Seven-late-seven

On August 6, 1947 in the first of several such appearances, Howard Hughes told an emotion-charged and sometimes heated US Senate hearing that he had put the sweat of his life and his reputation into his H4 Hercules “Spruce Goose” – and if it was a failure he would leave the country and never return. During the hearings which lasted several months Hughes snuck in the aircraft’s one and only flight on Nov. 2, 1947 – about three years after it was contracted to fly.

While Boeing’s 787 program cannot be compared to the Spruce Goose – except for the plane’s composite structure – Boeing executives are now probably starting to get a hint of the ridicule and humiliation that Hughes felt more than 60 years ago as the troubled Dreamliner remains earthbound nearly 18 months after it rolled out.