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One of the largest planes in world history, H-4 Hercules concept originated in America's entry into World War 2. From Dec 1941 to July 1942, US lost circa 800,000 tons of supplies and military hardware to German U-Boot submarines during trans-Atlantic merchant convoys to Great Britain.  At that time, Allied land-based air forces could not protect shipping lanes at mid-Atlantic regions. Although Allied naval forces were allocated to such merchant convoys, they could not muster sufficient forces to protect all trans-Atlantic convoys since the warships were need for military operations across Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Ocean operations. The U-Boat War 1939-1945 - www.uboat.net
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US shipbuilder Henry Kaiser (builder of Liberty merchant vessels of whose ships were under German U-Boot assault), conceived idea of using large plywood flying boats to carry heavy cargo and transverse Atlantic Ocean. Being a shipbuilder of inexpensive - modular constructed merchant vessels, Kaiser thought such a seaplane could be designed, prototyped, and deployed within 10 months. When US President Franklin Roosevelt proposed this seaplane idea to Douglas aircraft corporation (maker of famed DC-3 transport plane), Douglas declined for fear it was technically difficult to implement. Hence, Kaiser turned to Howard Hughes and his aviation team to construct the seaplane. Liberty ship - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_ship
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Inset 1 : H-4 maiden and only flight on 2 Nov 1947, during flight trial taxi run at Long Beach-California flying for one mile. Inset rollover is color print depicting maiden taxi run. With this flight, Hughes rebuked critics that his seaplane could never fly due to design anomalies. Others counter than flying for one mile is not flight and that plane still suffered Ground Effect (ex. trying to get unstuck from the water and gravitational pull of surface proximity). Seaplanes were in common military and civilian usage between 1920s to 1940s, at that time land-based airports did not extensively exist, hence water-based runways were cost-effective alternative. Ground effect in aircraft - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_in_aircraft
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Nevertheless, ground effect has other potentials in aircraft design, namely using wingtip vortices to generate hovering lift while in close proximity to ground. Such a concept was forwarded by US aircraft firm Boeing in its Pelican project (or ultra-large transport aircraft, power by turboprops, carrying 750 tons of supplies or 17 US M1 main battle tanks). Ground-effect aircraft detailed - http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2002/09/24/155296/ground-effect-aircraft-detailed.html
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Rollover : Top view H-4 showing its comparative wing span and fuselage size (in real life, wings spanned about 320 feet, fuselage circa 220-foot length, height nearly 80 feet). Model built Straight From the Box, slight modification to its display base. Base color spray painted with TESTOR Metallic Silver from aerosol can, then a layer of TESTOR Dullcoat to cover-up the glossy look-n-feel. Due to steel and aluminum allocated for critical war hardware production (ex. planes, tanks, warships, guns), Hercules project had to rely upon at that time high-tech plywood construction, hence seaplane made mostly from Birch lumber, not Spruce.
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It was derailed by critics as the Flying Lumberyard or better know today as Spruce Goose (its protruding cockpit / nose section resembled a goose head). Due to American socio-linguistics, Birch Goose did not rhyme as well as Spruce Goose, thus later readily adopted into American vernacular. Birch - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birch
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Inset 2 : October 1947, H-4 maiden rollout as it prepared for taxi run at Long Beach harbor - California. Note propellers blades painted black, but repainted silver since its public display from 1980s. Being 20 miles south of Los Angeles, Long Beach city had almost a 60-year military presence (naval station and shipyard) dating back to WW2 when
privately-held Moreell Dry Dock
facility was constructed in April 1940. US Navy took over control facility after WW2 renaming to
Terminal Island Naval Shipyard in 1945, and then to Long Beach Naval Shipyard in 1948. Long Beach Naval Shipyard (NSY) - www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/long_beach_nsy.htm
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Shipyard housed 390-ton floating crane (one of world largest) captured as war  booty from Germans in WW2,
Drydock No. 1 (emergency US west coast dry dock for nuclear carriers), along with other ship maintenance tasks including nuclear & non-nuclear structural refit, sheetmetal, boiler, rigging, electronics, electrical, ordinance, sandblasting, welding, machining, woodworking, painting, pipe fitting, etc. Advanced technological support for various scientific and military projects such as Polaris, Poseidon, Sealab. Naval Station, Long Beach - www.militarymuseum.org/NOBLongBeach.html
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End of Cold War and US defensive cutbacks did not spare Long Beach shipyard in 1991, loosing over 4,000 direct jobs (other estimates at 17,000 total job lost due to transfer of about 40 naval ships and related personnel) and over $180 million revenue when base was completely closed by 1997. The town the Navy left behind - www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/experience/the.bomb/route/08.long.beach/
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After base closure, new controversy erupted in 1997 when China Ocean Shipping Company (China state-run ship freight company) attempted to expand an additional 145-acre terminal space to take advantage of harbor's deep water ports and railway logistics as trade with China rapidly expanded. However, US Congress viewed with suspicion that Chinese company was also co-owned by Chinese Communist Party and China's People Liberation Army, hence cast negative approval that such business dealings may be shady at best given China's human rights abuses and governmental corruption (on average, with rampant crime and corruption, China executes about 5,000 criminals each year, including high-ranking Chinese Communist Party members such as its FDA Commissioner and Party Chief of Tianjin city). Nowadays, Long Beach is touting its habor relics as historic tourist center. Stories of Long Beach Naval Yard - www.historycentral.com/navy/Inflict/LongBeach.html
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