Some of the names the media bestowed on the XH-17 Flying Crane, one of the largest helicopters ever flown: massive four-legged insect, gigantic Fourth of July pinwheel, and mammoth water spider. The fuselage was 53 feet long; the craft stood 30 feet tall. The first public flight of the helicopter was on October 23, 1952, at Hughes Airport in Culver City, California, and Gale Moore worried about his abilities as a test pilot. Because this was Howard Hughes' first rotary-wing venture, the media came out in full force that cloudy morning, with newsreel cameramen, photographers, and reporters. "I felt very conspicuous as I stepped out of my car," Moore recalled at an American Helicopter Society meeting in 1983, where XH-17 personnel reminisced about the project.
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