Jetrader - Spring 2016 - 51

In the 2004 movie,
The Aviator, Leonardo
DiCaprio plays
Howard Hughes from
the time of the filming
of Hell's Angels
until he sank into his
paranoid, germaphobic,
obsessive-compulsive
madness years later.

H-1 Racer suspended from the ceiling of
the Great Hall of Engineering. In addition,
the San Diego Air & Space Museum is currently building a non-flying replica of the
H-1 Racer that will eventually be put on
display there.
A full-scale flying replica of the Racer was
home-built by Jim Wright of Cottage Grove,
Oregon. He flew it to the Experimental
Aircraft Association's 2003 Air Venture at
Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where spectators were
amazed at the fine workmanship and the
mirror finish of the aluminum skin. Sadly,

appears to be the official time-keeper at
the finish line, but we have no clue as to
how he knew when to start the watch with
the beginning of the measured course being
some 3 kilometers away. Hughes makes
only three passes, clocked by Odie at 339,
347 and 352 mph, runs out of gas, and
crash-lands in the beet field. Fair enough
by Hollywood standards; after all, seven
passes would make for a tedious movie.
When Hughes gets back to his apartment
where his then-fiancée Katherine Hepburn
(played by Kate Blanchett) is waiting, he
declares that at 352 miles an hour he is
"the fastest man on the planet."

it crashed on the way back home, killing
Wright and completely destroying the aircraft. Had the accident not happened, the
replica was slated to be used in the film
The Aviator.

Sources:

Howard Hughes, His Life and Madness, Donald Barlett
and James Steele, W.W. Norton & Company, 2004;
originally published under the title Empire: The Life,
Legend and Madness of Howard Hughes, 1979.
Howard Hughes, The Untold Story, Peter Harry Brown
and Pat H. Broeske, Dutton Book by Penguin Books
USA, 1996.
Website of the National Air & Space Museum

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Was Hughes Really the
World's Fastest Man?
Actually, no. His record was the land plane
speed record. The absolute speed record at
that time was held by, of all things, a seaplane! It was an Italian M.C.72, designed
to compete for the Schneider Trophy in
the UK in 1931. A British Supermarine S.6
won the trophy that year when the M.C.72
withdrew with engine trouble. However, in
1934 the M.C.72 went on to set the world
speed record of 440.7 mph, a year earlier
and almost 90 mph faster than Hughes.
That record still stands as the fastest ever
attained by a piston-engined seaplane.

Post Scripts
The Hughes H-1 Racer was retired after the
transcontinental flight, having logged only
about 40 hours in the air by the time it was
ferried back to Burbank. It was stored in a
Hughes Aircraft Company hangar at Culver City
until 1975, then donated to the National Air
& Space Museum where it is now on display.
At the University of Nevada, Las Vegas,
there is a full-scale replica of the Hughes

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