Google set to land in the Spruce Goose hangar in the fall

Google will move into the repurposed “Spruce Goose” aircraft hangar in Playa Vista in the fall, more than a year and a half after signing a lease for the cavernous, 319,000-square-foot building.

The hangar is owned by Japanese conglomerate ASO Group, which is building out a three-story office structure to suit Google’s needs. The investment firm paid $273 million in late 2016 for the hangar and three other buildings that make up the Hercules West Campus.

Google joins Yahoo, Facebook, YouTube and a slew of other tech companies in Playa Vista, according to the official website for the neighborhood. The tech giant signed a lease for the building in mid-2016, two years after dropping $120 million for 12 acres of land adjacent to the hangar.

The hangar is where 20th century mogul Howard Hughes — and pilot — built the infamous Hughes H-4 Hercules, also called the Spruce Goose. The behemoth, which made one very short flight on Nov. 2, 1947, with Hughes in control, still holds records for the largest wooden airplane ever constructed and the largest wingspan of any aircraft that has ever flown. That means it required a very, very large hangar.