Eye Opener
Fabulous flying machine
Was Howard Hughes responsible for lighting the entrepreneurial
fuse that led Glenn Odekirk to create this “flying yacht”? The aircraft
engineer served as assistant to the eccentric millionaire during the
Second World War, and afterwards envisioned a new, more glamorous
life for the PBY Catalina amphibious aircraft, which had served as
submarine bombers during the conflict.
He called his nascent line of converted planes Landseaire (because
they could operate on land, at sea and in the air) and aimed them at
adventure-loving US industrialists such as his old boss. As one of the
most common aircraft in the US arsenal, there would be no shortage
of supply when demand kicked in.
For a 1950 marketing stunt, he corralled some friends and two
pretty actresses into a day of flying and floating on his prototype off
the San Diego coast, and invited Life photographer Loomis Dean
along for the ride. The images he shot reveal a treasure trove of fold-
out gizmos and luxuries aboard the contraption, from a glamorous
bar to a TV, telephone, flushable toilet, shower (upholstered in state-
of-the-art waterproof plastic) and a steel and porcelain galley with a
three-plate cooking range, oven, fridge and freezer. There were drinks
holders in every nook and a dinghy slung precariously from the wing.
Sadly, the Landseaire captured in this image crashed during a river
landing in Brazil in 1953 and was smashed beyond repair.
While Odekirk’s flying yachts faded into obscurity, one of his
creations is still the stuff of aviation legend. He co-designed the
Hughes H-4 Hercules, otherwise known as the Spruce Goose. The
“flying boat” was put into production by Hughes because the wartime
US government needed new aircraft capable of crossing the Atlantic
- it was made largely of birch owing to wartime metal restrictions.
The massive plane took flight only once, in 1947, with Howard
Hughes at the controls; its production had dragged on so long that
the war had ended and it was no longer needed. Perhaps Odekirk
should have turned his entrepreneurial skills to that behemoth, which
came complete with one aviation-obsessed industrialist in the bag.
Photo – Loomis Dean/The Life Picture Collection/
Getty Images