"It Flies!"

In the midst of one of his wrangles with the Senate War Investigating subcommittee last summer, Howard Hughes made a characteristically extravagant gesture. He vowed that he would exile himself from the U.S. if his mammoth Hercules flying boat failed to fly. The world's biggest plane, which had cost the Government $18 million (and Hughes $7 million of his own), was one of the targets of the committee's probe (TIME, Aug. 11) into the affairs of the man-of-many-businesses. But Hughes had no intention of exiling himself. Early last August, a crew of 100 men began working round-the-clock shifts, seven days a week, to complete the plywood plane.

Last week, just a few days before the committee was scheduled to resume hearings, Hughes announced that the plane was ready for water taxiing tests. He said he did not plan to fly it, but invited the committee members to attend anyway. None accepted. Hughes went ahead and launched the 200-ton, eight-engined monster with its wingspread (320 ft.) as wide as a city block, and tail (80 ft.) as tall as an eight-story building. With Hughes at the controls, the Hercules was towed out into California's Long Beach Harbor. Coast Guard vessels cleared the course. The big plane's motors were revved up and it began to move on its own.

The first run, at speeds up to 40 m.p.h., was unspectacular. On the second, Hughes moved the plane up to 90. On the third, the lumbering giant got up to 100 m.p.h., unexpectedly took to the air, flew about a mile at an altitude of 70 feet. There were 30 persons aboard on the initial flight-engineers and technicians. Although flying is what a plane is supposed to do, the event was treated as startling news. (The New York Daily Mirror headlined: "HUGHES TESTS BIG PLANE--IT FLIES !")

After the tests, Hughes denied that he planned the flight to impress the Senate committee and, in doing so, suggested that the Hercules was a marvelous machine. "It felt so buoyant and good," said he, "I just pulled it up." But the performance would certainly do him no harm when he appears before the committee this week. The next and more extensive trial flights will not be made until January.

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