Business
Howard Hughes
Aviator, film producer and industrialist
Born 1905 · Died 1976
Photo: Acme Newspictures · Public domain
«I put the sweat of my life into this thing. I have my reputation all rolled up in it.»
Howard Hughes built aircraft, broke speed records flying them himself, produced Hollywood films and assembled one of the largest fortunes in America. He spent his final years in extreme seclusion, and his life became one of the twentieth century's strangest legends.
Key achievements
- Set the world airspeed record in 1935
- Flew the H-4 Hercules, the largest wingspan ever built
- Founded the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 1953
Universities
Pasadena, California
Attended mathematics and engineering classes as a non-degree student in the early 1920s without taking a degree.
Facts
- In 1938 he flew around the world in three days and nineteen hours, less than half the previous record.
- His wooden flying boat, the Spruce Goose, had a wingspan longer than a football pitch and flew exactly once, for about a mile.
- The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, funded from his fortune, is now one of the largest private supporters of biomedical research in the world.
Photographs
Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences; the author and licence are shown on each image.