HONGKONG visitors to the United States will be able to see the world's largest flying boat, known as the Spruce Goose, at the new Evergreen AirVenture Museum in early 1996.
Construction of the new museum in Oregon state, which will feature the wooden sea-plane built by the mercurial Texas billionaire Howard Hughes as its centrepiece, will start this year.
''This aircraft is the largest ever built, and has become recognised as one of the several most important aviation icons in American cultural history,'' said Ms Carol Jernigan of Evergreen International Aviation.
The aircraft, built mostly of birch wood, is 20 per cent larger than a Boeing 747. Until a visitor sees the Spruce Goose, it is difficult to appreciate its magnitude, as the wings are large enough for a person to stand inside. At 320 feet, the wingspan islonger than a football field.
The plane was built to meet a World War II need to fly over enemy submarines ravaging shipping lanes. In 1944, the U-boat menace diminished and the US Government tried to cancel the contract, but Hughes agreed to finish the prototype with his own money -US$7 million in addition to the government's $18 million.
The Spruce Goose, which took five years to build, flew only once, in 1947. The flight, with Hughes at the controls, lasted less than one minute.
