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Howard Hughes
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Industrialist/Entrepreneur/
Record Setter
Hughes’s most famous plane design was the Spruce Goose. The giant wooden seaplane, known as the H-4 or Hercules, was the largest plane ever built at the time and could carry nearly 700 passengers. He was supposed to build three of them for the U.S. government during World War II, but only managed to build one that wasn’t completed until after the war. The plane flew only once, on November 2nd, 1947, at Long Beach, California. Its pilot was Hughes, who flew it a little over a mile and only reached an altitude of 70 feet, just to prove to his critics that it could get into the air.
- Began air racing in the 1930s after buying and building the world’s fastest aeroplanes like the H-1 racer which was years ahead of its time technically.
- On September 13th, 1935 he set a world land-plane speed record of 352 m.p.h. in the H-1.
- Set a transcontinental record of 9 hours, 27 minutes for which he won the Harmon Trophy in 1935.
- In 1937 he set a new transcontinental record of seven hours, 28 minutes in his modified H-1.
- In 1938, with a crew of four, he completed a flight around the world in three days, 19 hours for which he received the Harmon and Collier Trophy and the Congressional Medal of Honor.
- World War II he designed and built the huge Hercules eight-engine flying boat which was named the Spruce Goose. It only flew once with Hughes at the controls.
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Biography
Enshrined 1973
1905-1976
After developing an intense interest in aviation, Hughes took flying lessons while in his teens. In 1925 he began a career as a movie producer and in 1930 premiered his movie Hell's Angels, which generated a worldwide interest in aviation.
Hughes set a straightway speed record of 212 miles per hour in 1933 and later won the sportsman pilot event of the All-American Air Meet. In 1934 he built his H-1 racer that was the driving force behind the creation of the Hughes Aircraft Company. In this aircraft Hughes set a world's speed record of 352 m.p.h. in 1935. He set a transcontinental record of nine hours, 27 minutes in his Northrop Gamma, for which he received the Harmon Trophy. In 1937 Hughes set a new transcontinental record of seven hours, 28 minutes in his modified H-1; and he acquired control of Trans Continental and Western Airlines (TWA). In 1938 he and a crew of four completed a flight around the world in three days, 19 hours, for which he received the Harmon and Collier trophies. He began the development of the XF-11 war-plane in 1938. He initiated the design of the Lockheed Constellation, and during World War II flew the first model from coast to coast in seven hours. During the war he built the Hercules, a huge eight-engine flying boat that he successfully flew in 1947. After the war, he was seriously injured in a crash of the XF-11. After recovering, he converted Hughes Aircraft Company into a successful electronics firm. He continued to expand TWA, converting it to jet-liners in the 1960s and developing it into one of the world's leading international airlines. Later he formed the Hughes Air West Airline.
Hughes was also well known for his flamboyant behavior and personal life. He dated various beautiful Hollywood actresses in his youth, including Ginger Rogers, Katherine Hepburn, and Olivia de Havilland. He married and divorced twice: Ella Rice and Jean Peters (a famous actress). Later in life, he moved to Las Vegas, and stayed at a casino there, the Desert Inn Hotel. When the owner of the casino complained about Hughes' conduct, Hughes bought the Desert Inn Hotel, along with four other Las Vegas casinos and some other property in Nevada.
Gradually, Hughes grew more and more eccentric. He moved from Las Vegas to the Bahamas and then lived in Mexico. He turned into a hypochondriac, and became obsessed with avoiding germs. He fell into addictions to codeine and Valium (which doctors had used to treat him during his recovery from the crash). For the last approximately twenty years of his life, Hughes was never seen or photographed in public.
Howard Hughes died mysteriously on April 5th, 1976 on (appropriately) a plane that was flying him from Acapulco, Mexico, to a Houston hospital. Despite his personal problems and strange behavior, Hughes was a great aviator who broke records and pioneered aviation history. He remains one of the most engimatic and fascinating historical figures of the twentieth century.
For more information on Howard Hughes, you may want to visit these websites:
Famous Texans
Social History
About.com - This site provides a series of links to other Howard Hughes biographical sites.
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