The Spruce Goose - home for good... in McMinnville, Oregon

Who would've thunk it back in 1942, at the height of World War II?

Howard Hughes and Henry Kaiser of Kaiser Aluminum joined to create three flying boats for the U.S. government.

Adhering to a government mandate not to use materials critical to the war effort such as steel and aluminum, the Hughes team built the Flying Boat out of wood.

It had eight 3,000 horsepower engines, wings 20 feet longer than a football field, and was designed to carry 750 soldiers.

All the research and development of the giant plane delayed it repeatedly, and after the war ended critics of Hughes in the U.S. Senate probed alleged misappropriation of funds.

Hughes, stung by the criticism that it was a failure, ordered the Flying Boat prepared for taxi tests.

On November 2, 1947, with a huge crowd of observers and newsman gathered in Long Beach, California, Hughes took the controls and taxied the plane smoothly across a three-mile stretch of harbor.

From 35 mph, it cruised to 90 during the second taxi test when eager newsmen began filing their stories.

During the third taxi test, Hughes startled everyone as he ordered the wing flaps lowered to 15° and the seaplane lifted off the water.

He flew her for a little over a mile at an altitude of 70 feet for approximately one minute.

Doubters were silenced forever.

The plane never flew again, remaining in hibernation in a custom-built hanger in flight-ready condition for 33 years, at a cost of $1 million per year.

After Hughes' death in 1976, the plane came under the control of various groups, until it was finally moved to the

Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, in 1993,

where it will live as long as its keepers decide it should.