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The Spruce Goose is regarded as a laughing stock of modern engineering. A giant plane made of laminated wood? It wasn't Howard Hughes' brightest idea.
But it looks like the Goose might be useful to someone after all, albeit in a very indirect way. Google has signed a lease for an enormous Playa Vista hangar that once housed the massive plane, reports The Real Deal. The plane was constructed inside the hangar during the 1940s.
The signing doesn't come as a total surprise. In 2014, Google spent $12 million on 12 acres of empty land in Playa Vista. The hangar sat next to the purchased space, and some speculated that Google would sweep in to snatch it.
The hangar is massive, with an area of 319,000-square-feet. It had to be huge because The Spruce Goose had eight propeller engines and a wingspan longer than a football field, according to The History Channel.
Google is expected to use the hangar as an expansion of its L.A. offices. There is no word about a move-in date, or what the company will do with the adjacent land it purchased in 2014.
Playa Vista is noted as one of SoCal's major tech hubs. Facebook just moved into a new 35,000 square foot office last month. The influx of such companies is a sign of the emerging partnership between tech and entertainment, according to the Times:
...technology and entertainment sectors continue to converge. These days, companies such as Amazon.com Inc. are churning out original programming, celebrities are launching their own gaming apps...
Naturally, the arrival of tech companies has resulted in rising rent in Playa Vista, reports The Real Deal. Rent averaged $53.52 a square foot a year during the first quarter of 2016. A year ago it was $43.08.
Anyway, here's a video of the Spruce Goose in action. Today, the plane is housed at the Evergreen Museum in Oregon.
