The Hughes H-4 Hercules is a heavy transport, flying boat aircraft designed and built by the Hughes Aircraft company, making its first and only flight.

On November 2, 1947, Hughes obliged, taking the H-4 prototype out into Long Beach Harbor, CA for an unannounced flight test. Thousands of onlookers had come to watch the aircraft taxi on the water and were surprised when Hughes lifted his wooden behemoth 70 feet above the water and flew for a mile before landing.

Despite its successful maiden flight, the Spruce Goose never went into production, primarily because critics alleged that its wooden framework was insufficient to support its weight during long flights. Built from wood due to wartime raw material restrictions to the use of aluminum, it was nicknamed the “Spruce Goose” by its critics, some of whom accused Howard Hughes of misusing government funding to build the aircraft. The Hercules is the largest flying boat ever built, and has the largest wingspan and height of any aircraft in history. Made only for a prototype, the H-4 Hercules was stored until April 5, 1976.

Today, the Spruce Goose survives in good condition at the Evergreen Aviation Museum.

Family and friends of Bangladesh Air Force personnel mill around
a US Marine Corps F/A-18C Hornet during an open house
on October 26, at Kurmitola Air Base, Bangladesh.

This past October 24 to 31 saw bilateral exercises take place between the US Marine Corps and the Bangladesh Air Force (BAF). Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314 (VMFA-314), also known as the “Black Knights”, and several other detachments from Marine Aircraft Group 12, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, were among the participants.

“The purpose of this exercise is to practice and learn from each other,” said Wing Commander Rafik, the senior BAF officer in charge of the exercise, as he addressed officers from both countries on the opening day of the exercise. “We look forward to some good, safe flying.”

Exercise Sumo Tiger 2007, as it is called, is part of an ongoing effort by the US military to strengthen the security of Asia and the Pacific region. The goal is to enhance US forces’ ability to work alongside militaries throughout the region and to promote professional relationships between participants.

During the exercise, the Black Knights trained against Chinese-made F-7 Fantan jet fighters and Russian-built MiG-29 Fulcrums. Avation support personnel from the US and Bangladesh also shared their knowledge with one another.

On October 26, the exercise participants took a break from flying. Hundreds of family members and friends of BAF personnel visited Kurmitola Air Base to view an American F-18C Hornet and a Bangladeshi F-7

In the mountains of southern Colorado, a CV-22 Osprey was assigned to the 58th Special Operations Wing participated in the aircraft’s first search and recovery mission, responding to the fatal crash of a medical aircraft.

Airport officials lost contact with the Arizona-based Beechcraft King airplane at 11:22 p.m. Oct. 4 as the air ambulance headed toward San Luis Regional Medical Center while responding to a medical call.

At about 9:15 a.m. Oct. 5, the Air Force Rescue Center contacted Kirtland Air Force Base with a call to help at the request of civil authorities. Initially, the mission was considered search and rescue because the condition of those aboard the downed aircraft was unknown.

The response team quickly prepared to take off. Aircraft included the CV-22, a pair of HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters, and a MC-130P Combat Shadow to provide aerial refueling and serve as air mission control for the operation. Capt. Scott Gwin, aircraft commander on the Osprey, credited the maintenance crew for preparing the aircraft for the speedy search and rescue effort.

The Osprey took off between 11:35 and 11:40 a.m.

The Captain Gwin pointed out that an advantage of the Osprey is that it can take off and land just about anywhere — saving minutes and hopefully lives. The Airmen knew weather and altitude would be major obstacles in the rescue effort. The last known radar of the air-ambulance placed it near the top of a huge mountain. The altitude of the crash was expected to be higher than 11,000 feet. Helicopters of any kind have challenges in higher altitudes. Captain Grigson said they flew to the ranch where civilians were monitoring the rescue operation at a lower elevation. They picked up a local paramedic to help the crew decide which medical facility was appropriate after seeing the injuries of any survivors. The HH-60G then flew to the crash site. The helicopter landed on the mountain at nearly 12,000 feet. The second HH-60G was too heavy to land. The civilian paramedic and a pararescueman searched for survivors but found none.

The crews called in civilian rescue workers to retrieve the three bodies of the crash victims: a nurse, a paramedic and the pilot of the fallen aircraft. Though the Osprey was primarily built to be an amphibious assault transport of troops, equipment and supplies from assault ships and land bases, it has proved it can be versatile on search and rescue missions.

Army astronaut Col. Doug Wheelock and mission specialist Scott Parazynski are scheduled to camp out tonight in the airlock of Space Shuttle Discovery in preparation their spacewalk Tuesday morning. The two astronauts are scheduled to attach a P-6 truss to the port side of the International Space Station and deploy solar arrays on the truss. Mission managers have decided to add inspections of the port Solar Alpha Rotary Joint to tomorrow’s spacewalk — the third walk of mission STS-120.

Col. Wheelock and Dr. Parazynski made the mission’s first spacewalk on Friday when they attached the Harmony node to the Unity node of the space station. The Harmony node will enable two additional laboratories to eventually be attached the International Space Station during future missions, Col. Wheelock said. He explained that the Columbus Laboratory from the European Space Agency will be attached to the starboard side of the node and a Japanese experiment module laboratory will eventually be attached on the portside.

“We like to think of our mission as sort of a gateway to opening up and expanding the capability of the station to be that world-class science platform that we hope and dream that it will be,” Col. Wheelock said during an earlier interview. “It will also open up the capability to expand the long-duration crew on the station from a crew of three to something upwards of six people eventually…”

“So this module is very, very important in that it provides a gateway to house those other laboratories and will also provide life support systems, power and data transmission and all the things required for laboratories to interact and be integrated with each other, and also be able to deliver the power to those laboratories where they can do the science that we desire.”

Col. Wheelock and Dr. Parazynski are now reviewing procedures and practicing techniques they will use during the spacewalk set to begin at 5:28 a.m. EDT Tuesday.

Others astronauts from both the Space Shuttle Discovery and International Space Station crews are using robotic arms to move the P6 truss segment into place so that it could be fastened down during the Tuesday morning spacewalk. The shuttle robotic arm operators have handed the P6 truss back to the station robotic arm operators. The shuttle’s Canadarm took the P6 from the station’s Canadarm2 earlier this morning and held it until Canadarm2 moved closer to the worksite. The Canadarm2 operators will install P6 to the P5 truss during the mission’s third spacewalk. The second spacewalk of mission STS-120 was conducted Sunday by Dr. Parazynski and astronaut Daniel Tani. They detached the P6 solar arry truss from the top of the space station so that robotic arms could move it to where it needs to be attached tomorrow.