Not A Lemon But A Mellen

                     
In 1942, with enemy submarines taking a severe toll on ocean going ships Howard Hughes designed the 200 ton, 8 engine Hercules to serve as a transport plane to fly men and materials overseas. It would be the largest airplane built up to that time.  The War Department specified that he could not use any strategic material such as aluminum for his plane, so Hughes opted for birch-veneer plywood. The largest supplier of veneers for Hughes was Penokee Lumber and Veneer of Mellen, WI.  The predominately female workforce at Mellen produced 400,000 board feet of birch ply’s as thin as 1/10^th to 1/85^th of an inch that the Roddis Lumber and Veneer Company and other manufactures glued to basswood core to make plywood up to ¾ inches thick.  It took Hughes Aircraft more than 5 years to build the world’s largest airplane, which had a wing span longer than a football field, a fuselage longer than a hockey rink and stood over 7 stories high.  The Hercules made it's first and only flight in November 1947, and has remained aviation’s largest curiosity ever since.  An enterprising reporter nicknamed the Hercules “the Spruce Goose,” but even that is misnomer since the plane also contains significant amounts of Wisconsin white birch and basswood.  Hughes’ ill-fated plane was neither goose nor a lemon but a Mellen.

Articles on this subject by me in the following:

Forward in Flight

The History of Aviation in Wisconsin

Midwest Flyer Magazine, June 1984

Pictures:

Cover Midwest Flyer Magazine, June 1984

Spruce Goose Long Beach Harbor, November 2, 1947.

*Flight lasting one minute at an altitude of 70 feet