FILM LEFT 'AVIATOR'S' CO-PILOT'S TALE UNTOLD.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

``Needless to say, don't expect me to be cheering for 'The Aviator' at the Academy Awards.''

- Jim Grant, whose father was Howard Hughes' co-pilot on the Spruce Goose

The family knows it's Hollywood, not history. Knows all about character continuity in movies, and how the facts often take a back seat to fiction - even with ``true'' stories like ``The Aviator.''

Still, it hurts.

If your father or husband had sat next to aviation legend Howard Hughes in the cockpit of the Spruce Goose the day the world's biggest plane made its first and only flight on Nov. 2, 1947, you'd be upset, too. Upset when the movie came out and you saw the fictional Professor Fitz in the co-pilot's seat.

Sure, a few thousand people who have read the history books know it was David Grant from Encino - who designed the hydraulic-control system on the Spruce Goose - that Hughes chose to be his co-pilot that day.

But 13 million people who have already seen ``The Aviator,'' plus tens of millions more who will see it on DVD, will go to their graves thinking Hughes chose the company weatherman - an old guy dubbed the ``cloud professor'' after he helped Hughes locate clouds for the airplane fights in his first movie he made, ``Hell's Angels.''

``Howard wasn't that crazy,'' says Jim Grant, David's son.

``He wanted my dad next to him in the Spruce Goose because if something went wrong, he wanted to be talking to the guy who designed the hydraulic system, not the weatherman.''

David Grant, who died 3 1/2 years ago, didn't warrant even a footnote in Martin Scorsese's movie, which has been nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

``It was like dad's legacy was totally negated,'' Grant's daughter, Diane Brinegar, said a few weeks ago as she, Jim, and their mother, Ruth, left an Encino movie theater after seeing ``The Aviator.''

Although they'd been warned that Grant's role in the historic flight wasn't included in the movie, it still was a shock, Jim said.

``All we've been hearing about is artistic license. I can understand that in a movie like 'Saving Private Ryan,' where there are hundreds of thousands of soldiers fighting a war, but this was one specific moment in history.''

Executives with Miramax, which distributed ``The Aviator,'' could not be reached for comment.

But Katherine Huit, who served as technical adviser for the film's aviation scenes, said the decision to put the professor in the co-pilot's seat had to do with character continuity.

``The cloud professor was sitting in Dave's seat, and that was not the right place for him to be,'' said Huit, who also is director of collections for the Evergreen Aviation Museum in Oregon, where the Spruce Goose has been on display since 1993.

``He was with Howard during the filming of 'Hell's Angels.' But there's no record he followed Howard to work on the crew of the Spruce Goose.''

So in the name of newspaper character continuity, I stopped by Ruth Grant's home to help her set the record straight.

I was fortunate to meet David about five years ago at Monroe High School, where he was talking to students about aviation history and his role as co-pilot on the Spruce Goose.

He was in the early stages of Alzheimer's, and Ruth was fast becoming his memory - the crutch he would lean on.

``We were married 61 wonderful, beautiful years,'' she said, slowly turning the pages of a half-dozen scrapbooks filled with newspaper stories and pictures about the flight of the Spruce Goose.

There were pictures of her husband with actor Cary Grant and World War II Gen. Jimmy Doolittle aboard the Spruce Goose. Letters from schoolchildren thanking him for stopping by to talk to them, and a letter from President Ronald Reagan expressing his gratitude for David's contributions to aviation history.

Ruth paused at a torn, yellowed photograph of his entire crew that Hughes wanted taken before the flight. David is standing next to Hughes, and Ruth is at the end of the line, her hair covered in a scarf.

``Howard had brought us out from Ohio a year earlier after searching the country for the best hydraulics engineer he could find,'' she said, lingering over the picture taken 58 years ago.

``I was at home wallpapering our small apartment that day, pregnant with our first child, Diane. David called and said to drop everything, this was the day.

``It wasn't going to be another test run. Howard was taking her up, and he had asked David to sit up front in the cockpit with him.

``A driver picked me up a few minutes later. My hair was still in curlers. I put on a scarf, threw on my mother-in-law's coat, and went to the harbor.''

The movie depicts Hughes fighting hard to get the Spruce Goose's speed up enough to lift her out of the water.

But in countless newspaper interviews, Grant said both he and Hughes were surprised at the ease of the takeoff and landing on the one-mile flight.

``He (Hughes) was surprised because it took off before he made it take off,'' Grant once said in an interview. Because of the size of the flaps on the behemoth plane, it leapt in the air when Hughes lowered the flaps only 15 degrees, instead of the normal 45 degrees.

``I've flown in a lot of airplanes and I'd never been in a smoother landing than that one. After we landed, Howard said, 'Well, wasn't that a good landing.'

``I was so excited, I don't remember what else he said. He was excited too. We were chattering back and forth.''

After the flight, the Spruce Goose went back into its terminal, never to fly again. Hughes went off to his next adventure.

David Grant went off to a long, distinguished career with Hughes Aircraft, helping determine the cause of the fire aboard the Apollo 1 spacecraft and working on the Surveyor lunar landing craft.

And it all started the day Howard Hughes asked him to sit next to him on the only flight of the Spruce Goose.

That's history. Not Hollywood.

Dennis McCarthy, [phone]

dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1) Ruth Grant sits next to a picture of her late husband, Dave, who was Howard Hughes' co-pilot on the Spruce Goose.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

(2) Ruth Grant shows the Spruce Goose crew. Her late husband, Dave, is right next to legendary tycoon Howard Hughes at the top.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

(3) In this undated photo, Dave Grant, right, poses with legendary World War II pilot Gen. James ``Jimmy'' Doolittle in the cockpit of the Spruce Goose.