Page 5 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Jan-Feb 2018, Vol 27, No 1

The Mysterious Howard Hughes 5

7 Things You May Not scenes in “Hell’s Angels,” an action-adventure the Spruce Goose (a moniker Hughes detested),
about World War I pilots, as realistic as possible, it had a wingspan of 320 feet and was the largest
Know About Howard Hughes amassed a huge fleet of vintage planes aircraft ever constructed. However, the war

and hired scores of pilots and mechanics. Three ended before the plane was completed, and in
Hughes pilots died during production, and Hughes 1947 Hughes was called to testify before a U.S.
himself crashed a plane. “Hell’s Angels” Senate committee investigating whether he’d
One of the world’s wealthiest men, Howard initially was shot as a silent film, but following misused millions of dollars in government funds
Robard Hughes Jr. was a Hollywood filmmaker, the fall 1927 release of “The Jazz Singer,” the on the project. At the hearings, Hughes said of
record-setting aviator and business mogul who first feature-length movie with synchronized the Spruce Goose: “I put the sweat of my life
once owned a big chunk of Las Vegas and dialogue, Hughes decided to reshoot with sound. into this thing. I have my reputation rolled up in
controlled a major U.S. airline (TWA), among He spent nearly $4 million to produce “Hell’s it and I have stated several times that if it’s a
other ventures. Later in life, however, he became Angels,” which debuted in 1930 and was one of failure I’ll probably leave this country and never
an eccentric recluse who feared germs and the most the most expensive films of its time. It come back. And I mean it.”
shunned personal hygiene. Find out more about also was a hit and put Hughes on the map in After testifying in Washington, Hughes
Hughes, from the source of his first fortune to Hollywood. He later produced additional films was determined to show his massive aircraft
the development of his massive Spruce Goose but his only other directorial effort was 1943’s could fly, and on November 2, 1947, he piloted
aircraft to his involvement in a top-secret CIA “The Outlaw,” a Western featuring Jane Russell. its first and only flight. The Spruce Goose (the
plot to recover a sunken Soviet submarine. nickname came from the fact it was constructed
3. Hughes set an around-the-world of wood due to wartime restrictions on steel and
1. Hughes was a millionaire at 18. flight record. aluminum; however, birch, not spruce, was the
The 1901 discovery of oil at Spindletop, near During the 1930s, Hughes began to seriously primary building material) traveled for a mile
Beaumont, Texas, marked the birth of the pursue his passion for flying, establishing about 70 feet above the water at Long Beach,
California, before landing. Members of the
modern petroleum industry, and drew Hughes’ Hughes Aircraft Company in 1932 (it eventually
father, Howard Sr., a Harvard dropout, to East became a major aerospace and defense Senate committee later issued a report criticizing
Texas to try his luck as a wildcatter. After contractor) and setting a series of aviation Hughes’ handling of the Spruce Goose project
becoming frustrated by the difficulty of drilling records. In 1935, he broke the record for flying but the document proved inconsequential. After
into hard-rock formations with the “fishtail” a plane over land, traveling 352 miles per hour the aircraft’s lone flight, Hughes shelled out
drill bit that was standard at the time, he devised near Santa Ana, California. Two years later, he millions to keep it in a climate-controlled Long
a superior two-cone bit, which made drilling set a record for transcontinental U.S. speed, Beach hangar until his 1976 death. It’s now
easier and revolutionized the oil industry. journeying from Burbank, California, to housed at an aviation museum in Oregon.
Hughes patented the technology in 1909 and, Newark, New Jersey, in 7 hours, 28 minutes and
with partner Walter Sharp, formed the Houston- 25 seconds. On July 10, 1938, Hughes and a 5. Hughes was part of a CIA plot to
based Sharp-Hughes Tool Company to four-man crew took off from Brooklyn’s Floyd recover a sunken Soviet submarine.
manufacture the bit. After Sharp died in 1912, Bennett Field on an around-the-world flight. In March 1968, during the Cold War, a Soviet
Hughes bought his interest in the company. After dipping his Lockheed Super Electra’s submarine carrying nuclear-armed ballistic
When he in turn passed away in 1924, Howard wings over the Old Saybrook, Connecticut, missiles accidentally sank in the Pacific Ocean.
Jr., an only child whose mother had died two home of his girlfriend Katharine Hepburn, The Soviets embarked on a two-month search
years earlier, inherited the thriving company and Hughes made refueling stops in Paris, Moscow, for the sub but were unable to locate it; not long
became a millionaire. The 18-year-old Hughes Omsk and Yakutsk (both in Siberia), Fairbanks afterward, the U.S. found it some 1,500 miles
dropped out of Rice University, let others and Minneapolis before landing back in northwest of Hawaii, 16,500 feet below the
manage the oil-tool business and set out for Brooklyn. There, thousands of spectators water’s surface. Believing the 1,750-ton sub was
Hollywood in 1925. greeted Hughes, who had set a new record for a source of important intelligence information,
circumnavigating the globe, with a time of three the CIA launched a complex covert operation,
2. His directorial debut, “Hell’s days, 19 hours and 17 minutes. He was hailed as codenamed Project Azorian, to recover it. The
Angels,” was one of the most expensive a hero and honored with a ticker-tape parade in U.S. commissioned the construction of a ship
movies of its time. New York City and celebrations around the with the specialized capabilities needed to lift
country. the sub from the ocean’s depths, and the CIA
Hughes started his movie career as a producer
devised a cover story that the vessel, named the
on the 1926 film “Swell Hogan,” which turned
4. His famous Spruce Goose aircraft Hughes Glomar Explorer, was being built for
out to be so terrible it never made it into theaters.
However, he soon had a box-office success with was flown only once. Howard Hughes, who planned to use it for a new
1927’s “Two Arabian Knights,” which earned an In 1942, during World War II, Hughes commercial venture: mining minerals from the
Academy Award for best comedy direction. contracted with the U.S. government to design ocean floor.
Hughes went on to direct his first film, “Hell’s and build an aircraft capable of transporting 700
Angels,” when the initial two directors on the troops or a load of 60 tons across the Atlantic. (Continued on Page 6)
project quit after clashing with the young Texas Known by various names, including the H-4 “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re
millionaire. In his quest to make the aerial Hercules, the Flying Boat and most commonly, part of the problem.” - Rob McConnell