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On This Day in 1947: Howard Hughes Lifts the Massive “Spruce Goose” for Its Only Flight. On November 2, 1947, eccentric aviation pioneer Howard Hughes took the controls of the Hughes H-4 Hercules—better known as the “Spruce Goose”—and made its first and only flight over Long Beach Harbor in California. The enormous wooden flying boat, designed as a wartime troop and cargo transport capable of carrying 750 soldiers or two Sherman tanks, lifted off during what was expected to be a high-speed taxi test. It flew roughly one mile at about 135 mph and an altitude of just 70 feet, remaining in ground effect before settling back onto the water after roughly half a minute. Built almost entirely of birch (not spruce) using the Duramold process because of wartime aluminum shortages, the H-4 had a staggering 320-foot wingspan—the largest of any aircraft ever flown until the Stratolaunch in 2019—and was powered by eight Pratt & Whitney R-4360 engines. Critics mocked it as an expensive failure, but Hughes proved it could fly. The plane never left the water again. Today it is preserved and on display at the North American Aerospace Museum (formerly Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum) in McMinnville, Oregon. #SpruceGoose #AviationHistory

Learjet 60 Nosedives Into Florida Mobile Home Park in Massive Fireball; Nine Aboard, Multiple Dead. GREENACRES, Fla. — A Learjet 60 crashed hard into a mobile home community in Palm Beach County on Sunday afternoon, slamming into the ground in a massive fireball that destroyed at least one home and left multiple people dead, authorities said. The jet, carrying nine people, plunged from about 8,000 feet shortly after 12:50 p.m. near Military Trail between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North. It struck a tree, brought down power lines, and impacted the residential area, carving a large crater and scattering burning wreckage across the scene as thick smoke rose into the sky. Palm Beach County Fire Rescue declared the crash a mass-casualty incident. Multiple fatalities have been reported, though officials have not yet released a final death toll or confirmed the number of injured among those on the aircraft or on the ground. The Learjet had departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was bound for North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas, according to the FAA. The FAA and NTSB are investigating. This is a developing story. #Florida #NTSB #PlaneCrash