The Aviator Theme - Howard Shore

Not of course to be confused with the Spruce Moose, which can carry 200 passengers from New York's Idlewild Airport to the Belgian Congo in 17 minutes.

In all seriousness, since earlier this month marked the anniversary of the Spruce Goose's flight (well, that's a bit of a stretch but whatever) in November 1947, I wanted to draw something to commemorate that within my own weird Alternate Earth timeline. In 1941, the Hughes Aircraft Company was the dominant aircraft manufacturer in Texas, supplying the Republic whatever aircraft it could produce in Texas' war against communist California along the Rio Grande; the company was based out of Houston, the headquarters was located in a art deco skyscraper within downtown while the main facility was located in the suburb town of Deer Park complete with airfield for testing planes. By mid-1942, the ComIntern was threatening Allied dominion over the Atlantic, French and Spanish submarines were sinking British shipping and harassing American transports that were en route to supplying the USA's beleaguered European allies while Mexico and previously-neutral Talona had entered the war on Japan's side and had begun attacking Allied warships in the Caribbean and Mid-Atlantic. Henry J. Kaiser, a shipping magnate whose company was manufacturing Liberty Ships that would transport goods to Europe, South Asia, West Africa, and Antarctic, had the idea of a large flying boat that could carry hundreds of tons' worth of cargo across the vast oceans without the worry of enemy warships intercepting. Kaiser Industries collaborated with Hughes Aircraft on the project, as Texas was interested in transport aircraft that could ferry cargo and personnel to the Yucatan and Guatemala and both companies began designing and manufacturing components needed for the aircraft, with the bulk of this endeavor carried out by Hughes. A large drydock had to built in Baytown in order to accommodate what Hughes dubbed the H-8 Hercules (but became colloquially known as the Spruce Goose due to its wooden manufacturing, despite it actually being made from Birch) as it began to be assembled from the components made in the Deer Park facility and Kaiser Industries factories in Oregon, Washington, New Caledonia, Bitterroot, and Idaho States.

By the time the aircraft was complete, the war was over but both Hughes and Kaiser pressed on nonetheless, funding the project with their own money in addition to grants from the US and Texian governments. A test flight was scheduled in November 1947, unhampered by a horrific oil explosion at Shoal Point to the south back in July and by Hughes nearly perishing in a horrific plane accident on July 7, 1946 where his prototype Hughes H-5 reconnaissance aircraft experienced engine failures and crashed at the Tanglewood neighborhood near the Houston Country Club, clipping three houses in the process. So, on November 2, the H-8 was flown with Hughes himself as pilot, a complement of crew, and both members of the press and industry representatives onboard as passengers. In reality, it achieved little more than ground effect and never actually lifted off and despite Hughes' insistence, the project was considered by Kaiser and many in his own company as an abject failure; a year later, Kaiser sold its aircraft division, Fleetwings, to Hughes in order to recoup the money that was thought to be wasted on the Hercules. The H-8 never flew again, its lifting capacity and ceiling were never tested. Afterwards a full-time crew of 300 workers, all sworn to secrecy, maintained the aircraft in flying condition in a climate-controlled hangar at the Baytown facility; which in the meantime, became a hub for flying clippers operated by TWA (the airline Hughes took control of in 1939) flying from the Houston area to destinations in the CSA, Haiti, Mexico, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Cuba, the Bahamas, Centroamerica, Costa Rica, Colombia, the Antilles, Miljawa, San Moritz, Dakima, Alfonsia, Liberia, Brazil, Dutch Guiana, and the USA; crews were maintained there to keep the Hercules in tip top shape for whenever Hughes decided to fly the plane again. This was not to be, as Hughes became increasingly reclusive and addicted to painkillers, alleged to be a result of the July 1946 plane crash that left Hughes horribly burned and having to take codeine; moving to different hotels in Galveston, Dallas, Austin, Indianola, Austin, El Paso, Aspen, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, Tuscon, Laredo, Monterrey, Imperio, New Orleans, Biloxi, Mobile, Pensacola, Tampa, Miami, Nassau, Freeport, St. Augustine, Jacksonville, Savannah, Atlanta, Columbus, Charleston, Wilmington, Hampton Roads, Richmond, Memphis, Tulsa, Port-au-Prince, Santo Domingo, Schwarzhab, Havana, Santiago, Miami, Cartagena, New York City, Seattle, Caracas, Tampico, San Juan, Barranquilla, Charlotte-Amelie, Merida, Chetumal, Cancun, Harkilith, Migbadur, Sao Luis, and Artaleza. His last years were spent in luxury hotels in first Amapala (capital of Centroamerica) and then the Xanadu Beach Resort & Marina on Grand Bahama from 1972 onward. Hughes' final residence was a suite in the Acapulco Princess in Mexico, on April 5, 1976, Hughes was carried out of his penthouse suite of the hotel, unconscious, and carried onto a chartered SAAC-24B owned by Robert Graf and piloted by Jeff Abrams. He was later found dead while flying to the Houston Methodist Hospital and the corpse went under a pseudonym when it was brought to the morgue the following day. He was ultimately buried next to his parents at Glenwood Cemetery and the crew at the hangar, reduced to 50 personnel in 1962, was ultimately dismantled after Hughes' death. Ownership of the H-8 was disputed with Kaiser and the US and Texian governments who had helped pay for the aircraft's construction and an agreement was made where different parts would be put on display at the Smithsonian Institute at Washington D.C. and aerospace museums in Houston and Seattle. In 1992, the Hercules was purchased by the Evergreen Museum in McMinnville, Oregon and the parts were transported by plane and boat and reassembled at the destination and the 'Spruce Goose' is now on display among other assorted aircraft in the museum's collection.