Howard Hughes
After Hughes inherited his father’s million-dollar tool company,
Hughes pursued filmmaking in Hollywood.
At the age of 18, Howard Hughes was a
millionaire. Both his mother and father had died in the previous year,
leaving young Hughes to inherit the family fortune. Hughes' father had
invented a successful drill bit which made his company, Hughes Tool,
worth millions. But rather than run his father's company, Hughes fled
to Hollywood where he would combine his two passions - movies and
aviation.
After producing a handful of movies -
some successful, others not, Hughes decided his next motion picture
would be a World War I flying epic. After many costly re-shoots, the
film, "Hell's Angels," eventually wound up costing $4 million dollars
to make - one of the most expensive films of its time. "Hell's Angels"
attracted crowds of moviegoers and made a star out of Jean Harlow.
Although the huge cost of making the film meant it would never
actually see a profit, the film was successful for another reason - it
made Howard Hughes a major Hollywood player. The handsome young man
proceeded to take full advantage of the role. With his marriage
failing, he became involved with a stunning string of actresses,
including Bette Davis, Katherine Hepburn, and his leading lady, Jean
Harlow. But only one of his love affairs would last - his affair with
flying.
At its root was a secret that only
his closest friends knew. Due to a childhood illness, Hughes was
practically deaf, and heard a continual ringing in his ears. Too proud
to wear a hearing aid, he was only truly happy in the cockpit of a
plane. There, the ringing in his ears would cease, and he could leave
the rest of the world behind.
In 1935, Hughes set a world speed record in his racing plane, the H-1.
In 1933, he founded the Hughes
Aircraft Company, and hired engineers to build fast planes for him to
fly. Their greatest triumph was the H-1 Racer. Hughes called it "my
beautiful little thing." In September of 1935, he flew the plane 351
miles per hour, the fastest speed on record. Then Hughes flew to Paris
in another racer in half the time it took Charles Lindbergh. Then he
flew around the world in three days. Howard Hughes was now a household
name in aviation.
In 1939, Hughes' fame and fortune
caught the attention of Jack Frye, the president of TWA. Frye was
bitterly feuding with board members who were against new plane
purchases. At Frye's urging, Hughes quietly bought up a majority of
TWA stock and took over the company. Now that Hughes owned TWA,
federal law prohibited him from building his own planes. Seeking a
plane which could perform better than TWA's current fleet of Boeing
Stratoliners, Hughes approached Boeing's competitor, Lockheed. He
already had established a good relationship with the manufacturer,
since it had built the plane Hughes used in his record flight around
the world. Lockheed agreed to Hughes' demand that the plane be built
in absolute secrecy. The end result was the revolutionary new plane,
the Constellation. The Constellation's pressurized cabin allowed the
plane to fly at greater altitudes, enabling the plane to fly above
most air turbulence, thus providing passengers with a more comfortable
flying experience. The rarefied air at that altitude also cuts down on
drag, enabling the plane to cruise at the incredible speed of 280
miles per hour - dramatically faster than its competitors.
Over the next decade, Hughes and TWA
would profit from the tremendous success of the Constellation, and its
successor, the Super Constellation. Seeking to take TWA into the jet
age, Hughes in 1956 placed orders for a fleet of Boeing 707s at a cost
of $400 million. Although wealthy, even Hughes would need to seek help
in order to cover this huge expense. Outside creditors, however,
required Hughes to give up total control of TWA. Unwilling to
relinquish his power, and yet unable to cover the expenses, Hughes'
empire slowly began to crumble.
In 1944, Hughes, left, flew the Constellation from coast-to-coast in a
record-setting seven hours. TWA president, Jack Frye, right,
co-piloted the plane.
During this period, Hughes became
increasingly paranoid and his behavior turned more and more eccentric.
He began alienating his closest advisors and top executives. TWA, the
airline which Hughes helped guide to success over the past two
decades, eventually ended up forcing Hughes out of power in 1960.
Hughes, though, still owned 78% of the airline and he would battle to
regain control of the airline over the next several years. In 1966, a
federal court eventually ruled that Hughes would have to relinquish
control. Hughes sold his shares of the airline for $547 million,
making Hughes one of the richest men in the world.
His departure from TWA, however,
didn't mark the end of Hughes' involvement in aviation. After a brief
relationship with Northeast Airlines, he purchased Air West in 1969
and renamed the airline, Hughes AirWest. The regional airline brought
many tourists to Las Vegas, where Hughes' empire was now flourishing.
Sadly, though, Hughes' paranoia continued to grow during his latter
years, while his health and appearance only deteriorated. Hughes died
in 1976.
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