the abbreviated reign of “neon” leon spinks

CHOOSE THE RIGHT PARTNER 79
for delivery in November, the project was sinking into chaos. Hughes
hired former airline executive Edward H. Bern to get things back on
track, but he quit after four months, complaining to the government that
Hughes continued his micromanaging, and would meet with Bern only
between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. When government officials paid Hughes Aircraft
a visit to see how things were going, they came away disturbed. The
government had assumed Hughes would employ tried- and- true woodbuilding
technology to build the flying boat. Instead, he was experimenting
with a radically new construction method. There was no way to know
whether the glued joints in the plywood would withstand the stress of
flight. The design had “an element of unreliability that is defi nitely scary
for aircraft,” the inspector warned in his report. In February 1944, another
government report concluded that the overdue flying boat would be
unable to carry enough cargo to justify its size, and belonged in the “white
elephant class.” Beyond that, the tide of the war had turned. Allied forces
were preparing for a massive invasion of Europe, the success of which
would render the flying boat irrelevant.
The War Production Board decided that it had had enough, and
moved to cancel the fl ying-boat contract. At the last moment, a government
official friendly with Hughes managed to convince President Franklin
Roo sevelt that it would be a waste not to finish it. In March 1944, the
government tore up the three-plane deal with Hughes and Kaiser, and
gave Hughes alone a new contract for a single plane, which was renamed
the H-4.
The Costliest Minute in Aviation History
The flying boat was still unfinished when Europe was liberated in
May 1945, and Hughes was rapidly going to pieces. His repeated head
injuries apparently were taking a toll, and he was teetering on the verge of
mental breakdown. To recuperate, he spent most of 1945 away from
Hughes Aircraft, shuttling between hotel rooms in Las Vegas, Reno, and
Palm Springs, carrying his belongings in cardboard boxes tied with string,