Howard Hughes

	HOWARD HUGHES Designer - Airline Executive
	Howard Hughes was born at Houston, Texas on December 24th, 1905. He learned to fly at age 14 manifesting piloting skills which would eventually make him the record setter which he became later. In the early 1930s, he established Hughes Aircraft Company and with it, designed his first aircraft, the H-1 racer which established a world landplane speed record of 352 miles per hour in 1935. In 1937 Hughes piloted the H-1 to a transcontinental U.S. speed record of seven hours, twenty-eight minutes and twenty-five seconds. In 1938 he flew a modified Lockheed 14 to a round-the-world record of ninety-one hours, seventeen minutes. Hughes later entered the airline business and was instrumental in the development of the fifty passenger CONSTELLATION which cruised above 25,000 feet at speeds of 300 miles per hour, an enormous performance improvement over existing airliners. On November 2nd, 1947 Hughes test-flew his mammoth eight-engined flying boat, the world's largest airplane. Howard Hughes established many aviation records and received many prestigious awards including the Chanute Award, the Collier Trophy and, twice, the Harmon Trophy. Howard Hughes' life epitomized the courage and daring required to surpass existing limits, the technical expertise to produce innovation and the business acumen to build a world-wide airline. Howard Hughes died in 1976.
	Elected to the International Aerospace Hall of Fame 1987