During World War II, Howard Hughes hoped to transform Hughes Aircraft into a major supplier of planes for the war effort but his ambitious experimental planes were never successful
In the mid 1940s, as part of his effort for the war, Hughes began a massive project to build the largest airplane in history – made mostly of wood. Known to Hughes by the mythic title The Hercules, it was ridiculed by detractors as “The Spruce Goose”(see photo above).
In 1943, Hughes produced and directed “The Outlaw,” a Western starring Jane Russell in a specially engineered push-up bra that caused the film to be banned, leading to a protracted battle with the censors
In 1944, Hughes was rumored to have suffered from the first of several mental breakdowns, showing signs of what is now known as obsessive-compulsive disorder and deep-seated paranoia
1946 brought tragedy to Hughes when he crashed his experimental XF-11 reconnaissance plane into a Beverly Hills house, resulting in devastating, near-fatal injuries that would cause him pain for the rest of his life
In 1947, Senator Owen Brewster of the Senate War Investigating Committee – a close friend of Hughes’ rival at Pan Am, Juan Trippe – announced that he was investigating Hughes for corruption. When Hughes fought back, revealing that Brewster had illicitly asked him to merge with Pan Am to avoid trouble, the Committee halted its investigation
Later in 1947, Howard Hughes flew The Hercules in its one and only demonstration flight. The plane still holds the record to this day for the flying machine with the longest wingspan
In 1953, Howard Hughes founded the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, one of the largest non-profit medical institutions in the United States
Having perceived the imminent arrival of the Jet Age for years, in 1956, Hughes and TWA bought a fleet of Boeing 707s
In 1958, Hughes gave his last public interview, avoiding the press for the next two decades
In 1961, Hughes expanded further, founding Hughes Space and Communications, a designer and builder of commercial satellites, including the world’s first synchronous communications satellite, Syncom.
In 1966, Hughes sold his TWA stock for $546 million and moved to Las Vegas, where in the late 60’s and 70’s, he turned his attention to buying hotels, casinos and land. Among his properties were the Castaways, The Sands, and the Silver Slipper. Rumors of his eccentric behavior began to circulate widely and when the Desert Inn Hotel where he was living tried to evict him, he simply bought it (for $13.6 million) and continued his reclusive life there. Hughes occupied the entire 9th floor, but due to the incredible loudness of his movie projection system, the entire 8th floor had to remain vacant. Hughes has often been described by the very few people who saw him as having long, unkempt hair, and long fingernails; that he rarely if ever wore clothes; that he wore tissue boxes on his feet; and that he watched his favorite movies again and again, hundreds of times.
Hughes was inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame in 1973 but was too ill to attend the ceremony
Howard Hughes died in April, 1976 on an airplane en route from Acapulco, Mexico, with assets rumored to be worth $2 million but estimated at about $360 million by the IRS. He had become so reclusive and unrecognizable that the Medical Examiner was forced to lift Hughes’ fingerprints to assure it was really he who had died.
