Product Details

• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Edi Video
• DVD Release Date: August 24, 2005
• Run Time: 120 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0009FZJQ6
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #138,755 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

DREAM TO FLY - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Howard Hughes Flying Boat, January 27, 2012

By 

Mr D. - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Howard Hughes: Dream to Fly & The Flying Boat (DVD)

I just finished the story about Howard Hughes and the Flying Boat with great interest as my father was one of the original wood workers that built the HK1. I was born in Culver City at the time my dad was working for Hughes Aircraft. For years afterwards he would relate how he believed the time he spent at Hughes was the best job he ever had. He really admired Hughes for his knowledge and technical standards that were required to build the big plane. This book tells much of the trials and aspects of the planes construction, as well as some insight into the personal life of Mr Hughes. Dad would have loved to have been part of its move to McMinnville, Oregon where the ship is now proudly and appropriately displayed at the Evergreen Aviation Museum. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that is interested in studying this Icon of its time in aviation history. The HK1 was a truly remarkable accomplishment as you will learn from reading this book.

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic History, November 10, 2011

By 

Hoosier Hayseed - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Howard Hughes: Dream to Fly & The Flying Boat (DVD)

Howard Hughes was an incredible person. He was a brilliant innovator, a supremely brave risk-taker, and genuinely talented.
He was a pioneer in aviation, setting speed and endurance records as a pilot, and he owned Trans World Airlines.

Plus, he had all the money he could have ever wanted, to do exactly whatever he may have decided to do.

He took up the challenge to do what seemed impossible: Somehow, transport goods to England during the height of WW II, when Hitler's U-Boats were blowing transport ships out of the water just about as fast as they could build and launch them.

Airplanes weren't new, nor boats, or even flying boats. But one had never been built on the scale that he envisioned, to fly huge cargo loads across the ocean.

But they threw a monkey wrench into his gears, saying that he couldn't use scarce materials such as steel, aluminum, or copper, because of the war.

So he proposed to make it out of wood. But not just any wood - he found a unique method of using a super waterproof glue to fuse thin sheets of hardwood together, like plywood, that were strong enough to support the weight of giant cargo loads, and build a flying boat on a scale that no one had ever envisioned before.

But wood is incredibly heavy, and hardwood even moreso. And so he needed eight of the biggest airplane engines ever built, just to get this thing into the air.

Of course, starting from scratch took time, and the war was over before he could ever get it finished. A competitor in the airline business in cahoots with a US Senator brought charges against him, saying he was ripping off the government for millions of dollars.

He stared down the US Government in the Senate hearings, and prevailed. This, of course, took incredible courage, but he had it, in spades.

But the plane had still not flown, so he finally finished it with his own money and did fly it himself, even if just a few feet off of the water, many years after the war.

But it did fly, nevertheless, which silenced his critics and vindicated him of any blame, which was a red herring to begin with.

5.0 out of 5 stars Hughes Minds His Own Business for Technical Feats, October 9, 2011

By 

Pit O'Maley "Moon Man" (Alameda, Ca United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Howard Hughes: Dream to Fly & The Flying Boat (DVD)

So far, this is the only Howard Hughes documentary that concentrates solely on the technical genius of Howard Hughes at his pinnacle before the jackals and all measure of men converged to aid in his self-destructon in 1976. What better narrator to have on this journey of discovery than "Twenty Century's" own Walter Cronkite. I had known how devoted his personal assistants and hired-hands could be, so the narrative to this exciting documentary gets wonderfully enlarged by surviving members of the engineering crew that built and flew aboard the "Spruce Goose's" single maiden voyage throughout. The details and background to this war-time built cargo plane have always been shrouded in mystery. Until now. Happily, the H K-1, now resides in Oregon in a fittingly aviation museum of the highest devotion. In about an hour, you get to see this aircraft go from pencil design to its monstrous proportions and then thrill in the first ride along with Howard Hughes. You will hear the original radio broadcast as the H K-1 glides to lift-off. What follows her subsequent period of hibernation (1948-1080) to re-discovery and new ownership is a moving delight to aviation buffs. And when you see this aircraft suspended with a new paint job in her final place of adoration and care is very moving. Learning of all the technical features this aircraft contributed to aviation progress you will realize what a denigration it was to label this technical wonder "Spruce Goose" alone. Of special significance is the time-lapse disassembly and reassembly that she underwent to reach her final residence.Some of the most devoted aviation experts and admirers of Howard Hughes made this re-discovery possible. Howard Hughes defies the playboy, reclusive Movie director mythology this time around.