The Spruce Moose

When famous aircraft come to mind, none is so uniquely famous as the world-renowned Spruce Moose. This elegant aircraft, over 400 feet long, is one of the few planes to receive such distinction. An "aviator's dream," the Spruce Moose was a legend among pilots because it had never flown out of Cape Suzette's harbor. Converted into a nightclub/restaurant, the Moose is now one of the most famous dining centers in Cape Suzette, attracting upper-class customers with its luxurious setting and cuisine.

Originally built as a cargo transport, the Spruce Moose has become a permanent fixture in the nightlife of Cape Suzette.

The Spruce Moose is an impressive creation. Its elegant lines converge to resemble a giant moose's head, the inspiration for the name given by designers when christening their plane. The "antlers" protruding from the top of the Moose's wings house six custom-built propellor engines powerful enough to get the plane airborne and presumably keep it in the air. While undocumented, the Moose seems able to achieve top speeds close to 220 miles per hour, surprisingly fast for an aircraft its scale.

Designed as a cargo transport, the Spruce Moose contains a massive cargo hold in the center of the plane, constituting over eighty percent of the ship's whole interior. Access to the hold is gained through the main hatch, which features a hydraulic ramp for loading and off-loading cargo. Estimates of the Moose's cargo capacity vary, but there appears to be enough space on board to store about a million cubic feet of cargo! Two circular windows installed in the Moose's "nostrils" permit the forward section of the hold to be used as an observation deck. Walkways along the sides of the hold lead to various decks with storage rooms for the crew and staterooms for up to 200 passengers.

For its size, the Spruce Moose can be manned by a surprisingly small crew. Its builders designed the plane's systems in such a way so that only two pilots — even just one in emergencies — could have complete control over the plane's systems from the cockpit high atop the airframe.

Additional crew members would include twelve stewards, whose job it would be to tend to the cargo and also to the needs of the plane's passengers. Insistent on providing every courtesy possible to those on board the mammoth plane, the designers installed two kitchens on the lower decks and deluxe accomodations on the upper decks of the Spruce Moose — features which would eventually prove beneficial in the plane's later life.

Safety was another important design issue. The Moose was equipped with numerous escape hatches, each one located near storage racks holding parachutes and survival supplies. The plane's systems were also designed for maximum safety. With the exception of the plane's radio, several backups were installed in case serious system malfunctions occured. Removable panels in the floor of the hold lead to maintenance tunnels beneath the main deck, giving crew members direct access to the plane's control lines. Only qualified professionals were allowed to repair the Spruce Moose, however, as reckless tampering with the ship's finely-tuned systems could produce catastrophic results.

The building of the Spruce Moose was facilitated by a number of firms in Cape Suzette, who provided workers and funds to back the project. When the Moose was finished at last, it was a testament to the innovation and cooperative efforts of Cape Suzette's aviation companies. Reporters and newspeople ran the Spruce Moose in the headlines, anxiously awaiting the plane's maiden voyage.

Alas, that date never came. The companies' intention was to make the Spruce Moose one of the biggest airplanes ever built, and they succeeded in doing just that. But through some strange quirk of fate — perhaps a calculation error in the blueprints — the wingspan of the Moose proved too large for the plane to fit safely through the Cape Suzette cliffs. Brave and equally skilled pilots might succeed in navigating the Moose through the narrow opening, but the margin of error — especially with civilians living on the cliff walls — was too slim for the Aviation Board to accept.

Essentially confined to Cape Suzette harbor, the Spruce Moose became an object of awe and reverence among pilots everywhere. The sheer size and beauty of the Moose caught the eye of most cargo pilots in Cape Suzette; word of mouth carried accounts of the plane's graces even further. But the fact that the Spruce Moose had never been flown made her a legend among aviators, who dreamed of the thrill of climbing behind her controls and taking the Moose on her maiden voyage themselves.

An alert group of entrepreneurs capitalized on the plane's popularity and purchased the Spruce Moose from the city. Docked near Cape Suzette's western downtown, the Moose was converted from a cargo plane into a fancy nightclub. The cargo area was transformed into a grand ballroom complete with red carpets and fine cuisine. The fame and elegance of the refurbished Spruce Moose attracted wealthy patrons from the city's social elite, and today the Moose serves as the most luxurious (and also most expensive) nightclub in Cape Suzette, catering to the upper-crust members of society.

			Above: Flanked by a pair of gun-toting thugs, none other than gangster Owl Capone.

The plane's reputation has been further strengthened since a daring robbery led by gangster Owl Capone, in which the Spruce Moose flew for the very first time! Ambushing an evening dinner party held by wealthy business people in Cape Suzette, Capone's gang hijacked the Moose and managed to actually get it through the cliffs. The criminals then looted the dinner guests and bailed out, shortly before the plane spun out of control and crash-landed on a jungle island.

Fortunately, Capone was apprehended and the Spruce Moose returned to Cape Suzette through the ingenious efforts of the plane's passengers. The incident was not at all what the Moose's owners had hoped for as far as a maiden voyage, but the publicity from the Capone hijacking has more than doubled their business and firmly established the Spruce Moose as a famous landmark in both Cape Suzette and aviation history.

SPRUCE MOOSE
Craft: The Spruce Moose Type: Mammoth cargo/passenger transport Scale: Airship Length: 475 feet Skill: Aircraft piloting: jumbo-size transport Crew: 16 (4 crew, 12 stewards), skeleton: 1/+5 Crew Skill: Varies widely Passengers: 200 Cargo Capacity: 35 tons Cost: Not for sale Top Speed: 210 mph Weapons: None Hull: 4D