“This insane man with the long beard, right?”
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Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes Jr. was an American aviator, aerospace engineer, business magnate, film producer, and investor. He was one of the richest and most influential people in the world during his lifetime. He first became prominent as a film producer, and then as an important figure in the aviation industry. Later in life, he became known for his eccentric behavior and reclusive lifestyle—oddities…
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business · American aviator, aerospace engineer and business magnate (1905–1976) · film producer · film director · aircraft pilot · military flight engineer · entrepreneur · inventor · Flieger · also Howard Hughes, Howard Robard Hughes, Jr., Hughes
Born 24 December 1905 · Died 5 April 1976 · Q189081
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1946-07-11 Hughes Plane Crash
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2026· 5 entries
“I have never seen the Rover but bought it on the blueprints, photographs and the reports of Lloyd”
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“I was driving slowly and a man stepped out of the darkness in front of me”
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Hoodline: Howard Hughes Eyes 354 Apartments on Summerlin's Spruce Goose Street
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The Guardian: Uefa has formed a rare but fragile united front against Fifa in battle for football’s future | Nick Ames and Matt Hughes
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2017· 1 entry
The 70th anniversary of the only flight of the H-4 Hercules was celebrated at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum with Hughes's paternal cousin Michael Wesley Summerlin and Brian Palmer Evans, son of Hughes radio techn
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1997· 1 entry
General Motors sold Hughes Aircraft to Raytheon and in 2000, sold Hughes Space & Communications to Boeing
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1988· 1 entry
Summa announced plans for Summerlin, a master-planned community named for the paternal grandmother of Howard Hughes, Jean Amelia Summerlin
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1976· 3 entries
Died 1976-04-05.
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Many thought that the balance of Hughes's estate would go to the institute, although it was ultimately divided among his cousins and other heirs, given the lack of a will to the contrary
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“Opis: Lollobrigida mówi o swym kontrakcie w Hollywood zaproponowanym przez Howarda Hughesa, który tak jej pożądał, że była ona pilnowana przez 24 godziny na dobę w swoim apartamencie, a jedynym jej gościem mógł być tylko on.”
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1975· 1 entry
The H-1 Racer was donated to the Smithsonian
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1974· 1 entry
And elaborated to say that the case suggested a "reprehensible misuse of the power of great wealth," but in his judicial opinion, "no crime had been committed
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1973· 2 entries
Awarded National Aviation Hall of Fame (1973).
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And was included in Flying magazine's 2013 list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation, ranked at No
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1972· 2 entries
When the oil-tools business of Hughes Tool Company, then owned by Howard Hughes Jr
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During the Cold War era, Hughes was approached by the CIA through his longtime partner, David Charnay, to help secretly recover the Soviet submarine K-129, which had sunk near Hawaii four years earlier
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1970· 1 entry
Hughes acquired San Francisco-based Air West and renamed it Hughes Airwest
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1968· 2 entries
By the merger of Bonanza Air Lines, Pacific Air Lines, and West Coast Airlines, all of which operated in the western US By the late 1970s, Hughes Airwest operated an all-jet fleet of Boeing 727-200, Douglas DC-9-10, and
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The Hughes Tool Company purchased the North Las Vegas Air Terminal
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1966· 1 entry
Hughes was forced to sell his TWA shares
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1963· 1 entry
But was overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1973, on the basis that Hughes was immune from prosecution
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1961· 1 entry
TWA filed suit against Hughes Tool Company, claiming that the latter had violated antitrust law by using TWA as a captive market for aircraft trading
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1960· 1 entry
Hughes was ultimately forced out of the management of TWA, although he continued to own 78% of the company
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1957· 1 entry
Hughes married actress Jean Peters at a small hotel in Tonopah, Nevada
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1956· 1 entry
Hughes embarked on a plan to build his own "superior" jet aircraft for TWA, applied for CAB permission to sell Hughes aircraft to TWA, and began negotiations with the state of Florida to build a manufacturing plant there
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1954· 1 entry
Hughes transferred Hughes Aircraft to the foundation, which paid Hughes Tool Co
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1953· 3 entries
Hughes became involved with a high-profile lawsuit as part of the settlement of the United States v
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Hughes launched the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Miami (currently located in Chevy Chase, Maryland near Washington, D
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Howard Hughes gave all his stock in the Hughes Aircraft Company to the newly formed Howard Hughes Medical Institute, thereby turning the aerospace and defense contractor into a tax-exempt charitable organization
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1952· 1 entry
An abortive sale to a Chicago-based five-man syndicate, two of whom had a history of complaints about their business practices and none with any experience in the movie industry, disrupted studio operations at RKO even f
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1948· 4 entries
To form their own divisions and ultimately became the Hughes Space and Communications Company in 1961
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Hughes created a new division of Hughes Aircraft: the Hughes Aerospace Group
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Recognized then as one of the Big Five studios in Hollywood, although the production company struggled under his control and ultimately ceased operations in 1957
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Hughes gained control of RKO, a struggling major Hollywood studio, by acquiring the 929,000 shares owned by Floyd Odlum's Atlas Corporation, for $8,825,000 ($118 million in 2025)
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1947· 2 entries
When helicopter manufacturer Kellett sold their latest design to Hughes for production
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Howard Hughes was summoned to testify before the Senate War Investigating Committee to explain why the H-4 development had been so troubled, and why $22 million had produced only two prototypes of the XF-11
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1946· 3 entries
While performing the first flight of the XF-11 near Hughes Airfield in Culver City, California
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Career landmark: aviation accident.
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As an all-metal, twin-boom, three-seat reconnaissance aircraft, substantially larger than the D-2 and powered by two Pratt & Whitney R-4360-31 engines, each driving a set of contra-rotating propellers
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1943· 3 entries
Hughes flew the Sikorsky from California, carrying two Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) aviation inspectors, two of his employees, and actress Ava Gardner
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And the near-fatal crash of the Hughes XF-11 in 1946
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But was not released nationally until 1946
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1939· 2 entries
At the urging of Jack Frye, president of Transcontinental & Western Airlines, the predecessor of Trans World Airlines (TWA), Hughes began to quietly purchase a majority share of TWA stock (78% of stock, to be exact); he
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As a long-range replacement for TWA's fleet of Boeing 307 Stratoliners
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1938· 2 entries
Hughes set another record by completing a flight around the world in just 91 hours (three days, 19 hours, 17 minutes), beating the previous record of 186 hours (seven days, 18 hours, 49 minutes) set in 1933 by Wiley Post
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The Octave Chanute Award in 1940, and a special Congressional Gold Medal in 1939 "in recognition of the achievements of Howard Hughes in advancing the science of aviation and thus bringing great credit to his country thr
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1937· 1 entry
Flying the same H-1 Racer fitted with longer wings, Hughes set a new transcontinental airspeed record by flying non-stop from Los Angeles to Newark in seven hours, 28 minutes, and 25 seconds (beating his own previous rec
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1936· 3 entries
Hughes was held blameless by a coroner's jury at the inquest into Meyer's death
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Hughes struck and killed a pedestrian named Gabriel S
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And 1938 for the record-breaking global circumnavigation
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1935· 1 entry
Hughes, flying the H-1, set the landplane airspeed record of 352 mph (566 km/h) over his test course near Santa Ana, California (Giuseppe Motta reaching 362 mph in 1929 and George Stainforth reached 407
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1933· 1 entry
Hughes made a purchase of a luxury steam yacht named the Rover, which was previously owned by Scottish shipping magnate James Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape
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1932· 2 entries
Hughes founded the Hughes Aircraft Company, a division of Hughes Tool Company, in a rented corner of a Lockheed Aircraft Corporation hangar in Burbank, California, to build the H-1 racer
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Hughes founded Hughes Aircraft Company and spent the next two decades setting multiple world air speed records and building landmark planes like the Hughes H-1 Racer (1935) and the H-4 Hercules (the Spruce Goose, 1947)
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1929· 1 entry
After four years of marriage, Ella returned to Houston and filed for divorce
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1925· 2 entries
Married Ella Botts Rice, daughter of David Rice and Martha Lawson Botts of Houston, and great-niece of William Marsh Rice, for whom Rice University was named
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At the age of 19, stipulated that a portion of his estate should be used to create a medical institute bearing his name
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1909· 1 entry
Which allowed rotary drilling for petroleum in previously inaccessible places
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1905· 1 entry
Born 1905-12-24.
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