Spruce Goose

World's largest aircraft, built of spruce by Howard Hughes. Used to motivate the "wood as a strength-to-weight material" point on the Ashby strength-density plot. Currently displayed at an aviation museum in Oregon.

Over here on the side, in terms of lightweight, some of the lightest weight to strength ratio materials are something called wood. Anyone heard of the Spruce Goose? What was the Spruce Goose? World's largest airplane. Howard Hughes decided to build the world's largest airplane. He built one of them. It was on display for years in Los Angeles, but it's in Oregon now — at that aviation museum in Oregon. I've been there but it wasn't there when I was there; it must have been moved there in the last 10 years. It's called the Spruce Goose because he built it out of spruce. If you look here, ash is the strongest wood. Where does ash grow? A lot of ash grows in Kentucky. And what do we build in Louisville, Kentucky? Baseball bats. Louisville Sluggers. What are they made out of? Ash. Why? Because it's the strongest wood.