How Howard Hughes The Aviator And His Planes

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The Aviator and His Planes. At the age of 26 he dropped his successful career of a movie producer and focused on his second passion, aviation. Hughes bought his first plane in 1932 and with the help of some of his engineers he increased the performance in his plane. This won him first place in his class. The expenses for his love of building his flying machines funding became an issue. He then created the Hughes Aircraft Company in Clover City California. The company that he started later became the leading defense contracting company in the United States. In September 1935, Hughes, created a flying machine called the H-1. He went to set the landplane airspeed record of 352 mph (566 km/h) over his test course near Santa Ana, California. With Hughes keeping all of his designs and projects a secret, this new built cause quite a stir with the public. Once the people heard and saw the H1 they were calling it “The Silver Bullet”. Although Howard was called her “My Beautiful Little Thing”. With all of the excitement Howard filed to check his fuel levels on the H1 and had to crash land that plane. Flying the same H-1 fitted newly designed and longer wings; Hughes set a new transcontinental airspeed record by flying non-stop from Los Angeles to Newark in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds. This beating his own previous record of 9 hours, 27 minute with his average ground speed during the flight of 322 mph (518 km/h).The H-1 had a number of design innovations: it had retractable landing gear and all rivets and joints set flush into the body of the aircraft to reduce drag. The H-1 is thought to have influenced the design of a number of World War II fighters such as the Mitsubishi Zero, flown by the Japan. The H-1 was donated to the Smiths... ... middle of paper ... ...of 1976 he was en route from his house in Mexico to Houston, Texas when he passed away. His body was examined and from reports he looked unrecognizable, for his beard, fingernails, and hair were super long. Also at six foot one he only weighted 90 lbs which I am sure this did not help his health situation at the time of his death. After the medical exam it was said that a kidney stone caused kidney failure to occur. He left behind a great legacy and brought many of the aviation commodities that we still use today. Hughes was known for also being a philosopher so I will leave with one of his Quotes that pretty much summed up his life. “I am by nature a perfectionist, and I seem to have trouble allowing anything to go through in a half-perfect condition. So if I made any mistake it was in working too hard and in doing too much of it with my own hands.” Howard Hughes.

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