay, staggering record.

A crew of three hundred full-time workers were ordered to keep the H-4 (I refuse to call it by it's name. It's name is, in my opinion, for a much better aircraft.) airworthy in a climate-controlled hanger, but the workforce was reduced to fifty in 1962, and axed entirely after Hughes died in 1976.

After a bit of fun, involving Disney, the aircraft was given to Evergreen Aviation Museum, being moved by trucks and barges to Oregon, a distance of 1700 km.

It did lead itself to many, more successful, large transport aircraft, like the Galaxy and the An-124, and that's really all it did.

Also, yes, this is the Spruce Goose, which was a nickname for it by critics, which is rather offensive to trees and geese, in my view.

Sources used:
Wikipedia: Hughes H-4 Hercules
Hughes HK-1 (H-4) 'Spruce Goose' – The Aviation Zone
Boeing: History – Hughes H-4 Hercules Flying Boat

Ship 1: The Torpedo Ram class

Ship 1: The Torpedo Ram class.

“Ram him! RAM!” - Jeremy Clarkson

Nationality: Multiple nations had similar plans.
Year of Production: Proposed in early/mid 1870s, USS Intrepid (2) launched 1874, HMS Polyphemus (3) launched 1881.
Number built: Minimal.
Weight: 438 tons (Intrepid), 2640 tons (Polyphemus)
Length: 51 metres (Intrepid), 73 metres (Polyphemus)
Beam (width): 11 metres for both ships.
Draught (depth of water needed): 3.7 m (Intrepid), 6.25 m (Polyphemus)
Complement (crew): >1 (Intrepid), 80 (Polyphemus)
Speed: 11 knots (20kph) (Intrepid), 17.8 knots (33 kph) (Polyphemus)

Background: After the good Mr Robert Whitehead invented the torpedo in 1866, with help from Giovanni Luppis, who came up with the original, albeit different, concept, a few years before, Whitehead's son, John, and a worker called Annibale Ploech, the world's navies, beginning with the Austrian Imperial Navy, were quick to dream up many, many delicious ideas to use this new weapon.

Now, early torpedos, well, sucked if the target was actually moving, only going at a speed of 7 knots, or 13 kph, however, they were rapidly advancing in usefulness, with the gunboat Gemse being modified to fire them outside the factory where they were first being produced.

If the target wasn't moving, they'd be a safe weapon to use, fired from a great distance (600 metres), and with no shell flashes, or curses of shells landing on feet, etc, unless the ship carrying them got hit, in which case, it blew up. Although most ships that are hit in the ammo storage area usually do blow up.

Although the timeframe of this era of ship is not that long, you may, directly, or not, know of this class, as HMS Thunder Child, from War of the Worlds, by HG Wells.

Why should I be afraid of it? And what was it for?

“It was the torpedo ram, Thunder Child, steaming headlong, coming to the rescue of the threatened shipping.” - War of the Worlds, HG Wells.

The torpedo ram class is absolutely goddamn insane. Early models, charge in, with the torpedo still attached to the ship, ram the other ship, which is probably full of very unhealthy stuff being fired at you, like shells, bullets, harsh propaganda and cruel insults, before either making it's way back, or blowing it's bow off.

Ships do not operate well with the front end of the boat missing. Ever.

Thankfully, as models advanced, the strategy became less suicidal, with torpedos being able to actually be fired, with the strategy being revised to 'charge in (through the hotel defenses, using the ram), blow target to smithereens from range, run like hell'.

Despite it being impractical, it had it's merits at the time, until... well, when they were finished being built.

The only torpedo ram used in war was the fictional Thunder Child, which, to be honest, in itself is awesome.

The three Martian tripod fighting machines fire gas at the ship, which does zilch. Then they deploy the heat rays, which mortally wound Thunder Child, but she rips apart one of the machines through ramming.

Thunder Child then turns to the second tripod, and starts firing the guns, but scores no real hits, as she lines up her ram and charges. The heat ray finds her again, and blows her up, with the resulting explosion taking out the second tripod.

After Thunder Child's sacrifice, three ironclads arrive, and, although the third tripod's fate isn't revealed, the fleeing civilians are able to escape.

Unfortunately, in real life, the torpedo ram class of ship was obsolete by the advent of quick firing guns on capital ships, to, say, protect them from some crazed idiot ramming his way through the harbour defenses, and firing his torpedos at a capital ship.

Both Polyphemus and Intrepid would be broken up for scrap, Polyphemus in 1903, and Intrepid in 1892.

A variety of other torpedo rams never got off the ground, which is a shame, in a sense. It's a ship built to ram much heavier stuff, and survive. And the ship, in itself, would provide a vast amount of kinetic energy.

And ultimately, the torpedo ram class remains, somewhere in the imagination of the public, through Thunder Child, taking out what was believed to be an invincible enemy.

Mr Whitehead's invention would remain in play up to, and beyond today, a valuable addition to the submarine, and to the world's navies and air forces in general.

His epitaph reads “His fame was known by all nations hereabouts.”

Sources used -
Wikipedia : Torpedo Ram
Wikipedia: Robert Whitehead
Wikipedia: HMS Polyphemus
Wikipedia: USS Intrepid
Wikipedia: HMS Thunder Child
Navy History - Intrepid
History of USS Intrepid CV-11
Global Security - Torpedo Ram

Concept 1: Tesla's Teleforce

Prototype 1: Tesla's Teleforce

“He has perfected a method and apparatus, Dr Tesla said yesterday in an interview at the Hotel New Yorker, which will send concentrated beams of particles through the free air, of such tremendous energy that they will bring down a fleet of 10,000 enemy airplanes, at a distance of 250 miles from a defending nation's border and will cause armies of millions to drop dead in their tracks.” - New York Times, July 11, 1934.

Nationality: American
Year of concept: Mentioned in 1934 to American media.
Produced: No.

Weapon: Charged particle beams, firing at approx. 48 times speed of sound (16,333.92 metres per second).
Range: 321 to 402 km (200 to 250 miles)
Engine: Fixed position, unable to move.
Power: Requires own dedicated power plant, estimated to be large.

Background: Dr Tesla, or, Nikola Tesla, was born in 1856, in modern day Croatia, he emigrated to America a fair few years later, and had some dealings, and competition with a little known man called Thomas Edison and invented a wide variety of things, 700 or so, like alternating current, which is what most countries of the world use today.

Now, there currently wasn't any world wars going on at the moment, not even the Spanish Civil War, which was 2 years away, but one suspects that some countries were rearming, which is why this little beauty was proposed, on his 78th birthday, to the American media.

Now to actually explain a bit more about the Teleforce, which is most definitely not a death ray. At all. The good Dr Tesla said so, to quote: “I want to state explicitly that this invention of mine does not contemplate the use of any so-called "death rays." Rays being absolutely useless apart from cooking bacon using all the power in New York City.

He tried to sell England on it, and the US, and Russia was interested (to defend their border against the Japanese), but countries either refused or it never got built, which is kinda obvious, given the lack of huge giant death particle cannons currently standing guard on the coast lines, or the power shortages when it fires, if the country doesn't build the power plant for it.

It required 60,000,000 volts to fire, also. That's a fair few lightbulbs.

Why should I be afraid of it? And what was it for?

“An exception, however, he added, must be made in the case of battleships, which, he said, would be able to equip themselves with smaller plants for generating the death-beam, with enough power to destroy any airplane approaching for attack from the air.” - New York Times, July 11, 1934, again.

You... need me to explain that? Really? Alrighty.

This is a four hundred kilometre ranged death particle beam gun. Dear lord, that's... scary. For an estimate of it's range, we'll say that one is set up in London, it could hit Paris, 340 kilometres away. And it could rip apart an army that was approximately 62 kilometres further from Paris. This is the Paris Gun.

That is a nasty weapon. Darth Vader should have used the sucker on his Deathstar.

Tesla believed it would be a peace gun, since every country having it's own 400 km ranged superweapon would be kinda scary. Go and get a map, and check. There's probably some large city within any area you pick, unless it's Australia. Now, go imagine a gun that makes the speed of sound it's slave (stronger word can be substituted),, reaching 400 kilometres away in about... 25 seconds.

Oh, and it could have been constructed in a few months by his estimates.

At the moment, the US navy is experimenting with lasers. Which, presumably, could be fitted on a ship, and fired at aircraft. Only decades, generations, since Tesla's proposal, and may not be able to quite match the specifications of Teleforce, which penetrated 2 metres of armour with a third of the full charge.

Now, 6 metres (19 feet) of anything is a lot to get through.
Go imagine swift, invisible death coming towards you and a million others in under half a minute, if someone accidentally hit the fire button.

On the plus side, after you die, you'd get great television, since it could be used to broadcast TV signals. So that's reassuring.

Nikola Tesla died in a hotel room at the age of 86. an eccentric genius, or a mad scientist.

No picture of it, sorry.

Sources used:
"Beam to Kill Army at 200 Miles, Tesla's Claim On 78th Birthday:" New York Herald Tribune
Nikola Tesla: Wikipedia
Teleforce: Wikipedia
Own personal knowledge, which was even less of a help this time.